Crypto markets avoided the fallout caused by US President Donald Trump’s latest salvo against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which saw the US stock market slump and the dollar continue to weaken over uncertainty.

Stock markets across the United States ended April 21 in the red, with the S&P 500 dropping 2.4%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipping 2.5%, and the Dow Jones losing 2.5%, or nearly 1,000 points, according to Google Finance. 

The S&P 500 has now declined by more than 12% since the beginning of the year, and the Nasdaq is down almost 18% in the US tech stock exodus. 

US stock heatmap. Source: TradingView

The stock slide follows escalating tension between Donald Trump and Jerome Powell and growing concern over the impact of trade tariffs. 

“‘Preemptive Cuts’ in Interest Rates are being called for by many,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on April 21. 

“With Energy Costs way down, food prices […] substantially lower, and most other ‘things’ trending down, there is virtually No Inflation,” he added. 

Trump has reiterated his call for lowering interest rates, which Powell, who has been labelled as “Mr. Too Late” and a “major loser” by the POTUS, has kept high at 4.5%. 

Source: Donald Trump

Last week, Powell took a swipe at Trump’s trade tariffs, saying they could lead to a dangerous economic mix of rising prices and slowing growth, or “stagflation.”

Trump responded with a call to fire the central bank chair, stating at the time that his “termination cannot come fast enough.”  

The Fed is expected to maintain its wait-and-see policy approach at its May 7 meeting, with interest rate markets predicting just a 13% chance of a rate cut, according to CME Fed Watch.

US dollar devaluation continues 

The US Dollar Index (DXY) — a measure of the strength of the greenback against a basket of leading currencies — has also slipped more than 10% so far this year. This week it fell to a three-year low below 98 on April 21, according to TradingView. 

“Everyone needs and wants a weaker dollar to service their dollar debts,” commented Real Vision founder and CEO Raoul Pal on April 22. “This is the purest form of global liquidity and is the largest driver of global M2 [money supply] currently,” he added.  

Related: US dollar goes ‘no-bid’ — 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week 

Meanwhile, crypto markets have held on to weekend gains with total capitalization remaining at $2.83 trillion at the time of writing. 

Bitcoin (BTC) is keeping digital asset markets buoyed, hitting a four-week high of $88,500 on April 22. 

“Amid one of the most turbulent periods for global markets in years, Bitcoin is showing impressive resilience,” commented Bitfinex analysts in a recent market update. 

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The Supreme Court of Gibraltar has reversed its decision to freeze 542 million PLAY tokens in a court battle between two companies tied to the Web3 game-creation platform PLAY Network.

In an April 17 judgment, Gibraltar Supreme Court Judge John Restano undid his earlier February freeze of the tokens, finding it could have hurt the value of the tokens and that the evidence filed was insufficient to continue the freeze.

“Whilst there may be many reasons for the drop in value of the tokens, the evidence before the court suggests that these proceedings are a factor in that regard,” he wrote.

US-based Ready Makers, which operates as Ready Games, and its founder, David Bennahum, have filed a legal dispute against its Gibraltar-based subsidiary, Ready Maker (Gibraltar) Limited, and its CEO, Christina Macedon. The suit claims she took over the firm and its PLAY token that is used as a reward on the PLAY Network.

Ready Games won a freeze of the tokens in February, with the Gibraltar-based Ready Maker, operating as PLAY Network, handing them over to a court-appointed custodian.

The 542 million PLAY tokens are nearly two-thirds of its current circulating supply and are worth around $2.6 million. The token’s price has plummeted by over 97% since it launched in December, according to CoinGecko.

PLAY has sunk over the past three months to trade for fractions of a cent. Source: CoinGecko

Judge Restano said the evidence filed by Ready Games for the freeze was “far from impressive, and raises more questions than it answers.”

He added he did “not consider that this is a case where the order should be re-granted in any event,” and cited Ready Games’ failure to disclose that it was in administrative dissolution at the time of filing for the token freeze, which he called “a significant omission.”

Ready Games’ Bennahum told Cointelegraph that it has filed to lodge an appeal alongside “an urgent application with the Gibraltar Court of Appeal asking them to either stay the discharge of the original injunction or grant a new injunction” so the tokens could again be frozen pending the appeal’s outcome.

He added that his company disagreed with the court’s decision to lift the token freeze, saying that the Gibraltar-based firm was in an “alarming state.”

Ready Maker is just a “token launch vehicle” — Ready Games founder

Bennahum reiterated an earlier claim that the US-based Ready Games created Ready Maker in Gibraltar with the US company’s intellectual property and funding “specifically to serve as our token launch vehicle.”

“We maintain that Ms. Macedo and associated parties have wrongfully seized control of this entity and its assets,” he said. Judge Restano said in his judgment that Macedo disputed Bennahum’s claim, and regulatory filings purportedly show she is the sole controller and ultimate beneficial owner of the Gibraltar-based firm.

Related: Crypto gaming has mixed Q1 as deals jump, investment totals dip: DappRadar 

Ready Games had said in a February statement that its court action was to “recover control” of the Gibraltar company.

It added that a Delaware business court issued a temporary restraining order that required Ready Gibraltar to restore Ready Games’ access to the firm’s tech stack, such as “GitHub repositories, cloud systems, and domain accounts.”

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Indian crypto exchange WazirX, which was hacked for $234 million last July, says it is on track to restart its operations pending a May 13 court decision on its restructuring proposal and user compensation plan. 

If Singapore’s High Court gives the nod, WazirX parent company Zettai PTE Ltd can restart the exchange and begin its compensation scheme for affected users within 10 business days, WazirX said in an April 21 update to X.

WazirX lost $234 million of crypto from a Safe Multisig wallet mid-July 2024 in an attack since attributed to North Korean hackers, forcing them to temporarily pause all crypto and Indian rupee withdrawals on the platform.

Source: WazirX

“Zettai has completed all prior required steps, and the next key step is the sanction hearing, which the Singapore High Court has scheduled for May 13, 2025,” the firm said.

“This hearing is essential for the Scheme to become legally effective. While we’ve worked to stay aligned with the previously shared timelines, court proceedings operate independently, and we respect that process.”

On April 7, more than 90% of the voting creditors voted in favor of the platform’s post-hack restructuring plan, which involved the issuance of recovery tokens.

The tokens would be repurchased using net profits from the exchange and could yield 75% to 80% of users’ account balances at the time of the cyberattack.

WazirX had warned that repayments from the $235 million hack could be delayed until 2030 if creditors didn’t approve its proposed restructuring plan. 

Singapore’s High Court gave Zettai permission to convene a creditors’ meeting to propose a possible remedy for users and a plan to get the exchange back online in January.

Related: Bybit CEO: Two-thirds of Lazarus-hacked funds remain traceable

“We understand the eagerness around the platform restart and truly appreciate your continued patience,” WazirX said.

“Since the beginning, we have communicated that the first distribution and restart would occur within the April-May 2025 window.”

Supreme Court of India dismisses WazirX users petition 

A separate April 16 court judgment from the Supreme Court of India dismissed a petition filed by 54 victims of the hack, who sought legal action against WazirX, Shetty, Binance and custody provider Liminal. Petitioners also asked the court to audit WazirX’s accounts.  

Justices B.R. Gavai and Augustine Masih rejected the petition, saying the court could not rule on the case because it was a matter of crypto policy, which the court doesn’t have the authority to rule on. 

Gavai and Masih advised the petitioners to approach a regulatory body or other relevant authority to hear the matter instead.

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