BTCC Crypto Daily (4.23) | U.S. Navy Secretary Suddenly Dismissed, Bitcoin Fails in Its Attempt to Break $80,000

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Top Highlights

• U.S. Navy Secretary suddenly dismissed, intensifying infighting among top Pentagon officials

• Bill to limit Trump’s war powers rejected by the U.S. Senate for the fifth time

• Bitcoin retreated after breaking above $79,000

Macro & Policy Outlook

Today’s Key Events

• U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending April 18

• U.S. April S&P Global Manufacturing PMI preliminary reading

Macro Headlines

1.U.S. Navy Secretary suddenly dismissed, intensifying infighting among top Pentagon officials

The U.S. Department of Defense suddenly announced on Wednesday that Navy Secretary John Phelan would leave his post immediately. Phelan became the first military service chief to step down during President Trump’s second term. Observers expect this move reflects intensifying internal power struggles within the Pentagon, especially that the rift between Phelan and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has become irreparable. Phelan’s departure comes as the U.S.-Iran conflict remains in a fragile ceasefire period, with the U.S. Navy continuing to blockade Iranian ports and taking action globally against ships linked to Tehran.

2.Bill to limit Trump’s war powers rejected by the U.S. Senate for the fifth time

On the 22nd, the U.S. Senate once again rejected a bill aimed at limiting President Trump’s war powers. This was the fifth time since the United States launched military operations against Iran in late February that the Senate rejected a bill intended to restrict Trump’s authority to use force over Iran.

3.U.S. State Department tells U.S. citizens in Iran to leave immediately

On the 22nd, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs posted on social media that, given Iran has announced a partial reopening of its airspace, U.S. citizens in Iran should leave immediately. The post said the bureau advises American citizens to monitor local media for the latest developments and to consult commercial airlines for information on flights departing Iran.

4.U.S. dollar share in global trade hits a record 51.1%

According to the latest data from SWIFT, as conflicts continued in the Middle East, the U.S. dollar’s share of international transactions rose to a record 51.1% in March, up from 49.2% the previous month, the highest share since 2023. The euro’s transaction share was about 21%, followed by currencies such as the pound sterling and Japanese yen.

5.Japan’s Financial Services Agency discloses legislative framework for moving crypto under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act

At the 9th BCCC Collaborative Day, Japan Financial Services Agency Risk Analysis Division head Shimizu Shigeru said that the FSA has submitted a bill to the special Diet to move virtual currencies from the Payment Services Act to the regulatory framework of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act in order to strengthen user protection. Key points of the bill include: whether issuers are subject to disclosure regulation, establishing a new “crypto asset trading business” category and strengthening supervision of operators, increasing penalties for unregistered operators while strengthening enforcement by the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission, improving insider trading rules, and expanding the scope of the administrative surcharge regime.

Global Asset Performance

• Equities: The Nikkei 225 closed down 445.63 points, or 0.75%, at 59,140.23. South Korea’s KOSPI closed up 57.43 points, or 0.89%, at 6,475.36, continuing to set record highs. U.S. equity index futures fell across the board during the Asian session. As of press time, Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.69%, S&P 500 futures fell 0.64%, and Dow futures were down 0.62%.

• Cryptocurrencies: The Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell to 59 today, remaining in neutral territory. Total market capitalization slipped back to $2.59 trillion, down 0.89% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin pulled back after touching $79,000 and is currently trading around $77,500. Today’s hot cryptocurrencies are PENGU (+1.0%) and SPK (+73.5%).

• Energy and Metals: The Middle East situation remains unclear, causing sharp fluctuations in oil and gold prices. As of press time, WTI crude rose 2.56% to $95.38 per barrel, Brent crude rose 2.57% to $104.43 per barrel, spot gold fell 1% to $4,696, and silver fell 3.24% to $74.97.

(Data above as of April 23, 17:00 HKT)

Crypto Market Snapshot

1.Futures Capital Flow Analysis

On April 23, according to Coinglass data, ETH, XRP, DOGE, XAG, SOL, and PEPE ranked among the leading assets in net outflows in futures trading over the past 24 hours, potentially indicating trading opportunities.

