Today Started Like Disneyland But Ended Like The Titanic 👎️
OVERVIEW
Today Started Like Disneyland But Ended Like The Titanic 👎️
Before we dive in, here’s today’s crypto market heatmap:
Source: Santiment
And here’s a look at crypto’s total market and altcoin market cap charts:
Source: TradingView
NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Crypto News 📰
🎪 SEC Invites Former Crypto Targets Coinbase and Uniswap to Friendly Chat
The SEC invited former enforcement targets $COIN ( ▼ 3.69% ) and $UNI.X ( ▼ 6.72% ) to participate in a regulatory panel titled “Between a Block and a Hard Place.” This kumbaya move signals the regulator’s shift under Trump’s SEC from lawsuits to civil conversations, as apparently litigation got too exhausting. Coinbase and Uniswap are reportedly thrilled to finally experience the SEC in a setting other than a courtroom. cryptopolitan.
🤑 Cathie Wood Dumps Own Bitcoin ETF, YOLOs $26M on Falling Tech Stocks
ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood unloaded $12 million worth of her own $ARKB ( ▼ 1.73% ) Bitcoin ETF, instead throwing over $26 million at falling stocks like Coinbase, $AMZN ( ▼ 2.63% ), and $NVDA ( ▼ 1.37% ). Buying dips might be her trademark, but ditching her Bitcoin ETF feels like giving up your dog because goldfish are trending. Bitcoin ETF holders took the hint and kept selling. The Street.
🥂 Ripple Splurges $1.25B on Prime Broker Hidden Road
Ripple announced its $1.25 billion acquisition of prime broker Hidden Road, hoping to become the crypto industry’s biggest non-bank prime broker. The acquisition positions Ripple to use its $XRP.X ( ▼ 5.27% ) Ledger and stablecoin RLUSD for clearing trades. Ripple insists this mega-deal isn’t about flexing, which obviously means it’s all about flexing. Cointelegraph.
🐷 Australia Shuts Down 95 Crypto Scam Firms, Love Still Isn’t Real
Australian regulators nuked 95 companies running “pig butchering” crypto scams that conned 1,400 lovesick victims out of nearly $36 million. Romance and crypto turned out to be an even worse combination than pineapple on pizza. Authorities confirmed only three firms had any real assets. CoinJournal.
ON-CHAIN ANALYTICS
Inflows Are Up, But Not A Crazy Amount🧠
If you’re wondering how panicky traders and investors are, a look at exchange inflows are a good measure. Why? Because crypto entering exchanges is often a signal people are selling. 🔻
Bitcoin
BTC Inflows – Click to enlarge.
A bump in inflows? Sure. Highest of 2025? Nope. Higher than Q4 of 2024? Not even close.
Ethereum
ETH Inflows – Click to enlarge.
Compared to Bitcoin or XRP, $ETH.X ( ▼ 7.09% ) has seen the highest level of inflows. If things don’t change soon, inflows could reach a new 6-month high for inflows.
XRP
XRP Inflows – Click to enlarge.
There’s been a noticeable drive higher of $XRP.X ( ▼ 5.27% ) inflows, but it’s not insane. November 2024 saw significantly more inflows.
All in all, recent inflows to exchanges have been up, but nothing crazy. It looks like the majority of hodlers are doing just that: hodling. 🤜
STOCKTWITS CASHTAG AWARDS PRESENTED BY ETORO
In NYC On April 30th? Join Us Live At The Stand! 🤩
The hottest night in social finance is happening live in NYC on Wednesday, April 30th, and the guest list continues to grow. Are you on it? 🤔
If you’re in the New York area and are interested in attending, reply directly to this email with the words “I’m In.” We’ve got limited tickets available, but will do our best to hook our loyal newsletter readers up so we can see you there!
Want to guarantee you can attend? Grab your tickets now! 🎫
Join us to celebrate the biggest names in finance. Plus, network with personalities you know and love at our open-bar happy hour and cocktail reception. 🍻
NEWS
Why No Pi 🥧
I’ve received a number of requests to address what’s up with the $PI.X ( ▼ 8.13% ) Network. It’s popular, has a lot of followers, yet it’s not on any major exchanges. Why? Well, there’s good reasons:
-
Delayed Mainnet: Nearly six years in the making, Pi’s open mainnet finally launched in February 2025. Critics say the excuses—testing issues, KYC logjams—are about as convincing as a magician explaining how the rabbit hopped into his hat.
-
Pyramid Scheme Allegations: A referral system that amplifies growth more than utility. Pi’s “mobile mining” amounts to tapping a button to claim coins. It’s less mining and more advertising hustle.
