The crypto market is down today, with the global market cap slipping 6% to $3.92 trillion. Bitcoin is holding above the $118K mark with a modest 0.7% dip. However, altcoins faced steeper losses, with Ethereum down 6% and XRP plunging 10%. Solana, Dogecoin, and Cardano have also seen sharp declines, losing between 7-10% over the past 24 hours.
XRP Drops 10%, Sees $89 Million In Liquidations
Ether, XRP, and Bitcoin traders were hit hard in Tuesday’s crypto sell-off, with Ether seeing the biggest losses at $159 million in the last 24 hours, followed by XRP at $89 million, as liquidations surged across the market.
However, even with XRP’s 10% drop, experts believe that this is just a healthy pullback. Analyst XRPunkie points out that XRP has surged 92% in just 20 days, rising from $1.95 to $3.66. According to him, this kind of pullback is a normal and healthy part of crypto market movements. He believes it’s a short-term pause before prices head higher, and a target of $10 to $15 is still very much in play.
$XRP went from $1.95 to $3.66, up 92% in 30 days. We just had a 16% pullback. It’s a healthy correction. Nothing out of the ordinary in crypto. Sit back, chill and relax. Let it bottom out and we should be on our way to much higher prices real soon. $10-$15 still in play. pic.twitter.com/aUQup1VctA
He also believes that $8 is the minimum for XRP, and we should be expecting much more, and a target of $20 to $30 is still on the cards.
Will XRP Break Above $3.84?
Experts believe that XRP could still break past its 2018 high of $3.84 if the broader altcoin rally continues. Bitcoin dominance is slipping, and capital is flowing into altcoins. XRP’s next move will depend on the overall market momentum.
CryptoBull pointed out that XRP is forming a classic Cup & Handle pattern, a bullish setup. If it plays out, the next move could push XRP above $7, based on the pattern’s projected target.
XRP Adoption Grows with Strategic Treasury Moves
Meanwhile, XRP’s corporate adoption keeps growing. Nature’s Miracle is adding $20M worth of XRP to its treasury, which shows growing confidence in XRP as a tool for balance sheet diversification. The move comes during a market dip, offering a strategic entry point.
At the same time, a Brazilian company called VERT launched a $130 million blockchain platform on the XRP Ledger. These moves show that XRP is gaining traction in corporate finance and global infrastructure.
GRVT co-founder Hong Yea left behind a rising executive career at Goldman Sachs to launch a hybrid crypto exchange as the market collapsed.
Four months after the mainnet, it has processed over $5 billion in volume. Yea tells BeInCrypto how his Wall Street roots helped engineer a decentralized trading powerhouse.
A Leap of Conviction in a Market on Fire
When Hong Yea left a decade-long career at Goldman Sachs, where he had risen to executive director, crypto markets were in freefall. It was late 2022, and FTX had just collapsed.
Confidence in centralized platforms had evaporated. But for Yea, the implosion was not a deterrent—it was validation.
“FTX crystallized our thesis. Centralized counterparties are single points of systemic failure. We saw that coming—and built GRVT to be the opposite,” Yea told BeInCrypto in an interview.
That conviction would be tested. While former colleagues moved toward managing director promotions and fatter bonuses, Yea built a next-gen exchange from scratch. One that would fuse institutional-grade speed and compliance with the decentralization ethos of Web3.
Today, just four months after its public mainnet launch, GRVT has processed over $5 billion in trading volume.
It is the first licensed decentralized exchange (DEX) under Bermuda’s Class M framework and one of the few platforms bridging Wall Street’s rigor with blockchain’s permissionless infrastructure.
Why a Goldman Exec Bet on Blockchain
For Yea, the pivot was not sudden. A trader by training, he spent years inside Goldman watching promising financial products die behind walled gardens.
“I saw brilliant tools and strategies that never reached beyond institutional silos. At the same time, DeFi lacked the risk controls, performance, and compliance needed to scale. I realized: if we could combine both worlds, we could unlock finance for everyone,” he explains.
The spark came at a 2022 crypto conference in Barcelona. Yea saw clearly that blockchain was not just speculative—it was a superior substrate for finance.
“It’s like a smarter internet. Not just for data, but for logic. Immutable, programmable, global. That’s what finance needs,” he articulates.