2.Bitcoin Liquidation Heatmap

On April 23, according to Coinglass data, in the Bitcoin exchange liquidation heatmap, based on the current chart price of 77,640, if Bitcoin falls below $76,000, cumulative long liquidations across major CEXs could reach $1.15 billion. Conversely, if Bitcoin breaks above $80,000, cumulative short liquidations across major CEXs could reach $1.36 billion. Investors are advised to manage leverage prudently to avoid large-scale liquidations during market volatility.

3.Bitcoin Long/Short Ratio

According to Coinglass data, as of 17:00 HKT on the 23rd, the global Bitcoin long/short ratio stood at 0.5939, indicating that bears currently hold the advantage, while Bitcoin is meeting resistance around $79,000.

4.MEME Monitoring

On April 23, according to Coinglass data, the meme sector has weakened overall, showing a pattern of “price pullback + structural divergence.” Leading names such as DOGE and PEPE posted declines, but DOGE saw slightly expanded trading volume and rebounding OI during the decline, indicating that capital is still absorbing supply and that the short-term trend may remain range-bound. PEPE, by contrast, saw both price and volume fall, with more obvious signs of capital outflow. Overall, sector sentiment has cooled significantly, with capital shifting from broad-based gains toward localized clustering. In the short term, the sector has entered a deleveraging and rotation phase. Trading should be approached more cautiously, focusing on names that rise against the trend on expanding volume while remaining alert to continued pullback risks in weaker tokens.

5.On-Chain Monitoring

• According to @ai_9684xtpa, a whale bought 7,447.7 ETH at an average price of $2,353, worth $17.52 million. The current unrealized profit is $24,000.

• According to Hyperinsight, a whale beginning with 0x3bc opened a 25x leveraged ETH short position with a size of $5.15 million at an average price of $2,343.

• According to Onchainlens, whale @0x58bro cumulatively deposited 3,811 ETH, about $9.03 million, into Binance, and currently holds only 0.5 ETH on-chain.

Blockchain Headlines

• Yesterday, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $335.8 million, while Ethereum ETFs recorded net inflows of $96.4 million

• Swedish Bitcoin treasury company H100 signed a binding strategic acquisition agreement, with Bitcoin holdings expected to rise to about 3,500 BTC

• CryptoQuant CEO: Bitcoin is often closer to a bottom when it is least favored

• Arthur Hayes: Bitcoin needs the Fed to restart the money printer in order to break above $500,000

• One user made $34,000 by heating a weather sensor to manipulate the Polymarket temperature prediction market

• Vitalik: there are risks with relying on a single data source and prediction markets should adopt a multi-source verification mechanism

• Telegram Web3 console Conso completed financing of over $10 million, led by IDG Capital

• XChat’s launch has been delayed again to April 24

• Anthropic said in court filings that there is no “kill switch” for the AI model already deployed at the Pentagon

Institutional Insights · Daily Picks

• CryptoQuant: Bitcoin’s bull market score index has risen back to the neutral level of 50 for the first time since Bitcoin fell from its $126,000 peak, marking that the market may be shifting from bear market conditions to neutral. The index combines ten on-chain indicators, and bullish and bearish signals currently each account for half. This is the first time the index has entered the neutral zone during this bear market. But history offers a warning: in March 2022, the index also rose to 50, after which Bitcoin fell by half from around $48,000 to below $20,000. The recent rise in Bitcoin prices has been driven entirely by demand in the perpetual futures market, while spot demand is still shrinking, although at a slower pace. The same situation also occurred in January this year when Bitcoin rose to $98,000. If traders begin taking profits while spot demand continues to contract, the market faces downside correction risk.

• Liquid Capital founder JackYi: “A core reason behind the wave of crypto VC and project failures in the past was that financing was basically consumed by maintaining teams to develop useless web3 products. The biggest misunderstanding was benchmarking against web2 products. In essence, web3 is a financial industry and does not need to repeatedly develop web2 products. The most successful companies in the crypto industry in the past were all financial products, from stablecoins, exchanges, to payments. Now that the AI era has arrived, first, there is no need for huge financing rounds to hire large teams, and second, AI + finance is at a new opportunity point. We believe that excellent founders, together with a few elite people, can build top-tier companies. This is the biggest opportunity in primary-market investing right now.”

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Disclaimer:The above content is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice or a basis for trading decisions. Markets involve risks. Investors should exercise caution and implement proper risk management.