Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, said in a post on X that based on a review of public documents, bankruptcy documents, and voluntary disclosures by active lenders, the total size of centralized finance (CeFi) loans was $11.2 billion by the end of 2024, down 68% from the historical peak (ATH) of $34.8 billion in 2022. By the end of 2024, the largest CeFi lenders by outstanding loan book size were: Tether, Galaxy, Ledn, Coinbase, Maple, Unchained, Centrifuge, Goldfinch, Arch, and TrueFi. While DeFi is fairly transparent, CeFi lending is more opaque. However, when combined, the outstanding loan market size is about $30 billion. Today, the outstanding loan market size of DeFi has surpassed CeFi. If you add collateralized debt position (CDP) stablecoins such as DAI, the size will exceed $35 billion. In fact, DeFi currently accounts for more than 60% of the cryptocurrency lending market.
Kyrgyzstan Appoints Changpeng Zhao as National Blockchain Policy and Web3 Strategy Advisor
According to Cointelegraph, the National Investment Agency under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ), appointing him as the official advisor for Kyrgyzstan's national blockchain development, cryptocurrency regulation and Web3 innovation. According to the agreement, CZ will provide guidance to the Kyrgyz government on building a forward-looking digital asset framework, including technical support and policy formulation for blockchain infrastructure. The cooperation also focuses on accelerating talent training and creating a favorable environment for innovation in decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3 technologies.
EigenLayer will launch a slashing mechanism on the mainnet on April 17
According to official news, Ethereum re-staking protocol EigenLayer announced that the slashing mechanism will be launched on the mainnet on April 17, and the Active Verification Service (AVS) will be able to build verifiable, trustless applications; at the same time, operators and stakers need to take responsibility. Slashing is a way for the PoS protocol to economically punish a node or a group of nodes for executing a strategy that can be proven to be different from the given protocol specification.
Ethereum dApp fee revenue exceeds $1 billion in Q1 2025, ranking first
According to Bitcoin.com, Token Terminal data shows that Ethereum continues to maintain its leading position in decentralized application (dApp) platforms, with dApp fee revenue of $1.014 billion in the first quarter of 2025. Coinbase's Layer2 network Base ranked second, with dApp fee revenue of $193 million, reflecting a certain growth, but still lagging behind Ethereum. BNB Chain's dApp fee revenue was $170 million, and Arbitrum's ecosystem fee revenue was $73.8 million. Avalanche's C-Chain ranked in the top five, with dApp fee revenue of $27.68 million.
According to Cointelegraph, according to the "Enterprise Bitcoin Adoption in the First Quarter of 2025" released by Bitwise, in the first quarter of 2025, listed companies purchased a total of 95,431 bitcoins, an increase of 16.11% from the previous quarter, bringing the total bitcoin holdings of listed companies to 688,000, accounting for 3.28% of the total supply of 21 million bitcoins. The number of listed companies holding Bitcoin reached 79, an increase of 17.91% from the previous quarter, and 12 new companies purchased Bitcoin in the quarter.
Coinbase Prime to End Custody Support for 49 Assets by the End of This Month
Coinbase Institutional announced that Coinbase Prime will terminate its custody support for 49 assets at the end of this month. The platform regularly evaluates the assets it supports to ensure that they continue to meet platform standards. These 49 assets include: VideoCoin (VID), Coffee Token (CFT), BOSAGORA (BOA), FISCO Coin (FSCC), Sentinel protocol (UPP), Cellframe (CELL), Ideaology (IDEA), Dorayaki (DORA), CPUCoin (CPU), SIREN (SI), Somnium Space Cubes (CUBE), UREEQA Token (URQA), Oraichain Token (ORAI), UniLend Finance (UFT), Carry (CRE), 0chain (ZCN), Nord Finance (NORD), MahaDAO (MAHA), YOP (YOP), Unipilot (PILOT), QASH (QASH), SparkPoint (SRK), Telcoin (TEL), MixMarvel (MIX), OnX Finance (ONX), EMBLEM (EMB), Newscrypto (NWC), Compound DAI (CDAI), NFTrade Token (NFTD), pNetwork (PNT), E-RADIX (EXRD), EDDASwap (EDDA), IndexedFinance (NDX), RioDeFi (RFUEL) GMO Internet (GYEN), 1717 Bissonnet (1717), The Edison (edsn), Draper Garland Apartments (gfdg), Forest Crossing Apartments (gffc), Hello Albemarle (hlab), Hello Flatbush (hlfb), Hello Lenox (hllx), Hello Nostrand (hlno) Lakehouse Oakland (lhok), Nottingham Village (ntvl), Core Fund (rscp), Value Fund (rsva), The Verge at Summer Park Apartments (tvsp), Tower 27 (twr27).