The Hybrid Advantage: CEX Speed Meets DEX Trustlessness
In the interview, Hong Yea presented GRVT as a purpose-built hybrid, not a traditional DEX or a centralized exchange with a Web3 gloss.
The platform, he said, separates matching and risk logic off-chain from settlement and custody on-chain. With this, users get the speed of centralized venues without ceding control of their assets.
“Every trade is executed with sub-millisecond latency, but settled on-chain via smart contracts that never touch user funds. It’s trustless execution at institutional speeds,” Hong Yea remarked.
Users sign trades cryptographically using SecureKey technology, which combines multi-party computation (MPC) with biometrics for maximum safety. At the same time, onboarding feels like Web2—email, password, 2FA.
Behind the scenes, GRVT’s zero-knowledge chain ensures privacy while keeping settlements transparent. Crucially, the platform allows users to instantly rehypothecate margin across markets—an edge even legacy prime brokerages rarely offer.
GRVT’s “CeDeFi” architecture combines off-chain order matching and risk management with on-chain self-custodial settlement using a private zk-powered Validium chain. It eliminates intermediaries, avoids on-chain custody fees, and enables users to maintain sole control of their assets.
“Trades execute in sub-millisecond latency but clear trustlessly in users’ own wallets,” Yea said.
This design directly targets the weaknesses of both CEXs and DEXs:
CEXs offer convenience and speed but force users to relinquish custody, introducing counterparty risk.
DEXs provide transparency and control but suffer from latency and fragmented liquidity.
GRVT bridges that divide. Users sign trades with biometrics via a SecureKey while all assets remain in their wallets.
“We blend Web2 login flows with cryptographic controls and one-click trade signing,” Yea explained. “It’s the speed of Binance with the self-custody of Uniswap—minus the trade-offs.”
$5 Billion in 120 Days With Regulation As The Blueprint
According to Hong Yea, GRVT’s explosive growth was engineered through raw performance, ecosystem incentives, and early partnerships. Its matching engine operates with latency under 10 milliseconds, outpacing Ethereum-based DEXs, Solana (SOL), and even newer Layer 2 solutions.
However, it is not just about speed. GRVT rewards market makers, community contributors, and liquidity providers, and creates a balanced, multi-stakeholder system.
Reportedly, more than 40 institutions, including CoinRoutes and top prime brokers, now trade on GRVT, injecting deep liquidity from day one.
Moreover, in a post-FTX playing field, the timing is opportune. Retail users demand transparency; institutions demand compliance. GRVT meets both demands without compromise.
“We’re not a niche. We’re a bridge. Retail wants safety, institutions want access. We offer a platform where both can trade on equal footing,” Yea added.
While most DEXs attempt to dodge regulation, GRVT leaned in. It became the world’s first licensed DEX under Bermuda’s Digital Asset framework.
“We treat compliance as code. Our chain enforces KYC and trade surveillance at the protocol level. That’s not just policy—it’s unbreakable,” Yea emphasized.
Reportedly, GRVT is now in active discussions with regulators across Asia, Europe, and North America, working toward multi-jurisdictional licensing for a globally compliant rollout. Yea believes this regulatory adoption is not a constraint but a critical enabler.
“Rules aren’t the enemy—they’re the gateway to institutional trust,” he stated.
Meanwhile, GRVT’s vision does not end with crypto trading. Yea sees a future where tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), including equities, funds, and institutional strategies, trade peer-to-peer (P2P) on a decentralized, composable platform.
“Wall Street is warming up. However, this time, they will come not to dominate, but to integrate,” Yea concluded.
Building long-term trust on a blockchain may seem like a leap for a trader who once priced risk in microseconds. However, for Hong Yea, it was a calculated trade—and so far, it is paying off.
TRUMP has seen a 7% rise in the last 24 hours, with the price trading at $10.34 at the time of writing. Despite this short-term recovery, the broader outlook for the altcoin remains bearish, influenced by ongoing market conditions.
The recent conflict between Elon Musk and Donald Trump has added further uncertainty, potentially deepening the bearish trend.
TRUMP Outflows Rise
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) for TRUMP currently sits in the negative zone, below the neutral mark. This suggests that the broader market cues are bearish, presenting a significant challenge for TRUMP’s recovery.
