DOJ announces shift in digital asset enforcement priorities. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memorandum to departmental employees on April 7 that disbands the DOJ’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and states that the DOJ “is not a digital assets regulator https://awmopen.com/.” The memorandum shifts DOJ enforcement priorities from “regulation by prosecution” by “target virtual currency exchanges, missing and tumbling services, and offline wallets for the acts of their end users.” The shift changes the priorities to “investigations and prosecutions that involve conduct victimizing investors, including embezzlement and misappropriation of customers’ funds on exchanges, digital asset investment scams, fake digital asset development projects…, hacking of exchanges and decentralized autonomous organizations resulting in the theft of funds, and exploiting vulnerabilities in smart contracts,” and the use of digital assets in furtherance of unlawful conduct, such as human trafficking, cartels, fentanyl production, terrorism, and smuggling. The memorandum orders all ongoing investigations inconsistent with this directive to be closed.
Throughout April 2025, Bitcoin exhibited significant price swings, fluctuating between $76,000 and $95,000. After hitting a low of $76,000 on April 8, BTC rebounded to $88,500, then peaked at $91,740 on April 22—its highest level since March.
Beyond the large-cap assets, many crypto investors remain focused on blockchain-based artificial intelligence (AI) or decentralized AI (deAI). For example, according to data provider Kaito, AI-related projects accounted for about one-third of crypto industry “mindshare” (social media attention) over the last three months (Exhibit 5). The Bittensor ecosystem in particular has been expanding, driving outperformance of its TAO token. Bittensor now has over 90 active subnets, and subnet tokens have an aggregate circulating market capitalization of $580 million. Other notable crypto/AI developments in April included the first successful decentralized training of a 32bn parameter model by Prime Intellect (a collaboration between Flock.io and Alibaba Cloud), and Nous Research raising $50mm in fundraising led by Paradigm to support decentralized model training on Solana.
This aside, Cardano’s prospects are enhanced by other aspects, such as introducing an ADA Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF). A recent Crypto News Flash report suggests that the prediction platform Polymarket now offers a 55% probability of a Cardano ETF being approved by the end of 2025, up a 45% bet from a similar bet placed earlier this year.
This is because of the positive regulatory policies that Donald Trump has put in placed in his administration. Paul Atkins, a pro-crypto voice, recently took over as SEC Chair, with him in office, the environment for digital asset innovation appears to be on greener pastures. Atkins has expressed intentions to introduce clearer regulations for the crypto industry, potentially paving the way for new financial instruments like an ADA ETF.
Cardano is a proof-of-stake (PoS) currency, which means that blocks on the Cardano blockchain are not mined using hashing algorithms like Bitcoin. Rather, coins are earned by “staking” existing coins on the network or by running a master node.
Crypto intelligence tracker DefiLlama data shows that Cardano’s chain DEX trading volume has constantly fallen since early December and currently reads $3.06 million on Tuesday. This fall in volume signaled decreased user activity and liquidity in the ADA blockchain, indicating a bearish outlook.
Market data shows institutional involvement has intensified, with on-chain analytics revealing holders controlling between 100 million and 1 billion ADA accumulating over 40 million tokens in just two days. This whale activity coincides with ADA’s breakout from a descending channel pattern, suggesting potential for further upward movement despite short-term volatility.Technical Analysis Highlights
Despite XRP’s remarkable 315% rally over the past year, the token has now faded into uncertainty, as it struggles to maintain momentum in 2025. Once driven by hopes of regulatory clarity and renewed institutional interest, XRP has dropped 20% over the past month.
In August 1971, President Richard Nixon announced 10% across-the-board tariffs on U.S. imports and ended the convertibility of Dollars into gold. Allies were not consulted in advance, even though the actions ended the multilateral Bretton Woods exchange rate system in place since World War II. The so-called “Nixon Shock” was followed by extensive negotiations over the next four months, culminating in the Smithsonian Agreement in December 1971, in which G10 nations agreed to revalue their currencies versus the Dollar in exchange for tariff relief. While the tariffs were ultimately short-lived, the events changed global trade flows and had long-lasting implications for financial markets (Exhibit 1).
What is the most likely outcome? Since the start of the year, BTC has been either in the ‘Still Cheap’ or ‘HODL’ zones. In addition, both breaking above local resistance and even retesting the asset’s all-time high (ATH) price of roughly $108,000 would place it firmly within the ‘HODL!’ zone. Therefore, the $95,164 to $125,174 range appears to be the most realistic forecast for April 30.
In particular, Claude 3.5 Sonnet noted that Bitcoin’s 50-day simple moving average (SMA) was approaching its 200-day SMA. Should the shorter average cross below the longer one, a death cross chart pattern will have formed — and it usually signals the beginning of steep moves to the downside.
Bitcoin purchases by public companies have been one consistent source of demand. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), which pioneered corporate Bitcoin investing, purchased another 25k Bitcoin (~$2.4bn) during April. Strategy now holds roughly 3% of the circulating supply valued at more than $50bn. Separately, a consortium including Tether, Bitfinex, Softbank, and Cantor Fitzgerald announced the creation of Twenty One Capital, a new company initially capitalized with 42,000 Bitcoin. At that size Twenty One Capital would have the third-largest Bitcoin portfolio among public companies, after Strategy and Bitcoin miner MARA. The company will go public through a SPAC (special-purpose acquisition company), which currently trades as Cantor Equity Partners (ticker: CEP).
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