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<v Speaker 1>Hey, it's Alex with the Token Metrics Daily Pulse for

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<v Speaker 1>April twentieth, twenty twenty six. Crypto funds just absorbed one

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<v Speaker 1>point four billion dollars in a single week and prices

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<v Speaker 1>are basically flat. That tension is the whole story today.

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<v Speaker 1>But first a quick word from our sponsor. Okay, so

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<v Speaker 1>here's what's happening. One point four billion dollars walked into

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<v Speaker 1>crypto funds last week. Bitcoin is sitting at seventy five thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>ethereum can't hold twenty three hundred, and the total market

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<v Speaker 1>cap hasn't moved. So where is all that money going.

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<v Speaker 1>Here's the most interesting explanation. It's being absorbed. Short term

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<v Speaker 1>holders who bought higher are quietly selling into the inflows.

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<v Speaker 1>The new money is real, it's just getting handed to

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<v Speaker 1>people who want out. Those two forces are canceling each

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<v Speaker 1>other out in price. But here's what that means for

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<v Speaker 1>what comes next. If the sellers eventually run out of

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<v Speaker 1>coins and the inflows keep coming, there's nobody left on

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<v Speaker 1>the other side, no overhead supply to absorb. Price just goes.

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<v Speaker 1>The quiet tape isn't bearish. It might be the setup.

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<v Speaker 1>So where does that leave the rest of the market

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<v Speaker 1>pretty still. Bitcoin at seventy five k basically unchanged, Ethereum

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<v Speaker 1>at twenty three hundred down a fraction Solana around eighty

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<v Speaker 1>five dollars. Total market cap two point six trillion, But

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<v Speaker 1>the narrative tracker tells a different story. Meme tokens are

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<v Speaker 1>up thirty seven percent in seven days, a fifty two

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<v Speaker 1>billion dollar category moving like a penny. Stock roll ups

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<v Speaker 1>up fourteen percent, liquid staking tokens up twelve Money is

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<v Speaker 1>moving just into specific pockets, not the broad market. Bitcoin

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<v Speaker 1>dominance at fifty seven percent tells you the rotation into

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<v Speaker 1>all coins hasn't started. Capital is consolidating around Bitcoin, not

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<v Speaker 1>spreading out, and prediction markets are backing up. A cautious read.

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<v Speaker 1>Odds on three or four FED rate cuts this year

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<v Speaker 1>are sitting at just eleven percent. The market has basically

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<v Speaker 1>priced out aggressive easing. Any rally needs a real catalyst

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<v Speaker 1>to stick. All right, what's driving the headlines today? First,

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<v Speaker 1>the KELP dow exploit two hundred and ninety two million

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<v Speaker 1>dollars drained from a bridge connecting rs eth, a liquid

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<v Speaker 1>restaking token, to other chains ave the biggest lending market

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<v Speaker 1>in DeFi took a visible hit to its total value

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<v Speaker 1>locked as a result. Here's why this matter is beyond

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<v Speaker 1>the hack itself. DeFi spent the last year stacking yield

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<v Speaker 1>on top of restaking tokens. Stake ethereum, get a token back,

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<v Speaker 1>use that token as collateral, borrow more, earn more. The

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<v Speaker 1>problem is those restaking tokens are not the same as

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<v Speaker 1>the underlying asset. They carry bridge risk, oracle risk, and

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<v Speaker 1>liquidity risk all at once. Nobody stress tested what happens

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<v Speaker 1>when the bottom brick gets pulled. The market is ricing

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<v Speaker 1>that risk, and now slowly and probably not completely yet.

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<v Speaker 1>If a second restaking token runs into trouble, the cascade

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<v Speaker 1>hits ave compound and every protocol that accepted these tokens

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<v Speaker 1>without proper safeguards. Watch this one closely. Next, Polymarket is

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<v Speaker 1>reportedly in talks to raise four hundred million dollars at

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<v Speaker 1>a fifteen billion dollar valuation. A prediction market, something that

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<v Speaker 1>was a niche experiment eighteen months ago, is now being

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<v Speaker 1>valued alongside mid sized US banks. What that signals Wall

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<v Speaker 1>Street has decided betting markets are a legitimate asset class.

