Bitcoin Dominance at Multi-Year Highs as BTC Flirts With $85K (Market Watch)

New York, April 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On April 15, Bitcoin Thunderbolt officially launched. It’s a native upgrade, jointly initiated by Satoshi-era miners, Bitcoin whales, and early contributors including the Nubit team. Thunderbolt is a soft fork to the Bitcoin base layer, and marks the most significant technical shift in the last 10 years. At its core are two key upgrades: UTXO Bundling, which dramatically boosts onchain throughput by compressing transaction data; and the OP_CAT feature, a long-awaited opcode that brings native programmability to Bitcoin.

The launch has already drawn massive attention from the Bitcoin community. Many long-time users and miners say it fixes problems that have been holding Bitcoin back. “I’ve been following this technology upgrade since last year,” commented a veteran Bitcoin miner with nearly 10 years of experience. “I honestly didn’t expect it to happen this fast. A real soft fork, live and running, it feels like a new era for Bitcoin has just begun.”

To access Thunderbolt, users need a Boosting Code, a special invite distributed through eligible partners and communities. Boosting Codes are tied to rare Bitcoin rewards and early-bird access. Nubit, as one of the core contributors, is actively coordinating early access through its community channels, where users can also apply for Boosting Codes. The first round is already claimed, and future waves are expected to be even more competitive.

As more people join, Thunderbolt is quickly becoming the official Bitcoin standard, contributed by the collective effort of miners, Bitcoin core developers, and early adopters who believe in Bitcoin’s future. Transactions are instant, and the network runs smoothly on top of Bitcoin Core. Bitcoin feels faster, easier, and more ready for real-world use cases.

The upgrade is also drawing strong interest from institutions. One early success story comes from a small, retailer-focused mining pool that was counted by Nubit as a test partner for Bitcoin Thunderbolt. After integrating, its hashrate jumped from 800 TH/s to 16.97 EH/s, placing it among the top 10 pools globally. As adoption grows, Bitcoin Thunderbolt is setting a new technical standard for how Bitcoin is used, built on, and scaled.

As more people join, Thunderbolt is quickly becoming the official Bitcoin standard, contributed by the collective effort of miners, Bitcoin core developers, and early adopters who believe in Bitcoin’s future. Transactions are instant, and the network runs smoothly on top of Bitcoin Core. It’s a groundbreaking shift from the slow, clunky experience many users were used to. Now, Bitcoin feels faster, easier, and more ready for real-world use cases.

Christopher Stiff

hedguecrypto@gmail.com

Many people believed that XRP's recent spike above the pivotal psychological level of $2 was a possible breakout signal. The most recent retracement, though back below the 100 EMA, raises the possibility that the bullish momentum was premature. Weakening indicators are emerging as the asset currently trades at $2.11 after being rejected by the 100-day exponential moving average. 

The deteriorating volume profile is among the most obvious warning signs. Due to a lack of strong buyer follow-through, trading volume has continuously trended lower since the spike that lifted XRP above the $2 threshold. It implies that the rally was primarily speculative and unsupported by long-term capital inflow or investor confidence. The approaching pre-death cross, a technical signal created when the 50 EMA is poised to cross below the 100 EMA, is contributing to the bearish mood. Chart by TradingView">

It still indicates growing bearishness in the short- to midterm trend, albeit not as severely as a 50/200 EMA death cross may. When XRP was last in the vicinity of such a formation, it entered a protracted period of consolidation. On-chain data further exacerbates the issue. Beginning on April 13, there was a sharp decline in the number of transactions on the XRP Ledger, with the number of transactions approaching zero.

This type of network activity collapse poses serious issues for a utility-driven token such as XRP, which relies on high transaction throughput to support its value and usefulness in international transactions. XRP is currently in a risky position. Support is located around $2.00 and $1.95, while any sustained recovery requires breaking the resistance at $2.24-$2.25 with great conviction and volume. 

XRP may be about to confirm a bearish trend continuation, which would push sentiment lower and trigger the pre-death cross scenario unless there is a noticeable volume reversal and a rebound above the 100 EMA.

Bitcoin is holding down the fort as the US trade war rages on into the third week of April.

• BTC price action attempts to overcome a long-term resistance trend line without success as trade war concerns dictate traders’ expectations.

• Tariffs are the key macroeconomic topic of the week as risk assets brace for potential surprise headlines.

• Bitcoin ETFs lost almost $800 million in a week, while Strategy indicates it has purchased the dip.

• Despite tariff pressures, the weakness of the US dollar could be a blessing in disguise for Bitcoin and risky assets.

• Global M2 money supply is at an all-time high and rising — will Bitcoin follow history and replicate its past?

Bulls battle a key BTC price resistance line

With traders on the lookout for tariff-related volatility this week, BTC price analysis is zooming out.

closed last week up 6.7%, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirms.

