Apr 21, 2025: Our weekly Institutional Insights explores the latest market developments — market performance, industry news, exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, trending topics, upcoming events and token unlocks — to help you supercharge your crypto trading.

 explores the latest market developments — market performance, industry news, exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, trending topics, upcoming events and token unlocks — to help you supercharge your crypto trading.

Weekly highlight — Trump wants to fire Powell? 

US president Donald Trump is actively considering firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, following Trump's public criticism of Powell for not moving quickly enough to reduce interest rates. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett confirmed that the administration is examining this option, suggesting that Powell's actions have politically favored Democrats. Hassett argued that the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates shortly after Trump took office was intended to undermine the economic impact of the tax cuts implemented during his administration, which were deemed inflationary. He further criticized the Fed for not addressing inflation concerns stemming from federal spending under President Biden, implying a lack of accountability.

During a recent press conference, Trump conveyed his dissatisfaction with Powell, asserting that if he wanted to remove him, it could happen "real fast." While he did not explicitly state his intention to dismiss Powell, his remarks highlighted the growing tensions between the White House and the Federal Reserve regarding monetary policy. Hassett defended Trump's frustrations, advocating for a focus on economic policy rather than interpersonal conflicts. This situation underscores the complex dynamics between the executive branch and the central bank, as Trump navigates economic challenges leading up to the next election.

Weekly crypto highlight — XRP ETF coming

HashKey Capital has officially launched the HashKey XRP Tracker Fund, marking the first investment fund in Asia designed specifically to track the performance of XRP, the digital asset integral to Ripple's global payment ecosystem. This fund is aimed at professional investors and offers a unique opportunity to gain exposure to XRP without the complexities of direct asset management. Investors can subscribe through cash and in-kind options, with the fund providing monthly liquidity.

Ripple, as an early backer of the fund, is looking to enhance its strategic partnership with HashKey Capital, which already manages Hong Kong–listed spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum. This collaboration not only solidifies Ripple's presence in the Asian market, but also opens avenues for future financial products, such as the potential tokenization of a money market fund on the XRP Ledger. Fiona Murray, Ripple's Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region, highlighted that this partnership is part of a broader strategy to introduce more regulated cryptocurrency products for institutional investors in the region, aiming to foster a more robust crypto landscape in Asia.

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Weekly Institutional Insights: Trump’s desire to fire Powell might induce volatility; XRP ETF coming

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has approved a new Ethereum ETF with staking capabilities, allowing institutional investors to earn staking rewards.

Daily top performer — Pyth Network (PYTH)

The S&P 500 dropped 1.5% to 5,282.70 this week, down 5.9% in April and 10% year-to-date, led by tech losses. Real estate and energy outperformed, while political pressure on Fed Chair Powell and inflation concerns weighed on sentiment. Gold dipped 0.6% to $3,319 after a record high, as Powell’s stagflation warning tempered its rally. Despite the pullback, the uptrend remains intact. The Coindesk Indices, which tracks the broader crypto market, are up by 0.77%, with Bitcoin and Ether rising 0.64% and 0.72%, respectively, over the past 24 hours. Trade these markets and more with up to 500x leverage on Bybit MT5 using this 

Today's top performer is PYTH, up 10.1%, following the launch of Pyth Entropy for secure on-chain random number generation by Soneium.

Pyth Network (PYTH),  is a blockchain oracle system that delivers real-time crypto price data to blockchains, enabling smart contracts to react to market changes. Soneium 

 Pyth Entropy, a tool for securely generating random numbers on-chain. Two apps, HandsNFT AI and 2p2e, are already utilizing Pyth Entropy to create unpredictable and engaging experiences.

Check out the latest prices, charts, and data of 

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has approved a new Ethereum ETF with staking capabilities, allowing institutional investors to earn staking rewards. This approval follows recent changes to local laws, with China Asset Management (ChinaAMC) partnering with OSL Digital Securities to launch the ETF by May 15. The ETF will offer exposure to Ethereum staking, transforming it from a passive investment into an active participant in the Ethereum network. The staking process is powered by Kiln, with OSL providing custody and insurance services. The rewards will contribute to the ETF's net asset value, benefiting shareholders.

