HBAR has seen a notable rally recently, bringing the altcoin back into a key consolidation zone just under $0.20. Trading close to this critical level, HBAR is showing signs of strong momentum.
A successful breach of $0.20 could mark the beginning of further upside, provided bullish market conditions continue to support the move.
HBAR Traders Are Optimistic
The market sentiment around HBAR remains highly optimistic, as indicated by its funding rate, which has stayed positive for nearly two weeks. A positive funding rate suggests that traders are confident in the altcoin’s bullish trajectory and are positioning themselves to benefit from potential gains.
Additionally, the dominance of long contracts highlights the heightened bullishness among investors. Traders are betting heavily on HBAR’s price increase, reinforcing the view that the altcoin could soon breach its key resistance.
The broader macro momentum for HBAR is mixed, presenting both opportunity and risk. The liquidation map shows that about $42 million worth of long contracts are at risk if the HBAR price falls to $0.167. This exposure underlines the critical importance of the $0.200 resistance.
Given this setup, maintaining current price levels is crucial for HBAR. If the altcoin fails to sustain its upward momentum and investors lose confidence, the resulting liquidations could significantly impact its price trajectory.
HBAR is currently priced at $0.193, holding just under the critical $0.200 resistance. This level has remained unbroken for more than a month and a half. Historically, repeated failures to breach significant resistance levels have often led to declines, making the current situation pivotal for HBAR’s near-term direction.
If HBAR fails to break through $0.200, the altcoin could lose its $0.182 support and slip to $0.167. A fall to this level would trigger the liquidation of the $42 million worth of contracts mentioned earlier, likely intensifying the downward pressure and causing further market distress.
Conversely, if broader market conditions remain favorable and investors continue to support HBAR, the altcoin could successfully breach the $0.200 barrier. Achieving this would invalidate the bearish outlook and set HBAR on a course toward $0.222, opening the door for renewed bullish momentum.
According to a new report from CoinGecko, government accounts hold 2.3% of the total Bitcoin supply. Collectively, their holdings amount to 463,741 BTC, a decrease from 529,591 less than a year ago.
Despite these impressive surface numbers, the general trend is in decline. Two of the seven holders completely liquidated their assets, and only El Salvador is actually buying more Bitcoin.
CoinGecko found some interesting trends when it broke down all the relevant statistics. For example, only five nations currently maintain active Bitcoin holdings.
Government Bitcoin Holdings in Decline. Source: CoinGecko
The US federal government is the largest national Bitcoin holder. Crypto has studied its behavior quite closely, and the industry is making major efforts to influence policy. The key issue is this: the US doesn’t purchase BTC, it seizes it in criminal operations.
Towards the end of Joe Biden’s Presidency, the country started to liquidate its BTC holdings, and this is a major motivating factor in Trump’s Crypto Reserve. The Reserve isn’t intended to purchase Bitcoin, but it organizes the existing stockpile and protects it from future sales.
The country seized nearly 200,000 bitcoins in 2020 and hasn’t moved since. Thus, this large stockpile can escape mainstream notice.
US Government’s Total Crypto Holdings. Source: Arkham
The British government mirrors China’s Bitcoin strategy, keeping its substantial reserves in a holding pattern. Germany enacted a complete liquidation last year, bringing its substantial holdings to zero. It did this to cover a budget deficit, not for any anti-crypto ideological reasons.
Ukraine performed a similar total BTC liquidation to fund its ongoing war effort.
All the aforementioned government whales obtained their Bitcoin solely through criminal seizures, except for Ukraine, which accepted cross-border donations.
This is to say that CoinGecko took a closer look at impressive numbers and found revealing conclusions. On paper, governments hold a massive supply of Bitcoin, but this trend is surprisingly fragile.
Only seven governments held BTC last year, and two of them have lost it since. A few political changes could totally change this environment.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has urged the blockchain community to rethink the network’s design approach, pushing for a more minimalist and efficient structure.
In a blog post published on May 3, Buterin argued that Ethereum should adopt a simpler protocol model, similar to Bitcoin’s, to improve efficiency, scalability, and security.
Buterin Touts Bitcoin’s Simplicity
Buterin described Ethereum’s current system as overly complex, warning that its technical depth increases costs, isolates research efforts, and raises the likelihood of serious bugs.
The Ethereum co-founder also emphasized that the current design centralizes too much control among a small group of technically advanced contributors. He argued that this approach undermines the network’s decentralization ethos.
“Even a smart high school student is capable of fully wrapping their head around and understanding the Bitcoin protocol. A programmer is capable of writing a client as a hobby project,” Buterin wrote.
According to Buterin, simplifying the protocol will make Ethereum more resilient, reduce infrastructure costs, and lower the entry barrier for developers.
He also concluded that simplicity should be treated as a core value, much like decentralization. He believes Ethereum must prioritize design choices that promote clarity, robustness, and long-term sustainability.
How Can Ethereum Reduce its Complexity?
To achieve this vision, Buterin highlighted three key areas where Ethereum can reduce complexity.
First, he recommended changes to the consensus layer, particularly by streamlining the finality system and reducing the number of validators. These steps, he said, would lower operational costs and speed up network consensus.
He pointed out that the consensus layer is loosely coupled with Ethereum’s execution system. This separation gives developers more flexibility to implement improvements without breaking core functionality.
