Bitcoin has reclaimed $96,000, a level not seen since late November 2024, driven by robust institutional demand and easing macroeconomic fears. Bitcoin (BTC) rallied nearly 20% from its April low of $79,000, fueled by $381 million in ETF inflows and…

Bitcoin surges past $96k as institutional appetite grows

Aztec Network, the Ethereum layer-2 protocol focused on programmable privacy, 
has officially launched its public testnet. According to a May 1 press release 
shared with crypto.news, the launch marks a key milestone in Aztec’s eight- 
year journey to bring stronger data…

Ethereum layer-2 Aztec Network launches public testnet to advance on-chain privacy

PI Network may be setting up for a bullish move as key signals hint at a trend 
reversal. A classic divergence, strong support, and a defined trading channel 
are shaping the next move. PI Network’s (PI) price action is starting…

PI Network shows bullish divergence: is a reversal to $0.97 in play?

Ethena Labs will bring its USDe synthetic dollar and its staking counterpart, 
tsUSDe, to The Open Network (TON) blockchain, unlocking access to dollar- 
denominated savings for Telegram’s 1 billion users through self-custodial 
wallets starting in May 2025. TON Ecosystem to Support Ethena’s USDe for 
Dollar Savings and Staking Through a collaboration with the TON Foundation, 
USDe […]

Ethena Labs to Integrate USDe Stablecoin With TON Blockchain for Telegram Users

A group of developers within the Ethereum ecosystem, operating independently 
of the Ethereum Foundation, have announced Ethereum R1 &#8212; a layer-2 (L2) 
scaling solution for the Ethereum network that does not include a native 
token.
According to the announcement, the project relies entirely on donations, does 
not have venture funding, and does not have any pre-mined token allocations or 
a governance token. The project&#8217;s team wrote in a May 1 X post:
&gt; &#8220;General-purpose L2s should be commodities &#8212; simple, replaceable, and free 
&gt; from centralized dependencies or risky governance. Ethereum R1 is our answer 
&gt; to that call &#8212; the rollup grounded in credible neutrality, 
&gt; decentralization, and censorship resistance.&#8221;
&#8220;Most L2s today are acting more like new L1s than an Ethereum scaling solution 
&#8212; private allocations, opaque governance, and centralized control,&#8221; the 
developers continued.
The announcement points to increasing concerns within the Ethereum community 
regarding the current direction of many layer-2 scaling solutions, which some 
view as potentially misaligned with the interests of the base layer
 _**Related:**__**Ethereum community members propose new fee structure for the 
app layer**_
## Ethereum&#8217;s L2-centric approach: unique value proposition or exploitation?
Ethereum&#8217;s Dencun upgrade in March 2024 significantly lowered fees for its 
layer-2 networks. By September, revenue on the Ethereum base layer collapsed 
by 99%.
As a result, transaction costs on the Ethereum network base layer dropped to a 
five-year low of roughly $0.16 per transaction in April 2025, due to a lack of 
demand for block space on the base layer.
Ethereum&#8217;s transaction fees are determined by demand and network traffic &#8212; 
higher demand and network traffic translate into higher fees for the base 
layer and more revenue.
_Ethereum &#8216;s base layer revenue collapsed in Q1 2025. Source: __Token 
Terminal_
While critics continue to argue that this provides perverse incentives for 
layer-2 networks to grow at the expense of the base layer, protocols continue 
to argue that Ethereum&#8217;s many layer-2 networks are a feature, not a bug.
Anurag Arjun, co-founder of the unified chain abstraction solution Avail, told 
Cointelegraph that Ethereum&#8217;s layer-2 approach gives users a virtually 
unlimited number of high-throughput chains to choose from, as opposed to the 
singular one-size-fits-all approach employed by monolithic blockchain 
protocols.
_**Magazine:**__**Ethereum is destroying the competition in the $16.1T TradFi 
tokenization race**_

Devs introduce Ethereum R1 layer-2 scaling solution

XRP fell below $2.30 this week, wiping out all the gains registered in last 
week&#8217;s short-lived rally. The cryptocurrency, which had risen 8% from $2.06 to 
$2.28 last week, has now lost 3.5% from Monday&#8217;s opening price and 7% from its 
weekly high of $2.36. Related Reading: Only XRP? Expert Claims That’s All You 
Need To Succeed Market Expert Forecasts Potential 30% Fall To $1.55 A 
cryptocurrency analyst, Block Bull, forecasts that XRP might drop much deeper 
in the near future. From the analyst&#8217;s April 29 X post, XRP could not break 
the resistance level at the top of a bull flag pattern on the daily charts. 
This technical failure may push the price to $1.55, which would be &#8220;annoying 
as hell&#8221;, according to Block Bull &#8211; a 30% fall from the high of the pattern &#8211; 
and 28.6% from current levels. Block Bull informed followers this possible 
price fall would be brief and could prove to be the perfect entry point for 
investors. The analyst intimated big money players tend to use such downturns 
in markets to accumulate holdings at bargain rates. Likely $XRP is going to 
fall 30% along with $XLM that Ive just posted. bottom of bull flag and fib 
level will be a great entry $1.55 (annoying as hell) bleeding the average guy 
and this is why the rich get richer cos theyre the only ones able to afford to 
HODL pic.twitter.com/pG3h30Swks — 📈BLOCK BULL📈 (@TheBlockBull) April 29, 2025 
XRP Not Alone As Bitcoin And Ethereum Also Struggle The decline pressure on 
XRP is in line with weaker trends in major cryptocurrencies overall. Bitcoin 
is struggling to remain above the $95,000 threshold while Ethereum has fallen 
below $1,800. That this is a market-wide correction and not a specific XRP 
problem is indicated. Competing Analysis Provides More Optimistic Forecast Not 
everyone who watches the market sees the dismal outlook. Others noted that 
while declining 6% in two days from $2.28 to $2.14, XRP has been able to 
remain above important support levels on shorter timeframes. They said that if 
XRP can hold support at $2.14, the price may bounce back to $2.24 or higher in 
short order. More positive predictions even indicate that XRP could hit $5 in 
a month, a new all-time high for the cryptocurrency. Related Reading: Code 
Wars: Cardano Claims The Crown From Ethereum In Core Development Liquidation 
Data Shows Market Imbalance Meanwhile, latest trading statistics by Coinglass 
indicate a shocking disparity in market positions. Within 24 hours, nearly $14 
million of long positions (bets on the price going up) were liquidated, while 
just $1.48 million worth of short positions were sold. This almost 1000% gap 
indicates the majority of traders were placing bets on price rises when the 
market started going into decline. The sudden sell-off of such a large number 
of long positions had a cascade effect, dropping prices even quicker. Open 
interest also declined by 4%, indicating traders were closing out as 
uncertainty mounts. As of the most recent trading figures, XRP stands at 
$2.20, down 1.14% since the beginning of the day. Investors now have 
conflicting messages regarding whether to anticipate further declines or 
perhaps a possible rebound in the coming days. Featured image from Unsplash, 
chart from TradingView