Yesterday, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw $25.9M in inflows, all from non-GBTC funds, while GBTC recorded no flow.

" and a points campaign called Drops, where users can earn points—potentially leading to an airdrop—by engaging with Linera content on X. To join, sign up on 

, complete tasks like joining Discord and interacting on X, then enter the campaign. Keep engaging to earn more points, but avoid spamming.

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Hong Kong approves Ethereum ETF with staking rewards, boosting institutional participation

Our weekly crypto derivatives analytics report delves into macro events; the current state of crypto and trading signals from spot trading volume; and futures, options and perpetual contracts.

US president Donald Trump’s tariff policies are influencing both crypto and US equities. Last week, BTC and the S&P 500 rallied due to a 90-day pause in reciprocal tariffs (excluding China). Equities are slightly below their April 9 highs, while BTC is holding above $83K. Its implied volatility term structure has normalized, and the volatility skew has improved from last week’s bias toward out-of-the-money puts, though it hasn't fully shifted toward calls.

Please check out the report’s highlights.

Tariff pause briefly brings back trading volume

Since our last report, open interest surged on Apr 9, 2025, as crypto spot prices rose after President Trump’s temporary tariff pause, accompanied by a nearly $10B increase in trade volumes. However, trade volumes have since returned to mid-March levels, and open interest has declined from the April 9 highs. The initial price spike indicates the tariff pause surprised the markets, but the subsequent pullback reflects concerns over remaining tariffs.

After being inverted for much of April due to trade policy shocks and macro headwinds, BTC’s term structure has disinverted, with front-end volatility dropping significantly this week. Call and put volumes have been balanced, with calls slightly exceeding puts most days. Apr 9, 2025, reflected mixed market sentiment, as both call and put volumes rose, but puts were higher overall. Open interest remains greater in calls, and has increased slightly since last week, reaching its highest level for the month (more than double from the beginning of April).

Despite a rally on Apr 9, 2025 that brought ETH close to $1.7K, traders sought downside protection, leading to higher volumes in put contracts as compared to calls. Since then, ETHUSDT options volumes have declined, but open interest remains strongly weighted toward calls with later expirations, which have increased since last week. After being inverted for much of April, ETH’s term structure of volatility has flattened, with volatility compressing around the 70% mark across tenors.

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Bybit X Block Scholes crypto derivatives analytics report (Apr 16, 2025): Bitcoin put bias has moderated, but not yet shifted to calls

KiloEx (KILO) is a user-friendly DEX for perpetuals trading, offering high leverage, rewards, LSTfi integration and a robust multi-chain ecosystem.

 trading is one of the most lucrative areas for cryptocurrency enthusiasts if you know how to navigate the sometimes complex world of these contracts. Unlike standard futures, perpetual futures contracts have no expiration date, allowing traders to hold onto their positions as long as they prefer. You only exit a crypto perpetual (or “perp”) contract when you feel it’s the best time to execute your long or short trade. The lack of an expiration period makes these contracts attractive for traders.

Unfortunately, many crypto perpetual contract trading platforms are far from user-friendly. It seems like many perpetual crypto exchanges assume that only professional traders dabble in these contracts, and along with that assumption goes a second one — that these pros can navigate even the most complex user interfaces. As a result, finding a user-friendly perps platform is a challenge in the world of crypto trading.

 (DEX) that aims to change the status quo by providing a user-friendly environment for traders. Its platform also offers high leverage ratios, integration into the wider liquid staking token finance (LSTfi) ecosystem and generous reward programs for referrers and affiliates.

Thanks to its numerous benefits, this DEX caters to the needs of traders at all levels of expertise who are interested in crypto perpetuals. Operational since mid-2023, KiloEx launched its native token, KILO, in March 2025 to further enhance its platform's reward, staking and governance mechanisms.

 (BNB) that specializes in crypto perpetual futures trading.

