Bitcoin (BTC) is stable, trading above $70,000 as bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) total net inflow comes to $91 million. BlackRock saw inflows of $192 million on Thursday, while outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) picked up again. Almost $125 million flowed out of GBTC on Thursday, according to on-chain data. Up to Thursday, the bitcoin ETFs had reported a total weekly outflow of $227.9 million. Some industry participants say continued outflows from GBTC put selling pressure on BTC and drive down prices while others have a wait-and-see approach, highlighting that outflows are to be expected from GBTC, given its higher fee structure.

The stewards of the TON ecosystem formed a partnership with HashKey Group, the parent company of the Hong Kong-licensed crypto exchange of the same name. One of the aims of the partnership is to increase provision for Asia-Pacific users of messaging app Telegram's wallet to enter and leave the service with both fiat currencies and crypto. The TON blockchain started life as an in-house project by Telegram in 2018 and was abandoned two years later following legal action from the SEC. Members of the community then formed the TON Foundation to continue its development, with Telegram's endorsement.

Recent news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating companies associated with the Ethereum Foundation is consistent with the view that there is no more than a 50% chance of spot ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in May, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report on Thursday. The bank reiterated its view that approval of these products is unlikely next month, a position first expressed in January. The SEC must make final decisions on some ETF applications by May 23. The regulator approved spot bitcoin (BTC) ETFs in January, stirring speculation in some quarters that versions for ether, the token of the Ethereum blockchain, may follow suit. “If there is no spot ether ETF approval in May, then we assume there is going to be litigation against the SEC after May,” analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote.

Ethena Labs, a decentralized protocol centered on the yield-bearing USDe stablecoin, has polarized crypto traders in the weeks since introducing the token to the public in February over similarities to the Terra ecosystem, which imploded in 2021.

People who stake USDe for a minimum of seven days currently earn an annualized yield of about 37%, high enough to spur total value locked (TVL) on the protocol to $2.3 billion from $178 million – a 12-fold increase in just 60 days. High yield, however, is a double-edged sword and usually reflects high risk: Terra's UST paid out nearly 20% to stakers before its demise.

Unlike asset-backed stablecoins like tether (USDT) and USDC, whose value is secured against dollars or dollar-equivalents such as U.S. government debt, USDe calls itself a synthetic stablecoin with its $1 value maintained through a financial technique known as the cash-and-carry trade. The trade, which involves buying an asset and simultaneously shorting a derivative of the asset to collect the funding rate, or the difference between the two prices, is well known in traditional finance and doesn't carry directional, or delta, risk.

- Omkar Godbole