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<v Speaker 1>The counterweight is regulatory. Polymarket's US status is still unresolved,

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<v Speaker 1>and a fifteen billion dollar valuation makes it a much

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<v Speaker 1>bigger target for the sec This is the prediction market thesis,

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<v Speaker 1>either arriving or overheating, probably both. Then there's Ripple quietly

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<v Speaker 1>doing something the rest of the industry should be paying

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<v Speaker 1>more attention to. They're upgrading the XRP ledger to be

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<v Speaker 1>quantum resistant. The quantum thread has been theoretical for years,

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<v Speaker 1>but that's changing the math securing most crypto wallets could

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<v Speaker 1>eventually be broken by a powerful enough quantum computer, and

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<v Speaker 1>Ripple is actively building defenses against that. Now the uncomfortable

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<v Speaker 1>question it raises how many other chains are quietly vulnerable

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<v Speaker 1>and doing nothing about it. Bitcoin's oldest wallets, coins sitting

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<v Speaker 1>in legacy address formats could be at risk before anyone

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<v Speaker 1>has a migration plan ready and quickly. On the Trump

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<v Speaker 1>moves Bitcoin angle, there's a real pattern here. White House

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<v Speaker 1>statements have moved Bitcoin meaningfully at least five times in

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<v Speaker 1>recent memory. With Bitcoin sitting at a key level, any

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<v Speaker 1>policy signal this week tariffs, dollar policy cryptoregulation could be

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<v Speaker 1>the catalyst that breaks the flat tape in either direction.

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<v Speaker 1>Keep one eye on Washington, all right, before we get

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<v Speaker 1>into the risks. Quick word from our sponsor, k We're back.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's talk about what to watch for. Three risks worth

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<v Speaker 1>keeping on your radar. First, sentiment is running ahead of fundamentals,

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<v Speaker 1>mean tokens up thirty seven percent, fund inflows strong, but

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<v Speaker 1>ethereum is still below twenty three hundred, and the broad

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<v Speaker 1>market structure is cautious. When sentiment and structure diverge like this,

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<v Speaker 1>it usually resolves fast. Which direction is the question. Second,

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<v Speaker 1>restaking contagion is probably not fully priced in yet. The

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<v Speaker 1>KELP Dow exploit hit ave visibly, but liquid restaking tokens

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<v Speaker 1>are embedded across multiple lending markets. A second to PEG

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<v Speaker 1>or bridge failure doesn't just hurt one protocol, it hits

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<v Speaker 1>every platform that accepted these tokens without adequate safeguards. The

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<v Speaker 1>market learned something this week, it may not have learned enough. Third,

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<v Speaker 1>polymarkets regulatory exposure just got a lot bigger. A fifteen

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<v Speaker 1>billion dollar valuation transforms it from a niche platform into

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<v Speaker 1>something the SEC can't ignore. A formal enforcement action against

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<v Speaker 1>the most prominent prediction market would reprice the entire category overnight.

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<v Speaker 1>The upside and the risk are now the same size

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<v Speaker 1>two things on my radar for the week ahead Friday,

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<v Speaker 1>April twenty fifth, the PCE inflation report, the FEDS preferred

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<v Speaker 1>inflation reading. It'll either reinforce or challenge the market's assumption

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<v Speaker 1>of fewer than four rate cuts this year. If it

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<v Speaker 1>comes in hot risk assets feel it. And sometime this

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<v Speaker 1>week confirmation on the polymarket funding round. If that four

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<v Speaker 1>hundred million RAYS closes at the fifteen billion valuation, it's

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<v Speaker 1>the clearest institutional endorsement prediction markets have ever received. If

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<v Speaker 1>the SEC moves first, very different story. That's the pulse

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<v Speaker 1>for April twentieth. If you want the full written breakdown

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<v Speaker 1>with all the sources and charts, check out our newsletter

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<v Speaker 1>at tokenmetrics dot com. This is educational content, not investment advice.

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<v Speaker 1>Always do your own research. I'm Alex. See you next time.