 The platform prides itself on offering a user-friendly interface, high 

 ratios of up to 100x, multi-token vaults with generous APYs and a number of reward programs for referrers and affiliates.

Co-founded by Joey Ni (CEO) and Charles Gong (COO), KiloEx was originally launched on BNB Chain's mainnet in June 2023. As of mid-April 2025, the platform has additionally expanded its service coverage to five 

 (B2). This coverage allows KiloEx to access the ecosystems of three leading blockchain platforms — 

Manta, Base and Taiko are Ethereum-focused Layer 2 solutions, while opBNB is an efficient and low-cost optimistic rollup for the BNB Chain, while B

 is a platform linked to Bitcoin that acts as a major Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi) enabler.

Because it’s a BNB-native platform, KiloEx's industry footprint is most notable within this blockchain's broader ecosystem. In fact, as Apr 17, 2025, KiloEx is the top DEX on the opBNB network by 

Using Layer 2 chains allows KiloEx to offer its users fast and low-cost transactions, which isn't always possible on a typical Layer 1 network. It's true that BNB Chain, the primary Layer 1 used by KiloEx, generally has much lower gas fees than Ethereum, the industry's leading 

 chain that’s notorious for its exorbitant costs. However, KiloEx's partner Layer 2 networks help drive costs and transaction times even lower. BNB Chain's current average gas fee is slightly over $0.10, while the opBNB Layer 2 rollup's comparable fee is only about $0.005.

In 2024, the platform introduced one of its most innovative features — the 

, which allows liquidity providers to stake multiple assets to earn high yields. That same year, KiloEx significantly expanded its partnership network, becoming an active player in the LSTFi ecosystem. LSTFi is a new stream within the DeFi industry that allows you to use 

 (LSTs) on various protocols for additional yield.

Having solidified its market presence in 2024, the project launched its native token, KILO, in March 2025. However, in mid-April 2025, KiloEx 

 and halted trading on April 15 as a risk management measure, pending investigation of the damage.

The Hybrid Vault is among the most innovative features offered by KiloEx. Essentially, it acts similarly to liquidity pools on other exchanges. Liquidity providers can contribute their crypto funds to the vault to support trading activity on the DEX and earn interest on their contributions, based on the fees earned by the protocol.

You can contribute a mix of coins to a KiloEx vault. Supported assets include 

Depending upon trading activity and the mix of coins contributed, you can earn APYs as high as 30%, making KiloEx one of the most lucrative choices for liquidity providers in this niche.

KiloEx uses a health factor calculation for this type of vault to keep your funds and the entire ecosystem safe. Based on the health factor score of your contribution to the vault, your funds could be liquidated if their value drops dangerously low.

Discounts are also offered for fixed-term deposits for established assets, such as USDT and USDC. Withdrawals for the fixed deposits are processed upon maturity, while all other withdrawals are processed within one to three "epochs," with each epoch on the platform lasting about three days. Thus, depending upon your contributed funds, you’ll wait anywhere from three to nine days to receive your crypto back.

The KiloEx platform also runs a generous referral program under which you can earn rewards for referring your friends to the platform. The amount you earn depends upon the trading volumes generated by the people whom you’ve referred. Additionally, your referees to the DEX can also benefit from fee rebates, again depending upon the volume of trade they generate.

There’s a tiered system, comprising nine levels, based on which you and your friends earn commissions and rebates. Under this system, even those referred traders whose monthly volume is at the lowest level (below $5,000) can still benefit from 5% rebates, while you also earn a 10% commission.

The table below shows the structure of this referral system with percentages for commission and rebates based on monthly trading volumes.

KiloEx offers an affiliate program for key opinion leaders (KOLs) with a certain level of social media following and influence in the crypto market. KOLs may apply to join the program by filling out an application, which is then considered by the project team within 48 hours.

To qualify for affiliate status, a KOL must have: 

Approved affiliates are provided a link to the platform, and are encouraged to invite their followers to trade on the KiloEx. If they invite at least five followers who trade at sufficient levels, the affiliates can start earning their commission. KOLs can earn up to 55% commission, depending upon the referred followers' trading activity.

