April 8 saw a strong rebound across the crypto market. Total capitalization reached $2.52 trillion, up 4.3% in the last 24 hours, with trading volume hitting $123 billion. The Fear & Greed Index ticked up to 17 from 11 the day before, yet remained in the "extreme fear" zone, signaling lingering caution.
Major Coins Rally, ZEC Stands Out
Bitcoin (BTC) traded at $71,546.84, gaining 4.12% on volume of $45.4 billion. Its market dominance held at 56.8%. Ethereum (ETH) outperformed, rising 5.62% to $2,232.95 with $23.79 billion in trades, and dominance at 10.7%.
Among altcoins, Zcash (ZEC) surged the most — up 24.66% to $314.48, trading $843.78 million. edgeX (EDGE) and LayerZero (ZRO) followed with gains of 18.10% and 18.02% respectively. On the losing side, DeXe (DEXE) dropped 12.28%, Decred (DCR) fell 3.91%, and JUST (JST) slipped 3.88%.
Stablecoins saw a slight 0.1% uptick, with total market cap at $310 billion and volume of $105 billion. Decentralized finance (DeFi) market cap rose 4.8% to $51.5 billion, representing 2.0% of the global crypto market.
SEC Shifts Approach, Rayls Mainnet Approaches
The U.S. SEC announced it would no longer pursue regulation-by-enforcement in crypto, focusing instead on fraud, manipulation, and broad investor protection. In parallel, World Liberty Financial moved 3 billion WLFI tokens into a multisig wallet, then borrowed stablecoins via the Dolomite protocol, sending some to Coinbase Prime. Its ties to AB DAO drew scrutiny following reports about past associations with sanctioned individuals.
On the infrastructure front, Rayls Public Chain confirmed a April 30 mainnet launch, activating staking, USDr gas payments, and the full RLS token economy. GSR also invested in Libeara, a tokenization platform backed by SC Ventures, to expand real-world asset issuance outside the U.S.
Meanwhile, Seamless Protocol began winding down, with frontend support ending June 30; Fantom Opera, under Sonic Labs, will also cease on the same date as the ecosystem completes its migration to Sonic. Coinbase's Australian arm secured an AFSL from ASIC, enabling local retail derivatives offerings, with plans to expand into futures and options. President Trump said the U.S. may pause strikes on Iran for two weeks if the Strait of Hormuz reopens safely — a macro event traders are watching closely.