-
Token Utility (or Lack Thereof): Pi’s token plummeted from a high of $2.99 to as low of $0.40 in a little over a month. Trading restrictions during the enclosed mainnet left people feeling like they’d booked a cruise that never left the dock.
PIUSD Daily Chart – Click to enlarge.
-
KYC Nightmares: Swapping from Yoti to an in-house system brought a flood of glitches, locking out millions. Toss in a dodgy data breach rumor, and “trust us with your info” starts sounding like a bad punchline.
-
Centralization Concerns: A core team with outsized control. Critics question whether this “blockchain” is more like a walled garden, with the devs calling all the shots behind the scenes.
-
Unauthorized Listings: Huobi, OKX, and Gate.io listed Pi or Pi IOUs on a whim. Pi’s team warned everyone to watch out for scams, but the fiasco only highlighted the project’s loose grip on its own coin.
-
Community Fallout: Over 60 million users, but the grumbling grows louder. Unmet promises, poor communication, and rigid KYB rules have supporters feeling like they were promised a feast but got stale crackers.
TARIFF TALK
Timeline Of Today’s Tariff Tweets ⌚️
Here’s today’s complete tariff circus, neatly ordered by time with all updates included in bullet points:
-
07:15: Treasury’s Bessent insists tariff negotiations are from overwhelming inbound calls, not market panic
-
07:30: Treasury Secretary Bessent calls China’s escalation a “big mistake.”
-
09:15: Trump claims China desperately wants a deal but doesn’t know how to kick things off.
-
09:45: South Korea waves the tariff white flag, seeking negotiations instead; Hassett preps a plan on who and when for tariff talks with Trump.
-
10:00: Goldman Sachs shifts its USD outlook dramatically, hiking EUR/USD forecasts.
-
10:30: BlackRock, gets cold feet about U.S. stocks.
-
11:00: China blasts the U.S. for intimidation tactics, promising they’ll fight this trade war “to the end.”
-
11:45: Italy’s PM Meloni books a flight to talk tariff sanity into Trump.
-
12:00: USTR Greer boldly claims tariff costs rarely trickle down to consumers
-
12:15: Fed’s Goolsbee admits tariffs are hitting harder than models predicted; White House insists Trump won’t let Wall Street run the show.
-
12:30: Goldman Sachs slashes S&P 500 year-end target from 6,500 to 6,200.
-
12:45: White House prematurely declares that 104% tariffs on China started at noon today.
-
13:00: Bank of England’s Lombardelli warns tariffs will suppress economic activity; White House Press Secretary Levitt clarifies tariffs on China haven’t actually gone into effect yet—they start at midnight.
-
13:15: White House says other countries are desperate for deals, and that America doesn’t need anyone else
-
13:30: White House announces Trump’s directive: tailor-made trade deals for every single country
-
13:45: USD/CNH hits 7.40 for the first time as yuan continues to weaken
-
14:00: White House says deals to lower tariffs will only be made if it’s good for US workers and trade deficits.
-
14:30: Fed’s Daly: We have time to tread slowly and carefully on policy
ON-CHAIN ANALYSIS
Burnt Bag Briefing 🔥
Want to know whether the bulls or bears are feeling the most pain today? Well, this is the place to look. 👀
24-Hour Liquidation Heat Map – Source: coinglass – Click to enlarge.
In the past 24 hours, 80,332 traders were liquidated, with total liquidations reaching nearly $244.51 million.
The largest single liquidation occurred on Binance, a BTCUSD pair valued at $4.76 million.
Longs lost $129.48 million, while shorts were hit for $115.02 million. 🤕
NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
AI, Stablecoins, & Privacy News 🕵️
🔒 Monero Privacy at Risk: Research Reveals Timing Attack Vulnerabilities
New OSPEAD research has revealed Monero’s ring signatures are vulnerable to timing attacks, reducing the anonymity of transactions from 1-in-16 down to roughly 1-in-4.2. While this discovery might make surveillance firms drool, it also provides $XMR.X ( ▲ 0.47% ) devs with a roadmap for tightening decoy distributions in future upgrades. Users facing NSA-level paranoia might want to keep their crypto habits extra boring for now. Monero.
🤖 Metis Founder Dreams Big: Wants AI to Run the World (But Nicely, She Promises)
$METIS.X ( ▼ 3.98% ) founder Elena laid out an ambitious vision for integrating AI into human governance, citing historical philosophers from Plato to Kant to justify why AI could become humanity’s ideal advisor. She wants to pair decentralized blockchain governance with AI tools (like Hyperion and LazAI) to solve everything from global conflicts to dumb DAO votes. It’s either a visionary future or the prequel to Skynet—stay tuned. Metis.
