CME Group announced today that it plans to launch XRP futures on May 19, pending regulatory review. Market participants will have the option to trade micro contracts (2,500 XRP) and larger contracts (50,000 XRP). CME's XRP futures will be cash-settled and based on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange CF XRP-USD Reference Rate, which serves as a daily reference rate for the XRP USD price, calculated at 4:00 pm London time each day. XRP futures will join the company's suite of crypto products, which includes Bitcoin and Ethereum futures and options, as well as the recently launched SOL futures.

The re-staking protocol Ether.fi announced its plan to add banking services to make it a new DeFi bank. The platform application will integrate traditional banking services with crypto functions, supporting users to use fiat currency for daily financial operations such as bill payments and salary payments, while retaining its core re-staking product - users can obtain liquid staking tokens (LST) by staking ETH and obtain additional income in the DeFi ecosystem.

This article starts with the logic behind Trump’s tariff policy, looks forward to the ideas of a new round of blockchain entrepreneurship under macro-turmoil, and explores how the entry of traditional capital can bring reassessment opportunities to the crypto industry.

According to a report by CCTV.com citing the Wall Street Journal on the 23rd, senior US officials revealed that the Trump administration is considering multiple options. In the first option, the tariff rate on Chinese goods may be reduced to about 50%-65%. The second option is called the "tiered option", in which the US will classify goods imported from China into so-called "non-threat to US national security" and so-called "strategic goods to US national interests". US media said that in the "tiered option", the US will impose a 35% tariff on the first category of goods and a tariff rate of at least 100% on the second category of goods. White House Press Secretary Levitt said that Trump's position on tariffs on China "has not softened."

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson questioned the long-term development of Ethereum in an AMA event on Wednesday, believing that the blockchain may not survive in the next 10-15 years. The Ethereum co-founder pointed out three major structural flaws: wrong economic model, virtual machine design and consensus mechanism, and criticized the Layer2 solution for becoming a "parasitic system" that failed to solve the core expansion problem and instead extracted the value of the main chain. Although Ethereum currently still maintains the largest locked volume (TVL), Hoskinson likens its situation to former technology giants MySpace and BlackBerry, predicting that users will gradually migrate to other ecosystems, especially the Bitcoin DeFi system.

Theo, a quantitative trading startup, has completed a $20 million financing. The platform is committed to providing ordinary investors with the returns of strategies that originally belonged to high-frequency trading companies. The company was co-founded by former Optiver traders Abhi Pingle and TK Kwon. In March 2024, it received a $4.5 million seed round of financing led by Manifold Trading, and in April 2025, it received an additional investment of $15.5 million led by Hack VC and Anthos Capital. Other investors include Flowdesk, Selini Capital, and individual investors from institutions such as Citadel and JPMorgan Chase.

Reconstructing the IP management system in the AI era.

Binance will convert the pre-market trading of INITUSDT U-margined perpetual contracts to the standard version of INITUSDT U-margined perpetual contracts at 19:00 (ET) on April 24, 2025. The transition period may be up to 1 hour. During the transition period, INITUSDT perpetual trading and existing positions will not be affected. In addition, Binance Finance, One-click Coin Buying, Flash Exchange Trading Platform, and Leverage will launch Initia (INIT).

Hong Kong Asia Holdings (01723.HK) announced that it will place up to 3.272 million new shares, equivalent to 0.81% of the enlarged share capital; the placement price is HK$4.01, a discount of 19.8% from the closing price of the previous trading day (23rd). The company will also issue convertible notes with a total principal amount of HK$5,237.76, with a term of three years and no interest. Based on the initial conversion price of HK$5 per convertible share, the total number of convertible shares to be allotted and issued due to the full exercise of the conversion rights attached to the convertible notes is 10.4755 million shares, equivalent to approximately 2.53% of the enlarged share capital. The above-mentioned placement of new shares and issuance of convertible notes raised a total of HK$65.4983 million, and the net proceeds of HK$64.1883 million are intended to be used as general working capital; as well as to seize potential investment opportunities that may arise in the future, explore opportunities for cryptocurrency investment and Web 3.0, or acquire digital assets such as Bitcoin.

According to data provided by @ai_9684xtpa, the TOP10 VIP whales of the TRUMP dinner hold a total of 1.65 million TRUMPs, worth about $20.49 million. At present, these whales have accumulated floating losses of $1.26 million due to the inability to obtain the true cost. The data shows that only two whales used the earliest position building address, and the rest withdrew coins from the exchange or built positions on the chain after learning about the dinner. Among them, the TOP1 whale is suspected to belong to Wintermute. It is reported that the TOP25 coin holders will be invited to an exclusive reception before the dinner and have dinner with Trump. Earlier news, $TRUMP Gala dinner details: If canceled or Trump is absent, holders will receive a limited NFT.