Crypto rallied as the Federal Reserve held rates steady, sparking relief across risk assets. Bitcoin jumped 3% to $85.7k, with a brief surge toward $88k+ before pulling back, while Ethereum gained 4% to $2005 and Solana led majors, up 6% to $134. Sentiment improved as the Fear and Greed Index returned to 'Neutral', with BTC reclaiming its 200-day SMA, a key technical level.

Top performers include UNI, S, XRP, BONK, and WLD. Notably, XRP surged 10% after reports the European Commission will drop its case. Momentum grew as Bitnomial announced plans to launch regulated XRP Futures in the US, marking another institutional win for the token. ETF flows were mixed, with BTC ETFs gaining $12 million while ETH ETFs saw $12 million in outflows.

Donald Trump is set to deliver a major update on his crypto strategy today, as his SPAC seeks $179 million in new funding with crypto as a key focus. Meanwhile, Arthur Hayes declared QT over and called $77k the BTC bottom, adding to the bullish sentiment.

Pakistan is moving to legalize crypto, further expanding global adoption. Kraken announced a $1.5 billion acquisition of NinjaTrader, signaling growing interest in retail trading platforms. Elsewhere, Hyperliquid will launch staking tiers on April 30, ETH sunsets its ‘Holesky’ testnet in September, and the first Solana Futures ETF begins US trading today.

MEXC unveiled a hybrid CEX-DEX platform, while Privy raised $15 million to enhance onboarding rules. In regulatory moves, the Gotbit founder agreed to forfeit $23 million in crypto as fines.

Macro:

Macro & General
NASDAQ rose 1% to 17.8k, while Gold hit a new ATH at $3049. Stocks rebounded as the Fed left rates unchanged, though the dot plot still shows 50bps in rate cuts for 2025. Powell reiterated that higher, transitory inflation remains the base case.

Despite the bounce, the Magnificent 7 stocks remain down YTD. Trump weighed in, urging the Fed to cut rates, though May rate cut odds stay low at 17%. Flows revealed Europe saw its largest stock inflows in a decade, while retail investors built their largest equity allocation ever.

X (Twitter) valuations returned to $44 billion in secondary sales, and Europol warned AI could control criminal networks. Nvidia’s CEO pushed back against Deepseek R1 fears, and the company announced the largest US chip manufacturing Capex in history — even as a board member sold 17.5% of his stake.

Chad:Fi

Fartcoin, KET, and ARC dominated degens’ attention, with Fartcoin hitting $400 million and continuing to lead AI meme coins. Pudgy Penguins and Captainz NFTs stayed hot, while the Definitive airdrop went live. Taproot Wizards opened their whitelist, and Finalbosu revealed mint details.