KiloEx’s native utility token, KILO, is a 

 asset launched on BNB Chain. It’s used on the platform for governance, fee discounts on trades, rewards via 

, liquidity provision incentives and staking.

KILO is a supply-capped asset, with a maximum and total supply of 1 billion. The token’s supply allocation shares are shown in the chart below.

xKILO is an escrowed version of the KILO token. You can convert KILO to xKILO at a fixed rate of 1:1. The primary utility of xKILO is to provide boosted liquidity provision, which makes it possible to receive staking rewards. By locking xKILO on the platform, you can access special discounts and other benefits reserved for VIP-level users. Holding xKILO also grants you governance power to vote and influence the platform's future direction.

Unlike KILO, xKILO is nontransferable and isn’t tradable on the secondary market. The only ways to obtain xKILO are either to buy it with KILO or receive it via airdrops.

Platform users can earn points to qualify for KILO airdrops. Typically, you accumulate points by trading, depositing funds, referring others to the DEX, checking in to the platform and completing other specified eligible activities.

The project’s initial airdrop, Genesis Season, had an eligibility snapshot taken back in July 2024. Under the currently running airdrop campaign, Pioneer Season, users can earn points to receive KILO tokens for 180 days past the token generation event (TGE) in late March 2025 (i.e., until late September 2025).

Additionally, you can earn KILO tokens on Bybit simply by participating in the 

 event and holding BNB in your account. Every day at various random times, Bybit will take snapshots of your BNB holdings in your Funding and Unified Trading Accounts to calculate the number of KILO tokens you’re eligible for. The campaign will run through Apr 25, 2025, 11:59PM UTC, and you’ll have your share of KILO airdropped seven days after this date.

 market as a swap pair with USDT. If you don't have a Bybit account, you can easily 

, and access opportunities across hundreds of trading pairs and crypto products on the exchange's Spot and Derivatives markets.

As of Apr 17, 2025, the KILO token is trading at $0.039, which is 76.2% lower than its ATH of $0.1648 on Mar 27, 2025, and 17.3% higher than its ATL of $0.03344 on Apr 12, 2025.

Long-term price forecasts for KILO are mostly bullish. CoinCodex 

 at $0.0387 in 2027 and then rise to $0.135 in 2030 while PricePredictions 

When it comes to perpetuals trading, both traditional 

 (CEXs) and DEXs have often struggled to offer an intuitive trading experience. In contrast, KiloEx has made user-friendliness a cornerstone of its operations. With KiloEx, you can enjoy a streamlined trading process, access market trends info for thorough research, get an overview of the cryptocurrency market and conduct other activities via an interface that’s designed for anyone, irrespective of their familiarity with decentralized trading.

The platform also boasts a diverse range of other benefits not easily found in the world of perpetuals-based cryptocurrency trading — generous leveraged trading options, trading fee discounts, lightning-fast trades, low trading fees and an innovative Hybrid Vault system. Many of these benefits are thanks to KiloEx's collaboration with several Layer 2 decentralized platforms, which provide the technical infrastructure to enable low costs and fast order processing.

If you’re a crypto perpetuals enthusiast, KiloEx is definitely a platform to peruse.

Intermediate

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KiloEx (KILO): More than a DEX — a rewarding ecosystem

Bybit Learn

DeFi

Explainers

Altcoins

Drift is a decentralized exchange that offers features like spot trading, market makers and perpetual swaps. Learn more here.

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 is its ability to offer unique investment opportunities. Drift hopes to explore this potential by creating an exciting new 

 (DEX). This project aims to incorporate a variety of useful features, like backstop AMM liquidity and perpetual futures. Can Drift distinguish itself from other exchanges and launch its system just in time to attract new users? This guide will help you learn all about the intriguing design of the Drift ecosystem.

, a decentralized exchange that offers features like 

, market makers and perpetual swaps, is an entirely open-source DEX on Solana.