🏦 Japan’s SMBC Teams Up With Avalanche to Test Drive Stablecoin Adoption
Japanese banking titan SMBC joined forces with $AVAX.X ( ▲ 0.93% ), Fireblocks, and TIS to explore stablecoin tech, targeting commercial payments and real-world asset settlements. Japan’s regulators recently greenlit stablecoins as legitimate digital payments, setting the stage for big-money experiments across borders. Leave it to Japan to quietly set the bar high for how banks might actually use blockchain tech for something practical. Avalanche.
🛡️ umanitek Launches Mission to Protect Humanity from AI-Generated Nightmare Content
umanitek, backed by $TRAC.X ( ▲ 7.05% ), Ethical Capital Partners, and a Porsche-linked family office, is launching a global effort to combat AI abuses like deepfakes and intellectual property theft. Their decentralized fingerprinting system aims to stop non-consensual sharing of private images, prevent misuse of personal data, and help law enforcement take down offenders. Origin Trail.
NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Real World Asset Tokenization (RWA) News 🪙
🚀 MANTRA Flexes Big Bucks with $108M Fund to Juice RWA Innovation
MANTRA just dropped a massive $108,888,888 Ecosystem Fund aimed squarely at fueling real-world asset tokenization projects globally. Fresh off snagging Dubai’s first DeFi VASP license, $OM.X ( ▲ 8.96% ) is partnering with heavyweight investors to make sure the tokenization train doesn’t stop anytime soon. The goal here isn’t subtle—MANTRA wants every valuable thing on Earth tokenized, tracked, and tradable on-chain ASAP. MANTRA.
NEWS IN THREE SENTENCES
Metaverse, NFT, & Gaming News 🎮️
🎲 Italy’s Online Gaming Giants Bet Big on DuskPay’s Blockchain Payments
PlayMatika and BetPassion, major players in Italy’s €150 billion online gaming scene, are integrating DuskPay for blockchain-based payments that meet strict EU compliance. Forget slow traditional payments— $DUSK.X ( ▼ 1.62% )’s pitch is instant, secure, cross-border transactions that even the most regulation-obsessed bureaucrat could love. Dusk Network.
LINKS
Links That Don’t Suck 🔗
🤔 First U.S. XRP ETF debuts – Will it impact prices positively?
🐐 GOAT Network partners with Rarible to launch new NFT marketplace
👬 Game of clones: Dire wolves reborn as Colossal unleashes world’s first de-extinction
👑 ‘Blue Prince’ is suddenly the best-reviewed game Of 2025, instant GOTY contender
🪙 Pro-bitcoin politician blames bizarre ‘SOS’ tweets on ‘heavy medication’
Get In Touch 📬
Follow our social channels for great, real-time content on Stocktwits and Twitter. And check out our YouTube channel for in-depth video content! 📲
Email me (Jonathan Morgan) your feedback; I’d love to hear from you. 📧
Want to sponsor this newsletter and reach hundreds of thousands of crypto enthusiasts? Reach us here. 👍
Terms & Conditions 📝
Securities Disclaimer: STOCKTWITS IS NOT A TAX ADVISOR, BROKER, FINANCIAL ADVISOR OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. THE SERVICE IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE TAX, LEGAL, FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND NOTHING ON THE SERVICE SHOULD BE CONSTRUED AS AN OFFER TO SELL, A SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, OR A RECOMMENDATION FOR ANY SECURITY. Trading in such securities can result in immediate and substantial losses of the capital invested. You should only invest risk capital, and not capital required for other purposes. You alone are solely responsible for determining whether any investment, security or strategy, or any other product or service, is appropriate or suitable for you based on your investment objectives and personal and financial situation. You should also consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation. The Content is to be used for informational and entertainment purposes only and the Service does not provide investment advice for any individual. Stocktwits, its affiliates and partners specifically disclaim any and all liability or loss arising out of any action taken in reliance on Content, including but not limited to market value or other loss on the sale or purchase of any company, property, product, service, security, instrument, or any other matter. You understand that an investment in any security is subject to a number of risks, and that discussions of any security published on the Service will not contain a list or description of relevant risk factors. In addition, please note that some of the stocks about which Content is published on the Service have a low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float. Such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information. Read the full terms & conditions here. 🔍
Author Disclosure: The author of this newsletter holds positions in ADA, IMX, COPI, MIN, AGIX, ALGO, ZEC, XLM, and NEAR. 📋
