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US President Donald Trump has continued to pressure Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the committee to lower rates from the benchmark 4.25% to 4.5%. This time around, the president has gone as far as sending a handwritten note to Powell, which contained a breakdown of how other countries have lower rates, in a bid to
The post Donald Trump Calls On Fed To Lower Interest Rates To 1% appeared first on CoinGape.
Nike is under fire after a group of investors filed a class action lawsuit, accusing the sportswear giant of causing massive financial losses by shutting down RTFKT, its Web3-focused subsidiary acquired in 2021.
The investors claim Nike’s actions led to a sharp collapse in the value of Nike-branded NFTs, wiping out millions in investments.
According to court documents, Nike allegedly “rugpulled” the community by closing RTFKT and cutting off demand for the associated digital assets.
The plaintiffs argue that Nike used its brand power and marketing expertise to promote what they describe as unregistered securities before suddenly abandoning the project.
This NFT project made $168M
Nike bought it
Elon Musk and Kanye West wore their shoes
Now the collection is gone
And so are the foundersThe rise, fall, rug of RTFKT and Clone-X
(1/9) pic.twitter.com/aLnaz4kGAf
— StarPlatinum (@StarPlatinumSOL) April 24, 2025
The lawsuit claims Nike capitalized on the crypto boom to drive NFT sales. Investors purchased the NFTs hoping they would increase in value, thanks to Nike’s promotional efforts.
However, once RTFKT was dissolved, these incentives vanished. Buyers who once anticipated exclusive rewards and profitable resales saw their investments lose value almost instantly.
“Because The Nike NFTs derived their value from the success of a given promoter and project – here, Nike and its marketing efforts – investors purchased this digital asset with the hope that its value would increase in the future as the project grows in popularity based on the Nike brand,” the lawsuit stated.
The complaint highlights that promises of completing quests, unlocking limited-edition products, and opportunities for secondary sales were key motivations for purchasing the NFTs.
With the collapse of RTFKT’s operations, these incentives evaporated, leaving investors with worthless digital assets.
Adding to their argument, the plaintiffs insist that Nike NFTs qualify as securities under federal law. They claim Nike failed to register the digital assets with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or disclose the associated risks.
The investors argued that they would not have purchased the digital assets at inflated prices if they had known the true risks.
“Plaintiff and others would never have purchased the Nike NFTs at the prices they did, or at all, had they known that the Nike NFTs were unregistered securities or that Nike would cause the rug to be pulled out from under them,” the investors argued.
The plaintiffs seek a jury trial and damages exceeding $5 million for the alleged violations of consumer protection laws in New York, California, Florida, and Oregon.
Meanwhile, this lawsuit comes as investor frustrations were further amplified on April 24 when technical issues prevented the Nike-linked NFT images from displaying.
RTFKT’s head of technology, Samuel Cardillo, explained that the outage resulted from a Cloudflare contract ending earlier than expected.
“Beginning of April, the decision to stay on Cloudflare Free was (finally) approved and I started the work to move the infrastructure. Somehow this morning Cloudflare decided to move to the Free plan few days before the end of the contract which also triggered that bug in which Cloudflare refuses to stream images and videos,” Cardillo explained.
While most images have since been restored, Cardillo is now moving RTFKT’s NFT files to Arweave’s decentralized storage platform using AR Drive. This step aims to protect NFT holders from similar outages in the future.
The post Nike Faces a $5 Million Lawsuit Over Its Collapsed NFT Project RTFKT appeared first on BeInCrypto.
According to Bitfinex, Bitcoin’s (BTC) key indicators suggest that the current bull cycle may not have peaked yet, implying a potential continuation of the market rally. However, this optimistic outlook hinges on the stabilization of broader macroeconomic conditions.
The report also noted that short-term dips remain a possibility. Despite this, the broader trend appears positive, especially if Bitcoin can maintain its price above critical technical levels like $95,000.
In its latest report, Bitfinex pointed out that Bitcoin’s performance in April exceeded the average return. In April 2025, BTC posted a monthly gain of 14.08%. This was higher than its historical average of 13% and the median return of 7.3%.
“While April has traditionally been a strong seasonal month for BTC, recent years have seen more muted results, making this yearʼs performance stand out more distinctly,” the report read.
Notably, the beginning of the month was challenging for Bitcoin. President Trump’s tariff announcements triggered a sharp downturn in the price, which dropped as low as $74,501.
However, amid dollar depreciation and inflation concerns, Bitcoin found new ground. By the second half of the month, the price rallied again and recovered 32% from its previously low to local highs of $97,900.