“The nice thing about the consensus layer is that it is relatively disconnected from EVM execution, which means that there is a relatively wide latitude to continue to make these types of improvements,” Buterin said.
To do this, Buterin recommends introducing RISC-V, a simpler and more efficient computing architecture, as an alternative execution option. He also envisions a future where developers can write contracts using RISC-V alongside the EVM.
Vitalik Buterin’s Proposal on Simplifying Ethereum’s L1. Source: Buterin
Additionally, he suggested replacing precompiles with a canonical on-chain implementation. He also proposed building a RISC-V-based EVM interpreter to support future upgrades with better maintainability.
Lastly, he called for standardization across protocol components. Instead of using different tools for similar functions, Ethereum could adopt one erasure code, serialization format, and Merkle tree. This unified approach would help reduce redundancy and enhance the network’s clarity.
“There is typically very little or no benefit to using different protocols to do the same thing in different places, but such patterns appear anyway, largely because different parts of protocol roadmapping don’t talk to each other,” Buterin pointed out.
Several interesting developments happened this week in crypto, cutting across diverse ecosystems. Key highlights, however, centered on Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP ecosystems.
In case you missed it, here is a roundup of the top stories this week in crypto.
Bitcoin Tests $97,000
Starting the list of what happened this week in crypto, Bitcoin tested the $97,000 milestone for the first time since February 2025. However, as of this writing, the pioneer crypto pulled back shortly after and was trading for $96,731.
Another key highlight this week in crypto concerned speculation of a possible collaboration between the Sui blockchain and Pokémon. Amidst these talks, the SUI price soared over 60% within the week.
These rumors sparked after a privacy policy update for Pokémon HOME featured Parasol Technologies, LLC, as a new developer. Parasol Technologies is a Web3 gaming infrastructure company that Sui’s developer, Mysten Labs, acquired in March 2025.
Nevertheless, changes in one of the circulating documents quelled the speculation, clarifying what had been a key driver for the SUI price this week.
“The official Sui Foundation blog confirmed (and removed) Pokémon NFTs. They seem to be developing a cloud infrastructure that uses blockchain technology to address bugs, hacks, and duping while enabling transfers between compatible games—something that is already possible with Pokémon Home,” another user highlighted.
Nevertheless, the correction did not quell speculation that Parasol may be involved in developing new features for Pokémon.
The SUI price has fallen almost 3% in the last 24 hours. As of this writing, it was trading for $3.47.
ProShares XRP ETF Rumors
Adding to the list of speculation this week in crypto, rumors spread that the US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) had approved a ProShares XRP ETF (exchange-traded fund).
However, BeInCrypto shut down these claims, articulating that the approval was for ProShares’ Leveraged and Short XRP Futures ETFs. ETF analyst James Seyffart also provided further clarity, deeming the allegations false.
“UPDATE: A lot of people posting/reporting that ProShares will be launching XRP ETFs on April 30th. We have confirmed that this is not the case. We do not have a confirmed launch date yet but we believe they will launch — and likely launch in the short or possibly medium term,” Seyffart explained.
ProShares launched three futures-based ETFs: the Ultra XRP ETF, the Short XRP ETF, and the Ultra Short XRP ETF. This development followed the launch of Teucrium’s 2x Long Daily XRP ETF in early April.
ProShares’ XRP Futures ETF Sparked Optimism
Meanwhile, the approval of ProShares XRP futures ETF sparked optimism, inspiring sentiment that a spot XRP ETF would be next.
According to forecasts by industry expert Armando Pantoja, the move could lead to substantial capital inflow into the altcoin.
“A spot XRP ETF could be next, unlocking real demand and sending prices soaring. $100 billion+ could soon flood into XRP,” he wrote.
Pantoja recognized that the approval marked a significant turning point for the industry, expanding XRP’s investor base.
The approval cleared the runway for the XRP ETF, granting Ripple’s token a regulated and accessible avenue for major financial players to engage.
“Futures ETF = first domino. Spot ETF = the tipping point. XRP’s long-term setup just got way stronger,” Pantoja remarked.
Another analyst was more measured amid heightened optimism, noting that the futures ETF was not the game-changer many might expect.
“It’s not the silver bullet that will trigger mass adoption or massive price action. The real catalyst will come when a Spot XRP ETF gets approved. Real tokens. Real demand. Real market impact,” John Squire posted.
SEC Delays XRP ETF Decision
To add to the list of developments in the XRP ecosystem this week in crypto, the US SEC delayed its decision on a prospective XRP ETF until June 17.
Before this news broke, crypto market participants awaited the final decision of XRP, Dogecoin (DOGE), and Ethereum staking ETFs. However, these were all put off.
“These dates are all intermediate and we will likely see final decisions on a lot of the crypto ETPs in Q4. For the XRP spot ETF, [I am] eyeing mid-October, around the 18th, as a final decision deadline. It’s possible the SEC won’t take all that time to make its decision, but a lot will hinge on how actively they engage on the applications,” Seyffart explained.
For now, over 70 active ETF proposals await the securities regulator’s verdict. XRP ETF’s June deadline is not final, but the commission could still enact further delays until mid-October.
Meanwhile, data from Polymarket shows that bettors see a 34% chance that the financial instrument will be approved by July 31.