Bo Hines: US May Use Tariff Revenue to Buy Bitcoin
Bo Hines, executive director of President Trump’s Digital Asset Advisory Council, said the U.S. may use tariff revenue to buy Bitcoin, according to Bitcoin Magazine.
OpenAI launches three GPT-4.1 series models
According to financial reports, OpenAI has launched three GPT-4.1 series models, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini and GPT-4.1 nano, which need to be used through API. GPT-4.1 is regarded as a comprehensive upgrade of GPT-4o, with stronger multimodal processing capabilities, larger context windows (all can process 1 million tokens), and 26% lower costs.
Mantra CEO: OM token recovery is a top priority, but it’s still early days
According to Cointelegraph, Mantra CEO John Mullin responded to community concerns after the OM token plunge. He assured that Mantra and its partners are promoting the recovery of OM tokens, but the details of the buyback and destruction are still being worked out. He said: "We are still in the early stages of developing a potential token buyback plan." In addition, Mullin said that the recovery of OM tokens is Mantra's top priority. He denied the allegations that major investors sold OM tokens and that the team controlled 90% of the token supply, emphasizing that the allegations were unfounded and mentioned that the community transparency report had been published. Mullin mentioned that "the largest holder of OM on the exchange is Binance" and directed the public to check the Etherscan records. However, the largest holder of OM wallets at present is the crypto exchange OKX, which holds 14% of the circulating supply, about 130 million tokens. Mullin also introduced the $109 million Mantra Ecosystem Fund (MEF) in cooperation with strategic investors, saying that the fund contains "US dollar commitments and contributions" and will continue to invest in supporting the ecosystem. He said: "As part of the recovery plan, we will continue to invest and support the ecosystem. "In addition, he revealed that the 38 million OM transferred to Binance's cold wallet on April 14 was related to a staking program of Binance, and Binance returned the tokens due to the end of the program. He also pointed out that many transactions that caused community reactions after the crash involved collateral from an unnamed exchange, "For some reason, the exchange decided not to maintain this position, so the exchange that received the collateral took over these positions and began to sell them, triggering a chain of selling pressure and forcing more positions to be liquidated."
According to The Defiant, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on physical subscriptions and redemptions for WisdomTree and VanEck’s spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs until June 3, 2025. Physical transactions involve the direct exchange of underlying assets, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, rather than cash. NYSE Arca and Cboe BZX are the exchanges associated with these proposals.
KiloEx released an announcement on the X platform saying that the KiloEx treasury has been exploited, urging all partner protocols and platforms to immediately blacklist this address to prevent further malicious activity. The vulnerability has been controlled. The team has immediately suspended the use of the platform and is working with security partners to track the flow of funds. The team will release a bounty program. The attack vector and affected assets are being analyzed. KiloEx is working with ecosystem partners to track and recover funds as much as possible. A full report is being prepared and will be shared with the community in the next few days. Earlier news, KiloEx was hacked, with a cumulative amount of approximately US$7 million.
Coinbase has launched KernelDAO (KERNEL)
Coinbase Assets said on the X platform that KernelDAO (KERNEL) is now live on Coinbase.com and the Coinbase iOS and Android apps with an "experimental" label. Coinbase customers can log in and buy, sell, exchange, send, receive or store these assets.
Moonshot Launches Dark Eclipse (DARK)
Moonshot announced the launch of the Solana chain’s new coin Dark Eclipse ($DARK), with a current market value of approximately US$13.2 million and a 24-hour trading volume of US$10.9 million.
Binance Alpha now supports Fair and Free (FAIR3)
The Binance APP page shows that Binance Alpha has newly launched Fair and Free (FAIR3).
According to Barron's, the Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crimes Unit of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has launched an investigation into the crypto custody bank Anchorage Digital Bank. The company is backed by Wall Street capital and has publicly supported Trump's policies in the field of digital assets. The investigation focuses on its compliance and financial transaction behavior, and the details have not yet been made public.
SEC Delays Review of Grayscale’s Spot Ethereum ETF Adding Staking Functionality
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has decided to extend the review period for the rule change proposal submitted by NYSE Arca. The proposal intends to allow Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF and Mini Trust ETF to pledge Ethereum holdings. The rule was originally open for public comments on March 3, and no comments have been received so far. The SEC extended the review deadline from the original April 17 to June 1, 2025 to fully evaluate the proposal and related issues.
ZachXBT names REEF founders Denko and Fukogoryushu as being involved in $OM crash
On-chain detective ZachXBT posted that REEF founders Denko and Fukogoryushu were suspected of seeking large collateral loans with the token before the $OM crash, sparking speculation about market manipulation. ZachXBT pointed out that Denko was involved in an $80 million OTC transaction with Alameda in 2021 and the delisting of REEF by Binance in 2024.
