Today's news tips:
Trump's conspiracy exposed: Powell's removal script leaked, Fed successor emerges
Moonshot launches Wizard Gang ($Wizard)
Semler Scientific's Bitcoin loss in Q1 this year is about $41.8 million
MANTRA Co-Creation: 90% of the token circulation supply has never been controlled by the team
Opinion: If Trump fires Fed Chairman Powell, it would set a very bad precedent
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 1.42% to 123.23 T, setting a new record high
Data: cbBTC circulation supply exceeds 33,000
Regulatory/Macro
Trump's conspiracy exposed: Powell's removal script leaked, Fed successor emerges
According to Jinshi, the Wall Street Journal revealed that US President Trump has been privately discussing the issue of firing Federal Reserve Chairman Powell for several months, but he has not yet made a final decision on whether to oust Powell before the end of his term next year. Sources said that at a meeting held at Mar-a-Lago, Trump talked with former Federal Reserve Board member Kevin Warsh about the possibility of firing Powell before the end of his term and possibly choosing Warsh to replace him.
Warsh had advised against firing Powell and believed the Fed chairman should be allowed to complete his term without interruption, according to people familiar with the matter. In a meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump expressed his belief that he had the power to remove Powell. "If I wanted him out, he would be out very quickly, believe me," Trump said, adding that he was not happy with Powell. Any move by Trump to fire Powell would almost certainly go to the Supreme Court. That could cast a shadow of scrutiny over Powell's eventual departure, and any prospect that the Fed chairman could be fired over a policy dispute could frustrate financial markets.
The White House declined to comment. Walsh did not respond to a request for comment.
ECB expects digital euro to replace 50% of cash in circulation
According to Spanish news agency EFE, the European Central Bank reported that after the promotion of the digital euro, 5 paper notes will be withdrawn from circulation for every 10 digital euros issued. The project is seen as a strategic sovereign tool of the European Union, in contrast to the Trump administration's refusal to develop a digital dollar. The report pointed out that the popularization of digital currency will reshape the asset structure and may reduce bank deposits and cash demand.
Project News
Moonshot launches Wizard Gang ($Wizard)
Moonshot announced the launch of the Solana chain's new coin Wizard Gang ($Wizard). Its current market value is approximately US$6.8 million, and its 24-hour trading volume is US$15.5 million.
MANTRA Co-Creation: 90% of the token circulation supply has never been controlled by the team
JP Mullin, co-founder of MANTRA, clarified on the X platform: "90% of the circulating supply of tokens has never been controlled by the team, because more than 91% of the circulating supply of tokens has been issued on Ethereum and has been in circulation for nearly five years. The facts are greater than FUD."
Semler Scientific's Bitcoin loss in Q1 this year is about $41.8 million
According to CryptoPotato, citing an 8-K filing by Semler, Semler Scientific reported an unrealized loss of approximately $41.8 million in Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2025, due to the BTC price falling from $93,500 at the beginning of the year to approximately $82,000 at the end of March. As of March 31, the company held 3,192 BTC, with a total value of approximately $264 million.
As reported earlier this week, Semler Scientific agreed to pay $29.75 million to the U.S. Department of Justice to settle a fraud investigation .
Balance announces EPT token economic model, TGE will be launched on April 21
The Balance Foundation announced its EPT token economic model. The total supply of EPT tokens is 10 billion, which will be launched on the BNB chain and Ethereum dual chain on April 21, 2025 (UTC). In the token distribution, airdrops and community incentives account for 15%, node rewards 25%, and ecological growth 23%. The airdrop targets include E-PAL users, early supporters, active community users and Pioneer badge NFT holders. EPT will be used to pay for AI services, governance, staking, incentives and other functions.
As reported earlier this week, Binance Alpha and Binance Futures will be listing Balance(EPT) .
The retail dominance index on Binance is 89.6%, while on Coinbase Prime it is only 18.3%.
CryptoQuant data shows that Binance's current retail-dominated index is 89.6%, indicating that retail investors on the platform are very active. In contrast, Coinbase Prime's index is 18.3%, highlighting its institutional client-oriented positioning.
Binance will adjust the settlement frequency of VOXELUSDT U-margined perpetual contract funding rate
According to the official announcement, Binance Futures will adjust the funding rate settlement frequency of VOXELUSDT U-margin perpetual contracts at 00:00 (ET) on April 20, 2025. The funding rate settlement frequency will be adjusted from once every four hours to once every two hours.
Binance adjusts VOXEL contract funding rate settlement frequency to hourly
According to Binance’s announcement, starting from 14:00 on April 20, 2025 (Beijing time), the funding rate settlement frequency of the VOXELUSDT perpetual contract will be adjusted from once every two hours to once every hour, and the upper and lower limits of the funding rate will be maintained at ±2.00%.
Binance changes the settlement frequency of NKN and BROCCOLI contract funding rates to every 4 hours
According to Binance’s announcement, starting from 16:00 (Beijing time) on April 20, 2025, the funding rate settlement frequency of NKNUSDT and BROCCOLIF3BUSDT perpetual contracts will be adjusted from once every 8 hours to once every 4 hours, and the upper and lower limits of the funding rate will remain at ±2.00%.