Drift v2 is a branch of Drift that aims to incorporate even more cutting-edge features. It enhances trading efficiency by prioritizing liquidity providers and robust security measures. A community effort, Drift v2 aims to incorporate user feedback into the Drift ecosystem.

 and David Lu. Leow has a background in investment banking, while Lu’s is in venture capital. Their interest in investing encouraged them to take note of the crypto space, and they realized there was a need for better exchanges. Working alongside a team of crypto enthusiasts on 

, Lu and Leow worked to incorporate many high-end investment features into their DEX on Solana. 

In 2021, Drift was officially launched, and Drift v2 followed one year later. Since its launch, Drift has achieved notable landmarks, such as achieving over $10 billion worth of cumulative trading volume in a six-month period. 

Drift's primary aim is to create a better exchange for investors. Its design allows people to trade crypto while also taking advantage of a variety of helpful features. When creating the Drift system, its team focused on capital efficiency and asset protection. They want their users to be able to invest in ways that maximize their assets without causing high-risk behaviors. In the long run, Drift hopes to provide the best trader experience possible, which includes more accurate payouts, faster orders and more favorable prices than other exchanges.

 on the Solana blockchain. Solana executes transactions and stores data for Drift, while smart contracts help to govern trades. Through mechanisms like just-in-time auctions and backstop AMM liquidity, an entire complex system of buying and trading is created. Drift handles every aspect of crypto trading, from providing liquidity for the market to determining the order of trades. To help users access all these great features, Drift uses TypeScript and Python code to create a seamless app for traders to interact with.

Drift enhances trading efficiency by offering a lot of exciting features to active traders.

Spot trading is the classic way to manage crypto trades. Users directly purchase or sell an asset, and receive immediate delivery into their wallet. To improve trading efficiency, Drift includes 

, whereby traders can borrow from liquidity traders to obtain larger funds. Drift Spot trading also features trading bots for users who want to use automated trading.

 are contracts in which users agree to buy or sell cryptos at a certain price in the future, without an expiration date. Thus, Drift's 

 lets users hold positions indefinitely instead of having them expire. Perpetual futures trading provides a lot of options to profit, no matter how the market moves. The right contract can help you profit if a crypto's price falls, or you can choose one that further boosts your profit if prices increase. 

Perpetual swaps allow users to buy and sell perpetual futures. By enabling perpetual futures trading, Drift gives active traders even more flexibility. These perpetual swaps also include 

 trading options, so you can borrow liquidity in order to invest in a larger swap than you could otherwise afford.

With Drift, you can borrow crypto funds for your own users, or you can loan crypto to 

 system automatically determines risk and assigns interest rates. To facilitate lending, Drift has introduced robust security measures that require users to submit collateral if they want to borrow funds.

Drift's insurance fund is another example of how it’s introduced robust security measures into its system. The insurance fund is meant to guarantee the exchange will remain solvent even if there are bankruptcies. It’s backed by users staking 

In addition to earning extra money, participants can rest assured that they're helping to create a safety net for potential losses that users incur while performing leveraged trades. 

 are all about improving trading proficiency. Liquidity providers can choose to temporarily submit tokens to Drift. These pools of tokens ensure that whenever a user places an order on the exchange, Drift can fulfill it. Drift pairs the market makers with trading bots that help to create the most efficient possible transactions. 

The dynamic automated market maker seeks to get the right tokens to the right users in as few transactions as possible, so it can avoid 

 and excess fees. Participating in the Market Maker Vaults also allows passive liquidity providers to earn fees, so it's a way of profiting without permanently giving up possession of one's crypto.

Since Drift is built on Solana, it has some extra perks for users who hold SOL tokens. The super stake SOL system lets people lock Solana tokens to earn rewards from both the Solana blockchain and Drift. Super stake SOL users can earn up to 11.45% 

Fuel is an upcoming feature from Drift that will offer users more ways to earn on Drift. Little is known about it yet, but it will be a reward system that ties into the 

 is a way to add a little excitement to all of Drift's trading efficiency services. Users can earn prizes through a random weekly draw. Tickets for the draw are based on each trader's cumulative trading volume. The more you trade on Drift, the more chances you have of winning a prize. Prizes for Drift Draw range from 50 USDC to 50,000 USDC.