According to @ai_9684xtpa, Flow Traders, Auros Global and Arrington Capital may be the three major market makers for the new coin $KERNEL launched on Binance Megadrop. They were allocated 3.5 million, 3.5 million and 10 million tokens respectively, accounting for a total of 10.47% of the total circulation.
Kraken has opened commission-free trading services for US stocks and ETFs to some US users
Kraken announced that it has opened commission-free trading services for more than 11,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs to some U.S. users, supporting fractional share investment and integrated management of crypto and traditional assets. The first batch of open states include New Jersey, Connecticut, Wyoming and other places, and will gradually expand to the entire U.S. and international markets in the future. Kraken's move was promoted by its FINRA-regulated subsidiary Kraken Securities, aiming to realize the future vision of all-weather, borderless, and crypto-based asset trading.
Visa joins USDG stablecoin alliance launched by Paxos and Robinhood
According to CoinDesk, Visa will join the Global Dollar Network (USDG) stablecoin alliance initiated by Paxos, becoming the first traditional financial institution to join. Alliance members also include Robinhood, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, Anchorage Digital, Bullish and Nuvei. USDG aims to share stablecoin revenue with members to incentivize the construction of liquidity and interconnection, which is different from the model of retaining revenue such as Tether.
Strategy purchased 3,459 bitcoins last week, spending $285.8 million
According to the latest SEC 8-K filing, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) sold 959,700 shares of MSTR through the "market price issuance" plan (ATM) from April 7 to 13, raising approximately $285.7 million, which was used to purchase 3,459 bitcoins at an average price of $82,618. According to Michael Saylor, Strategy's bitcoin yield has reached 11.4% so far this year. As of April 13, MicroStrategy held a total of 531,644 bitcoins, with a total investment of approximately $35.92 billion and an average purchase price of $67,556.
Binance to launch KERNEL U-margined perpetual contracts
According to the Binance announcement, KernelDAO (KERNEL) will be launched simultaneously on Binance Finance, One-click Coin Purchase, Flash Exchange, Leverage and Contract Platforms at 20:00 (UTC+8) on April 14, 2025. Among them, KERNEL principal-guaranteed coin-earning current product is open for subscription, supporting one-click buying and selling by credit card and other methods; full-position and position-by-position leveraged trading will be supported from 20:20; U-standard perpetual contract supports up to 75 times leverage.
According to a statement released by Shorooq, the MANTRA token $OM plunged by about 90% in the past 24 hours due to the forced liquidation of large leveraged positions during a period of low liquidity, not due to technical loopholes or project selling. Neither Shorooq nor the MANTRA team sold any tokens before or after the incident, and most $OM is still locked. Shorooq emphasized that it is a long-term equity investor in MANTRA and firmly supports its vision of RWA on-chain.
MANTRA DAO transfers 38 million OM to Binance, worth about $26.96 million
According to Arkham data, about 2 hours ago, MANTRA's DAO staking wallet transferred 38 million $OM to Binance's cold wallet, which is approximately US$26.96 million at the current price.
Google to implement MiCA crypto advertising rules in EU from April 23
According to Solid Intel, Google will enforce cryptocurrency advertising standards in Europe in accordance with the Crypto Assets Market Regulation (MiCA) from April 23, 2025.
Laser Digital denies involvement in $OM crash, says wallet not owned by it
Laser Digital issued a statement on the X platform saying that it had nothing to do with the recent price crash of $OM (Mantra). In response to rumors on social media that Laser was involved in investor sell-offs, the company said the relevant statements were "factually false and misleading." Laser clarified that it did not transfer any $OM tokens to OKX, and the wallet referred to by the outside world was not owned by it. Its core investments are still locked, and it reiterated its support for the long-term development of the ecosystem. There was news this morning that at least 17 wallets deposited 43.6 million OM on the exchange before the OM crash, accounting for 4.5% of the circulating supply. According to Arkham's mark, 2 of the addresses are associated with Laser Digital. Laser Digital is a strategic investor in MANTRA.
Japan's 30-year government bond yield soared to 2.868%, a nearly 20-year high
Japan’s 30-year bond yield surged to 2.868%, the highest level since August 2004, according to TradingView data.
CoinShares: Net outflow of funds from digital asset investment products was $795 million last week
According to the latest weekly data from CoinShares, as of the week of April 12, 2025, the net outflow of digital asset investment products reached $795 million, with three consecutive weeks of capital outflow, bringing the cumulative outflow since the beginning of February to $7.2 billion, almost wiping out the net inflow for the whole year. Bitcoin outflow ranked first, reaching $751 million, but it still maintained a net inflow of $545 million since the beginning of the year. Ethereum outflowed $37.6 million. XRP recorded an inflow of $3.5 million against the trend, and Ondo, Algorand and Avalanche recorded small net inflows respectively. After Trump temporarily withdrew tariffs, prices rebounded, and the total assets under management rose to $130 billion.