On-chain data
According to Cointelegraph, the on-chain analysis platform CryptoQuant warned in its Quicktake blog post that the Bitcoin market is about to be shaken. Analyst Mignolet disclosed that data showed that about 170,000 BTC were being transferred from the group that held for 3 to 6 months. The behavior of these short-term holders may cause the current calm BTC price to not last long, which usually indicates that major fluctuations are coming. In contrast, long-term holders only move about 529 BTC per day, highlighting short-term fear or profit-taking, while long-term beliefs remain intact.
According to ai_9684xtpa monitoring, the whale that spent $16.41 million to build a position in PNUT&ai16z&arc has accumulated a loss of $9.98 million, with its assets shrinking by more than 60%.
PNUT: It cost $9.12 million to open a position at a cost of $0.3448. It was closed two weeks ago with a loss of $4.975 million.
ai16z: spent $5.6 million to open a position, cost $0.7447, and currently has a floating loss of $4.58 million;
arc: Spent $2.77 million to open a position at a cost of $0.2914. The position was liquidated two months ago with a loss of $426,000.
According to previous analysis, the address may belong to Galaxy Digital, but it is not yet possible to confirm whether it is the market maker of the three tokens.
According to Ai Yi’s monitoring, five wallets suspected to belong to the same institution or whale invested a total of 1,920 BNB in the early days of SKYAI’s opening, and have now made a floating profit of approximately $8.913 million, with a return rate of up to 784%. SKYAI’s current market value is approximately $65.47 million, and the official said that it will gradually airdrop tokens to user addresses in the order of BNB transfers during the pre-sale period.
According to Cointelegraph, London investment company Abraxas Capital has increased its holdings of about 2,949 BTC in the past four days, worth more than $250 million. Analysis found that despite the continued increase in holdings by whales and institutional investors, the sharp fluctuations in medium-term Bitcoin holders (who hold Bitcoin for an average of three to six months) have raised concerns about volatility. Analyst Mignolet disclosed data showing that about 170,000 BTC are being transferred out of the group that holds them for 3 to 6 months. The behavior of these short-term holders may cause the current calm BTC price to not last long, which usually indicates that major fluctuations are about to occur.
Viewpoint
According to CoinDesk, 21Shares released a report stating that based on an analysis of historical trends and current market signals, Bitcoin is expected to reach $138,555 by the end of 2025. Bitcoin's response to industry and macro shocks shows that investor confidence is mature, and rising adoption in high-inflation economies reinforces Bitcoin's hedging narrative. On-chain data and liquidity trends indicate that the market is in a consolidation phase rather than a peak.
21Shares added that the forecast of $138,555 would represent a 64% increase from current price levels, though Bitcoin could still pull back to closer to $77,000, but broader indicator levels point to continued growth.
According to Cointelegraph, Glassnode data shows that Bitcoin whales are still in a strong accumulation zone. Currently, large holders (whales and sharks) holding more than 100-1,000 Bitcoins are absorbing Bitcoin at the fastest rate in history. The current absorption of this group has exceeded 300% of the annual issuance of Bitcoin. At the same time, the amount of Bitcoin held by exchanges continues to decline, and the annual absorption rate has dropped to -200%, indicating that investors prefer long-term holding or self-custody.
In addition, the trend accumulation score of addresses holding more than 10,000 BTC is about 0.7, indicating that it is still in a strong accumulation state. Technical analysis shows that Bitcoin has broken out of the multi-month descending wedge pattern. If the current trend continues, the price may exceed $100,000 in May. $88,800 is the key resistance level to reverse the market structure. If it fails to break through, the bulls may not be able to continue to maintain a strong momentum.
Opinion: If Trump fires Fed Chairman Powell, it would set a very bad precedent
According to Cointelegraph, Anthony Pompliano, founder and CEO of Professional Capital Management, said that if Trump fired Fed Chairman Powell, it would set a very bad precedent, especially considering the real motives behind it. He explained that although the Fed's original intention was to operate independently and had made mistakes, tit-for-tat was not the right approach. Anthony Pompliano emphasized that he is not a fan of the Fed. He previously said that Bitcoin holders are one of the first large-scale groups to see through the problems in US economic data and seize financial opportunities for upside through holding coins and other means.
Important data
Data: cbBTC circulation supply exceeds 33,000
According to Dune data, the circulation supply of cbBTC, the wrapped Bitcoin launched by Coinbase, has reached 33,038 pieces, with a current market value of approximately US$2.81 billion. The market share of cbBTC in wrapped Bitcoin has risen to nearly 20%, while the market share of wBTC has dropped to 75.7%.
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 1.42% to 123.23 T, setting a new record high
According to CloverPool data, the Bitcoin network completed a new round of difficulty adjustment at 17:13:37 (block height 893,088) on April 19, 2025, with the difficulty value increased by 1.42% to 123.23T, setting a new historical peak. The current average computing power of the Bitcoin network has climbed to 888.37 EH/s, and the next difficulty adjustment is expected to be carried out in about 13 days and 21 hours.
