The popular AI framework Virtuals Protocol will host an in-person meet-up in Hong Kong on Friday, January 17.

April 20th — Per HTX market data, Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $75,112.87, down 0.98% over the past 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) sits at $2,306.41, with a 1.05% 24-hour drop. Coinglass figures show mainstream centralized exchange (CEX) funding rates signal continued bearishness for both BTC and ETH, while market sentiment remains subdued. Specifically, BTC funding rates on most major platforms (including Binance) are negative, meaning short traders are paying fees to long traders — all platforms’ BTC rates fall within bearish territory. For ETH, Binance and similar exchanges see rates ranging from -0.046% to +0.006%, with deeper negative values; minor positive readings on some platforms do not exceed the 0.005% threshold. **BlockBeats Note:** Funding rates are set by crypto exchanges to align perpetual contract prices with spot asset values. They facilitate fund exchanges between long and short traders (exchanges do not collect these fees) and adjust traders’ holding cost

On April 20, Solana ecosystem perpetual contract trading platform Pacifica (via https://app.pacifica.fi/?referral=pacbot) announced the official launch of its Vaults feature on testnet. Users can view existing vaults, deposit funds to follow yield-generating strategies, create custom vaults, set parameters (including deposit limits and profit-sharing ratios), and manage transactions. Additionally, users included in Pacifica’s April 18 snapshot are eligible for a weekly triple loyalty points bonus, per the announcement. To date, the platform has distributed ~333 million points and recorded a weekly trading volume of $24.55 billion.

**April 20th** Digital asset investment products saw roughly $1.4 billion in net inflows last week—marking the largest single-week inflow since January 2024 and the third straight week of net gains. Total Assets under Management (AuM) climbed to $155 billion, with a fund inflow ratio of 0.91% (the highest of the year so far). ### Individual Assets - Bitcoin drew ~$1.116 billion in inflows, pushing its year-to-date cumulative total to $3.1 billion. - Ethereum extended its recovery, posting a weekly net inflow of $328 million—its strongest performance since January. - Short Bitcoin products saw only a modest $1.4 million in inflows, signaling limited hedging demand. ### Macro Context Upbeat signals from U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks, paired with Bitcoin briefly topping $76,000, lifted market risk sentiment. March’s CPI rose 3.3% year-over-year, with core CPI at 2.6%—pointing to mild overall inflation pressure. ### Regional Trends - The U.S. led inflows with $1.5 billion

This Friday, April 20, the Bitcoin options market will see a concentrated expiry of roughly $7.9 billion, with some $395 million in call options clustered around the $75,000 strike price. The current Bitcoin funding rate has flipped negative, signaling broad bearish sentiment in the market. Should prices continue holding above this key level, the risk of a short squeeze could intensify.

On April 20th, GMGN monitoring data shows the Ethereum-based meme coin ASTEROID surged 16% in one hour, pushing its market cap above $150 million—currently at $158 million—with a price of $0.000375 and 24-hour trading volume of $49.6 million. The ASTEROID meme coin’s origin story ties to Liv Perrotto, a 15-year-old girl whose biggest lifetime wish was to meet Elon Musk. She helped design a Shiba Inu-shaped plushie named “Asteroid.” After her passing, her mother publicly wrote to Musk, and the story gained wider attention when prominent media personality Glenn Beck featured it on his show. On April 19th, Musk agreed to make Asteroid the mascot of SpaceX. BlockBeats reminds users that meme coin trading is highly volatile, often driven by market sentiment and hype, with no inherent value or practical use case. Investors should be aware of the associated risks.

April 20th: Japanese yen stablecoin issuer JPYC has completed an additional ￥2.8 billion (≈$18.66 million) in the second tranche of its Series B funding. Combined with the first tranche, total Series B fundraising is expected to hit around ￥4.6 billion. Backers in this round include Metaplanet, NCB Venture Capital, Techmira Holdings, Canal Ventures, SUMISEI Innovation Fund, i-nest capital, NTVP, Hokuriku Bank, and Yokohama Capital, among others. Metaplanet previously disclosed plans to invest up to ￥400 million in JPYC. The funds will go primarily to four key areas: system and app development, hiring business development talent, stablecoin issuance/settlement-related operations, and potential strategic investment opportunities. From a business standpoint, JPYC has seen strong growth. As of mid-April 2026, its total circulation has topped ￥21 billion—up nearly 2.6x in the past three months—with a daily trading turnover rate of over 100%. Currently, there are ~17,000 accounts, b