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CoinDesk Weekly Recap: EigenLayer, Kraken, Coinbase, AWS
Controversies, job cuts, too many lobbyists. A lot happened despite a relatively quiet week on the markets.
Apr 18, 2025, 7:15 p.m.
What to know:
- Bitcoin remained stable around $84k, while the CoinDesk 20 index rose by about 4% over the week.
- A tech issue at AWS caused much of the crypto market to go offline, highlighting vulnerabilities in the decentralized economy.
- OKX plans to establish a regional headquarters in California after settling with the SEC for $500 million.
Following last week’s tariff-caused drama, this was a relatively quiet week in crypto. Bitcoin remained stable around $84k. The CoinDesk 20, which tracks about 80% of the market, was up about 4% in the last seven days — i.e. nothing historic.
Still, plenty happened. On Tuesday, much of crypto went offline because of a tech issue at AWS, showing how the decentralized economy isn’t always that decentralized. Shaurya Malwa reported the news early. Bitcoin and other major cryptos slipped on bad news for Nvidia, Omkar Godbole reported.
Mantra, a project focused on real world assets, lost 90% of its value. Explanations varied (the company said it was due to “force liquidations” exchanges).
Meanwhile, EigenLayer, a restaking leader, rolled out a “slashing” feature meant to address security concerns (Sam Kessler reported). OKX, a major exchange, announced plans to set up in California following a $500 million settlement with the SEC over claims it operated previously in the U.S. without a money transmitter license. Cheyenne Ligon had that story.
In less good news, Kraken laid off “hundreds” of staff ahead of an expected IPO. And Coinbase became embroiled in a “front running controversy” linked to a curiously named token on its Base L2. Privacy advocates reacted with alarm to rumors that Binance was about to delist Zcash following a long decline in the value of privacy coins.
In D.C. news, Jesse Hamilton reported on a new wave of crypto lobbyists flooding the capital. Some asked if there are now too many trade groups and whether they really all could be effective.
Friends With Benefits, a buzzy social club for creative technologists, launched a new program to build Web3 products for music, film, publishing and other fun activities. (I wrote that one.)
Of course, there was plenty happening in the economy and markets (Trump’s disgust for Fed chair Powell fed into the unease). But, in crypto, it was pretty much business as usual. Fortunes won, fortunes lost, fortunes deferred.
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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U.S. Hours Account for Nearly All of Bitcoin’s November Losses
BTC drifts or stabilizes during Asia trading hours, softens slightly during the European handover and then absorbs most of its losses once U.S. equity markets open.
What to know:
- Bitcoin's November selloff is primarily occurring during U.S. trading hours, aligning it more with tech stocks than with other cryptocurrencies.
- U.S. trading sessions have seen nearly a 30% decline in Bitcoin, while Asian and European sessions have remained relatively stable or slightly negative.
- The market volatility is driven by concerns over U.S. monetary policy, with both Bitcoin and tech stocks affected by expectations of Federal Reserve actions.
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