Crypto News Today (April 18): Insiders Control RaveDAO's 100X Rally, XRP Live on Solana, DeFi TVL Back Over $100B

RaveDAO's RAVE token continues its insane run today, on April 18. The coin is now at over $26, up 46% in the last 24 hours. This move is absolutely insane. It is now up 100X over the past month and is the 8th largest coin by fully diluted valuation (excluding stablecoins). Bitcoin is well above $77K at press time.

Overall sentiment in crypto is much better than just a few weeks ago. The hot crypto story remains RaveDAO, but the broader market is finally joining the party.

RaveDAO's Unstoppable Pump – Analyst Explains the Playbook

One analyst tweeted a sobering take on RaveDAO's mechanics. He noted that the team holds a huge percentage of supply, meaning they can bid their own chart. They are rotating capital into their own token – similar to stock buybacks, but unregulated.

The strategy: long perpetuals + buy spot → push price up → nuke shorts → farm funding. With low float and concentrated supply, they control the game with minimal risk. The analyst predicts they will likely pull the rug once funding cools, but by then the job will be completed.

Source: X/@cryptodude999

We have reported extensively on RaveDAO's supply concentration (90% in top wallets), team exploit, and exchange dumps. Yet the price keeps climbing. At $26, the FDV has swung wildly, but the momentum remains. For traders, the risk of a sudden reversal grows with every new high.

RAVE's fully diluted valuation accounts for all 1 billion tokens, not just the 248 million currently circulating. At today's price of $26, the FDV is at roughly $26 billion – putting RaveDAO ahead of established giants like Polygon, Chainlink, and even Litecoin on that metric.

Read also: RaveDAO (RAVE) Pumps 30% Today – But Analyst Warns of "Pure Price Manipulation"

Other Important Crypto News Today (April 18)

Other than RaveDAO, what else is happening in crypto and finance today? Let's find out.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs Has Largest Inflows Since January

On Friday, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of +$663.9 million. That is the largest single day of inflows since January 14. The streak of positive flows continues, signaling renewed institutional interest as Bitcoin holds above $77K.

Zcash Ships Critical Security Updates

Zcash released zcashd v6.12.1 and the Zcash Foundation released Zebra v4.3.1. The updates patch four vulnerabilities, including an Orchard action‑encoding issue that could crash nodes and a related risk of consensus divergence between the two clients.

Mining pools running both implementations have already deployed the fixes. Developers noted no evidence of exploitation, and user funds and privacy remain unaffected. No ZEC supply inflation is possible. Users are advised to upgrade immediately.

CFTC Probes $760M Oil Shorts Before Hormuz Announcement

Investors sold 7,990 lots of Brent crude oil futures worth about $760 million roughly 20 minutes before President Trump announced the Strait of Hormuz was fully open. The announcement triggered an up‑to‑11% drop in crude prices. This is not the first time.

On April 7, about $950 million was sold ahead of a two‑week US‑Iran ceasefire. On March 23, another $500 million bet was placed just 15 minutes before Trump said he would hold off on attacking Iran's energy infrastructure. The CFTC is investigating the March 23 and April 7 trades. The April 18 trade will likely face scrutiny as well.

DeFi TVL Back Over $100B, Stablecoin Cap Hits $320B

DeFi total value locked has climbed back above $100 billion. The stablecoin market cap has crossed $320 billion. Perpetual DEX open interest is growing again. The RWA (real‑world asset) market cap is at an all‑time high.

Source: X/@DefiLlama

These metrics mean that despite volatility in individual tokens, the broader crypto economy is expanding.

XRP Is Now Live on Solana

Solana announced that XRP is live on its network. The easier it is to get XRP, the better. Because both Solana and XRPL are connected to Squid Router, users can now easily move XRP cross‑chain from XRPL to Solana with ease.

As we reported earlier this week, XRP finally broke past the $1.40 range after weeks of sideways action between $1.30 and $1.40. This was overall a good week for XRP, and the Solana integration adds another layer of utility.

Read also: XRP Ghost Town: Why the Silence Is a Trap

All in all, for today (April 18), hottest crypto news are: RaveDAO's 100X rally continues to defy logic, but on‑chain data and analyst breakdowns point to a controlled game by insiders. Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows hit a 3‑month high, Zcash patched critical bugs, the CFTC is hunting oil short traders, DeFi metrics are booming, and XRP is now interoperable with Solana.

A busy Saturday in crypto.