This strong close underscored its resilience amid macroeconomic uncertainty and reflected renewed investor optimism in its future potential. On-chain data further reinforced this.
The stability in miner reserves, for instance, signaled confidence in the market. The reserves increased slightly from 1,808,315 BTC in December 2024 to 1,808,674 BTC as of May 5.
This indicated a deliberate holding strategy by miners who typically sell to cover operational costs. The behavior suggested they expect future price appreciation.
Furthermore, the Puell Multiple, an indicator measuring miner revenue relative to historical averages, remains below 2. This implied that miners do not believe the current price is a market peak.
Miners typically sell during market rallies or extremes, but their continued holding despite recent gains supports the idea that Bitcoin may have more room to grow.
“The fact that they are still holding into this recent 32 percent recovery from the April lows supports the idea that, despite recent volatility and macro uncertainty, we may not have seen the final leg of the current bull cycle,” the report stated.
While the long-term outlook remains bullish, Bitfinex underlined a critical short-term challenge for Bitcoin: reclaiming the $95,000 level.
“The $95,000 level—currently under consolidation—is a critical pivot point, acting as the lower boundary of a three-month range that defined market structure between November 2024 and February 2025,” Bitfinex noted.
According to their analysis, flipping the $95,000 level into strong support would indicate a shift in the market towards a bullish trend. Furthermore, it could set the stage for a potential test of its all-time high prices.
However, BTC’s failure to hold it could reinstate the level as a resistance for the price. In this case, a short-term decline or correction appears likely.
“As such, the next several days will likely determine whether the recent strength evolves into a sustained breakout or resolves into a retest of lower support zones,” the report added.
Bitfinex also evaluated the strength of the current Bitcoin rally using the Short-Term Holder (STH) cost basis. It represents the average acquisition price of coins held by recent investors. According to them, this has
“Historically acted as a dividing line between bullish and bearish market phases.”
This cost basis is currently at $93,340. Bitcoin has successfully broken above this threshold, signaling short-term momentum. However, maintaining this level will be crucial in determining if the rally continues or loses momentum.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin traded at 94,236 at press time, down 0.1% over the past day. It remains 13.4% below its record high. Whether the coin will fill this gap remains to be seen.
The post Bitfinex Suggests Bitcoin Bull Run May Not Be Over Yet—What’s Next? appeared first on BeInCrypto.
At the start of 2025, several altcoins surged to new all-time highs. Others climbed to multi-month peaks, riding the wave of the Donald Trump-fueled rally that swept through the crypto market.
However, Trump’s escalating trade wars and broader macroeconomic unrest have led to a significant downturn in many altcoins, raising questions about the timing of the next altcoin season.
Altcoin season refers to a market cycle in which crypto assets other than Bitcoin significantly outperform BTC in terms of price gains. Many altcoins witness significant price surges during this period, often due to increased investor speculation, capital rotation from BTC into other crypto assets, and bullish sentiment in the market.
This cycle commences when at least 75% of the top 50 altcoins outperform BTC over a three-month period. However, this is far from the reality. The Altcoin Index, which tracks this trend, has plunged to its lowest level since October 2024, signaling continued weakness in the sector.
As of this writing, only 24% of top altcoins have outperformed leading crypto Bitcoin over the past 90 days, highlighting its dominance in the current market cycle. This persistent underperformance suggests that an altcoin season may still be far off.
Further reinforcing this bearish outlook, TOTAL2, the metric tracking the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies excluding BTC, has remained in a descending parallel channel since the beginning of the year.
This pattern signals a sustained downtrend. It is formed when an asset’s price moves between two downward-sloping parallel trendlines, with lower highs and lower lows over time. As of this writing, TOTAL2 is at $1.14 trillion, plummeting by 17% since January 1.
This decline confirms the lack of strong bullish momentum across the altcoin market, hinting at zero likelihood of an altcoin season kicking off anytime soon.
While the market has witnessed a significant pullback recently amid Trump’s trade wars, Bitcoin dominance has continued to increase. An assessment of Bitcoin’s dominance (BTC.D) on a daily chart confirms the same.
This metric, which measures the percentage of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization that Bitcoin holds, has remained above an ascending trend line since last December. As of this writing, it sits at 61.29%.
If BTC’s dominance remains elevated, it could further delay the prospects of an altcoin season.
The post Altcoin Season Remains Elusive as Market Struggles Amid Trump’s Trade Wars appeared first on BeInCrypto.