TL;DR

‘You Are Already Late’

The official resolution of the years-long lawsuit between Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seems just around the corner. Several days ago, the two partiesfileda joint motion to hold the appeal and cross-appeal on their case, while the company will not submit its appellate brief on April 16 (as previously expected).

This wasn’t considered a big surprise and triggered little-to-no price volatility for Ripple’s native token, XRP. After all, CEO Brad Garlinghouse previouslyannouncedthat the regulator had dropped its appeal against the firm, describing the move as “a resounding victory.”

The final agreement now depends on the Commission’s approval and could be just a matter of time. If given the green light, the SEC and Ripple will be able to finalize the settlement terms and close the lawsuit that has been ongoing since December 2020.

One X user who recently touched upon the potential end of the case is All Things XRP. They warned the community that closing this chapter might not act as a price catalyst for Ripple’s cross-border token:

“You are already late. That’s priced in.”

They claimed a substantial rally could occur after other potential developments surrounding Ripple, such as inking important deals with other entities. Over the past months, there has been rising speculation that the company plans to shake hands with Cardano.

Most recently, Ripple spent over $1.2 billion to acquire prime brokerage giant Hidden Road, which many analysts believe could be a game-changer for XRP’s future price trajectory.

Another factor that may play a role is the possible approval of a spot XRP ETF in the US, which would enhance the asset’s legitimacy among institutions and perhaps increase their adoption levels.

Well-known companies racing to roll out such an investment vehicle include Grayscale, Bitwise, 21Shares, Franklin Templeton, and others. According to Polymarket, the product’s odds of seeing the light of day before the end of 2025 are just south of 80%.XRP Price Outlook

Ripple’s native cryptocurrency currently hovers at around $2.12, which represents a solid 28% increase on a weekly scale.

Analysts remain optimistic that a further pump could be on the way. Ali Martinez recently assumed that XRP trades within an ascending triangle, with key resistance at $2.22. He believes a breakout above that level might ignite a rally to as high as $2.40.

For their part, CRYPTOWZRD suggested that a jump beyond $2.2050 “should offer a further upside move” and push XRP to $2.33 or higher. On the contrary, the analyst argued that $2.070 is “the next bearish location.”

One of the most-talked-about events of the weekend in the broader crypto ecosystem was the massive crash of Mantra (OM), a Real-World Asset (RWA) protocol. Taking to its official X page, Binance exchange has explained the real reason behind the project’s failures. This update was necessary as some community members tried to indict Binance for the project's failure.

Binance on what crashed Mantra

As Binance exchange revealed, Mantra crashed because of cross-exchange liquidations. The top trading platform noted that it had implemented a number of risk control measures, including reducing leverage levels regarding the OM token.

The trading platform said it has been issuing warnings since January regarding changes in the Mantra OM token's tokenomics. This flag appears on the project’s spot trading page, designed to give users a direct update on what to expect.

In just about an hour, the price of OM dropped by over 90%, going from $6.31 to a low of $0.7 at press time. The token also recorded a massive liquidation of $74.52 million in the past 24 hours, displacing Ethereum from second place.

As part of its update, Binance said it is still monitoring the situation with Mantra and will take appropriate actions to protect its community.

Warnings never stop

The digital currency ecosystem has many fraudulent entities, which has forced top projects like Binance, Shiba Inu and Ripple Labs to always issue warnings to their communities.

Many are still getting scammed. While the Mantra team was accused of controlling 90% of the OM token supply, sources of scams generally differ per project.

One of the most common avenues to defraud people is using AI deepfakes to mimic a known project or personality. Ripple executives and Charles Hoskinson, Cardano’s founder, are known to raise alarms against these trends.

By Elsa Ohlen

The direction of Bitcoin and smaller cryptocurrencies was mixed at the start of the week but lacked any significant moves, even as a rise in stocks followed fresh tariff news from the White House.

Bitcoin was trading flat at $84,424 over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. It held steady over the weekend, ranging from about $83,000 and $85,000, as President Donald Trump announced an exemption from tariffs for smartphones and computers.

Ether and XRP, the world's second and fourth largest cryptos by market value, also held relatively steady. XRP was down 1.5% to $2.12 while Ether rose 0.7% to 1,625.

Futures tracking U.S. benchmark indexes rose, with the S&P 500 up 1.1% early Monday.

"With Trump's 'on-again-off-again' tariff threats, the market is starting to feel 'headline fatigue,' and realizing that he isn't going to destroy the wealth of his support base in the long run. The result is that investors are comfortable accumulating BTC [bitcoin] above the $73k technical support," wrote John Glover, chief investment officer of Ledn, a digital asset financial services company.

Glover continues to watch for a level below $73,000 as it could open up a rapid downward move to $62,500. The upside target, however, is about $133,000, "so I really like the risk/reward for those buying BTC in the mid-$70k's," Glover wrote.

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com

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