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First Mover Americas: BTC Dominance Increases, Binance to Re-Enter India
The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for April 18, 2024.
Updated Apr 18, 2024, 12:20 p.m. Published Apr 18, 2024, 12:18 p.m.
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This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter, putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.
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Bitcoin has become more dominant in the crypto market because of the impending halving and risk aversion in the broader market. The largest cryptocurrency by market value was trading below $61,400 during Asian hours on Thursday, according to CoinDesk Indices data, as the sell-off in risk assets, fueled by difficult macroeconomic conditions, raged. The CoinDesk 20, a measure of the world’s most liquid digital assets, fell 3.3% to 2,125. While bitcoin might be having a challenging moment, layer-1 blockchains and altcoins are doing worse. Top layer-1 tokens like Solana’s are down over 20% in the past week. Avalanche's (AVAX) has fallen 26%, Cardano's 23% and Filecoin 30%.
Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange that was removed from India some months ago, is looking to re-enter the country by paying a $2 million fine, the Economic Times reported on Thursday. Earlier this year, Binance and some other exchanges were removed from the Apple Store in India after India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) sent them compliance "show cause" notices. OKX, KuCoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global and Bitfinex were the other firms that were sent notices at the time.
USDe holders should monitor the project’s reserve fund to avoid risks related to the potential of a negative funding rate, according to data provider CryptoQuant. Ethena Labs, the firm behind the stablecoin, currently offers an annual yield of 17.2%, a rolling average over the past seven days, to investors that stake USDe or other stablecoins on the platform. The yield is created from a tokenized “cash and carry” trade that involves purchasing an asset whilst simultaneously shorting that asset to rake in funding payments. Funding is a way of keeping the asset prices on derivatives exchanges close to the underlying assets. In a bullish market, holders of long positions pay short positions and the opposite is true in a bearish market.
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- Past bitcoin halvings have led to substantial price gains for bitcoin in the subsequent 12 months.
- The chart shows prices soared 1000%, after the first halving, 200% after the second and 600% following the third.
- Source: Glassnode
- Lyllah Ledesma
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Crypto selloff accelerates, sending bitcoin back to $91,000
Strategy is an outperformer following MSCI's decision not to exclude the stock from its indices, but any positive reaction was muted by the decline in BTC.
What to know:
- Crypto markets extended overnight losses, with bitcoin now down 3% over the past 24 hours to just above $91,000.
- The CoinDesk 20 Index dropped nearly 4%, led by an 8% decline in XRP, which had been one of the big gainers in early 2026.
- Digital asset treasury stocks are seeing little boost from last night's MSCI decision not to exclude Strategy and other DATs from its indexes.