A sustained period in the negative zone indicates that buying momentum is weak, and sellers continue to dominate the market.
The bearish sentiment is compounded by the recent market uncertainty surrounding the spat between Musk and Trump. The ongoing tensions between these two influential figures could further contribute to the lack of positive momentum for TRUMP.
From a macro perspective, the Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) indicator highlights a dominant trend of outflows from TRUMP.
The CMF has recently dropped to its lowest level in more than three months, showing that there is little buying pressure to support the asset’s price. This indicates a growing lack of confidence among investors in TRUMP’s long-term value.
The market’s response to the Musk-Trump conflict could amplify these outflows.
According to Nic Puckrin, a crypto analyst and founder of The Coin Bureau, the tension between Musk and Trump could negatively impact the broader market.
“The public spat we’re seeing between Musk and Trump was nothing if not predictable. However, given their influence on the news cycle, the markets don’t like this at all, and it’s only likely to get worse as emotions escalate… It’s been a perfect storm for markets, and if this uncertainty, along with the Trump-Musk saga, continues into the weekend, the crypto market will bear the brunt, as it is still the only market that trades 24/7,” Puckrin said.
TRUMP Price Recovery May Be Difficult
TRUMP is currently trading at $10.48, having risen by 7.6% over the last 24 hours. However, the token is facing significant resistance at $10.97, a level that has proven difficult to breach in recent weeks.
Given the current market sentiment, it seems likely that TRUMP will struggle to push past this resistance, limiting its price movement in the short term.
Considering the current bearish factors and lack of strong buying momentum, TRUMP could remain consolidated between $10.97 and the support level of $9.68.
This consolidation could persist as the market grapples with the impact of outflows and investor uncertainty, making it difficult for TRUMP to make substantial gains.
If TRUMP’s supporters shift their outlook and turn more bullish, the token could breach the $10.97 resistance. Successfully flipping this level into support could trigger a move toward $12.18, invalidating the current bearish thesis.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has recently taken the stage to warn against Trump’s crypto push, claiming it could stifle the European economy. Primarily, the ECB has questioned whether the current MiCA regulations are ample enough to cushion the blow caused by financial spillover effects due to Trump’s support for cryptocurrencies.
However, the European Commission has dismissed the central bank’s alarming remarks, deeming it to be an overexaggerated concern. In turn, the Commission has argued that the ECB itself misunderstood the EU’s rules, sparking a flurry of discussions nationwide.
European Central Bank Claims Trump’s Pro-Crypto Push Can Impact Europe’s Economy, Commission Says Otherwise
According to a recent Politico report, the European Central Bank and Commission are tussling over whether the current MiCA regulations are enough to negate the blow caused by Trump’s pro-crypto usher. While the ECB thinks that America’s pro-crypto stance could risk causing financial “contagion” and blow up Europe’s economy, the Commission is in a snub.
The Commission primarily believes that the current MiCA regulations, which were introduced in 2023, provide sufficient safeguards that could mitigate potential losses caused by Trump’s pro-crypto push. While the ECB argued that legislative changes are a must, the EC took a contrary stand on the matter.
What’s The Point Of Contention?
CoinGape found that the point of contention remains about the potential challenges that Trump’s USD stablecoin expansion saga could bring into the Eurozone, negatively impacting its financial sovereignty. A majority of the stablecoin projects are denominated in American dollars, risking the nation’s traditional currencies.
To mitigate such risks, the ECB looks forward to making some legislative changes to the MiCA regulations. However, the EC believes that the current set of standards is enough to reduce the risk of foreign currency pegged stablecoins. As a result, both parties ended up in a squabble surrounding the impact of Trump’s crypto push on Europe’s economy.
The scuffle initially kicked off on April 14, when top EU government officials held discussions over the risks of US crypto assets on the nation’s financial stability. The European Central Bank’s claims were primarily dismissed by EU officials and most governments in the end.
However, it’s worth pointing out that the central banking authority cannot be seen completely wrong, as it has always pushed for the betterment of traditional and digital assets in Europe. Intriguingly, CoinGape recently reported that the ECB advanced with digital Euro plans to counter U.S. stablecoins, another move to preserve financial sovereignty.