Backstop AMM Liquidity, or BAL for short, is an additional market-making feature available on Drift. BAL lets users pick which market to provide liquidity for, and then automatically manages positions for traders. This provides the potential for passive liquidity providers to earn additional interest from their funds.

Since 2021, Drift has launched two working versions of its exchange and designed a lot of intriguing features, such as trading perpetual swaps and the previously mentioned dynamic automated market maker. 

In 2024, the Drift team is taking a step back from technological details and focusing on the big picture. They hope to launch their decentralized autonomous organization (

) in 2024 and create a user-led governance system. This new launch will help to move Drift toward being a fully decentralized organization that’s led entirely by its community.

 for the Drift DAO. It gives Drift token holders the ability to vote on fees and protocols. DRIFT will have a total/max 

, which are going to be gradually released over five years. The token distribution plan is fairly straightforward, with 43% reserved for ecosystem development and trading rewards. Another 25% will be reserved for future protocol development, and 22% will be given to strategic participants. The remaining 10% of tokens will be given directly to Drift’s active traders in airdrops.

The DRIFT token's value has remained fairly stable since its release in mid-May 2024. Initially, the token’s price dropped from around $0.68 to $0.20, but since the first volatile day of trading, DRIFT prices have been on a slow yet steady rise. Throughout the end of May 2024, DRIFT has mostly been sitting in the $0.50 to $0.60 range. Its current price is $0.4331 (as of May 30, 2024). 

Some crypto enthusiasts predict a price of up to $2 for DRIFT within 2024. Crypto price data analysts aren't quite as optimistic, but they still predict a decent amount of growth for DRIFT. According to CoinMarketCap, market demand has resulted in a 

 to reach $1.01 in 2024 and $2.12 by 2027.

Looking to trade Drift tokens? Bybit now offers both the DRIFT/USDT Spot trading pair and DRIFTUSDT Perpetual contracts. To get started, you’ll first need to create a Bybit account, then fund it with cryptocurrency, and navigate to the 

To celebrate this listing, Bybit is holding 

 where you can earn a share of the 700,000 DRIFT prize pool.

, will award 40 DRIFT each to the first 10,000 new users who complete the following steps between May 15, 2024, 10AM UTC and May 30, 2024, 9AM UTC:

In addition, through May 30, 2024, 9AM UTC, simply trade at least 1,000 USDT worth of DRIFT on Spot to earn a share from the 200,000 DRIFT prize pool. The more you trade, the larger your share of the prize pool. Rewards will be capped at 2,000 DRIFT per user.

, is being held through May 30, 2024, 9AM UTC. Invite your friends to 1) sign up for a Bybit account with your referral code and 2) complete both steps above for new users in the 

. Both you and your qualified referee will receive 10 DRIFT for every successful referral. 

: A total of up to 100,000 DRIFT will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

The DRIFT token is certainly one of the hot tokens of May 2024. Not only is it backed by a highly reputable DEX, but it also has many enthusiastic fans and is experiencing high market demand at the moment. Since people are so interested in Drift's insurance fund, crypto market and other features, its governance token is likely to perform well. 

However, keep in mind that crypto investments feature inherent volatility, and Drift has many competitors. If someone manages to do a better job of providing competitive pricing and trade efficiency, investors may lose interest in DRIFT. Therefore, it's essential to avoid overinvesting in the token and to 

 market conditions carefully before purchasing.

As a cryptocurrency exchange, Drift faces considerable competition. However, its ability to trade perpetual swaps, offer competitive pricing and provide robust security measures helps it stand out from the crowd. Drift's community of dedicated users have also helped spark considerable market demand for DRIFT governance tokens, which may lead to big things for this project in the future.

Drift (DRIFT): A Solana-Based DEX for Perpetual Futures

Compete for 2,500 USDT USDT Every Week

Drift (DRIFT): A Solana-Based DEX for Perpetual Futures

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards

Compete for 2,500 USDT USDT Every Week

Grab Up to 5,000 USDT in Rewards