Greek exchange Athens Exchange Group has moved closer to adopting a Sui-based order book following its collaboration with Mysten Labs.

On April 16, the Sui (SUI) team announced that Athens Exchange Group, or ATHEX, had finalized the technical design for an onchain fundraising platform that will leverage zero-knowledge proofs on the Sui blockchain.

ATHEX’s ZK-powered fundraising platform will help the stock exchange enhance its offering with privacy and speed, bolstering its growth in traditional capital markets.

This nod to blockchain innovation and integration follows Sui contributor Mysten Labs’ partnership with the Athens Exchange Group in March 2024.

The collaboration between the two platforms aims to leverage their respective ecosystems to deliver the technical design for ATHEX’s Electronic Book Building (EBB), the exchange’s fundraising feature. By tapping into Sui’s technology and tooling, the company will be able to integrate zero-knowledge proofs into EBB’s bidding process.

Currently, Athens Exchange Group and Mysten Labs are eyeing a proof of concept, with this a key milestone towards building the first onchain order book for a stock exchange.

“The focus on privacy-preserving mechanisms, combined with Sui’s unparalleled speed and security, will enable us to build a state-of-the-art PoC that can evolve into a full-fledged onchain order book, setting a new benchmark for the industry,” said Dr. Kostas Kryptos Chalkios, Chief Cryptographer and Co-Founder of Mysten Labs

ATHEX will benefit from a platform that combines privacy-preserving mechanisms, speed and security.

Sui’s capacity to scale and handle transactions in parallel, with industry-leading throughput will be crucial to the stock exchange.

“By integrating zero-knowledge proofs, we aim to uphold the highest standards of compliance and data integrity while boosting operational efficiency for all market participants,” said Nikos Porfyris, chief operating officer at Athens Exchange Group. 

Sui is the 10th largest blockchain by total value locked per DeFiLlama with over $1.18 billion in TVL.

As the XRP price climbs back above the crucial $2 mark, reflecting a 20% surge over the past week, market analysts are increasingly optimistic about the token’s recovery and potential for setting new all-time highs (ATHs). 

Expert analyst Maelius recently shared insights on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), suggesting that the current market dynamics support a bullish outlook for the XRP price.

XRP Price Could Target $10 In Conservative Case

Despite the recent price surge, some market participants remain skeptical about XRP’s trajectory. Maelius addressed these concerns, stating, “In a conservative case, I think XRP looks very bullish on higher time frames (HTFs).” 

Historically, XRP has shown a pattern of respecting the 50-week Exponential Moving Average (EMA) during bull markets. Recently, the asset touched this EMA and rebounded, reinforcing the belief that it is on a positive trajectory.

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In his social media update, Maelius outlined two scenarios for XRP’s future price movements: a conservative case and a more optimistic base case. In the conservative scenario, Maelius posits that XRP has completed its Wave 3 (W3) of a larger Elliott Wave cycle and is currently finalizing Wave 4. This suggests that XRP could expand into a final Wave 5, targeting $10. 

The expert assigns a 35% probability to this conservative case, highlighting that price and Relative Strength Index (RSI) behaviors indicate a potential base formation around current levels before reaching new highs later in the year.

Maelius’s more optimistic scenario suggests that the top of Wave 3 may not have been reached yet. He points out that the accumulation phase for the XRP price has been longer than in previous cycles, indicating that the market may just be taking more time to develop. 

In this case, the final W5 could extend into the first or second quarter of the next year, with targets ranging from $15 to $20 or higher.

Can Dominance Translate To Price Gains?

In addition to the XRP pprice analysis, Maelius examined the token’s market dominance, which indicates the token’s share within the broader cryptocurrency market. 

The expert noted that while the token’s dominance has been preparing for a final upward move, this does not necessarily correlate with the XRP price reaching new highs. 

The dominance metric, seen in the image below shared by Maelious, suggests that while XRP might underperform relative to other altcoins, it still has the potential for significant price appreciation.

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The 1-week RSI for the token’s dominance is currently in an uptrend and resting on horizontal support. If this support level fails, a diagonal support line could provide the next level of defense. 

Historically, XRP’s dominance has experienced two major impulses during previous cycles, each reaching notable resistance areas. However, Maelius cautions that the growing size of the market makes it increasingly challenging for any single asset to achieve the same peaks as in prior cycles.

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com 

AI-focused crypto tokens are seeing a dip as Nvidia, the top AI chipmaker fueling the space, could soon take a major financial hit due to new U.S. export restrictions.

In a filing on April 14, Nvidia said it expects around $5.5 billion in charges for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 because of U.S. government rules limiting its AI chip sales to China.

On April 9, officials told Nvidia it now needs special export licenses for its popular H20 chips and others with similar capabilities. The new restrictions target China, Hong Kong, and Macau, with the government warning that the chips could end up powering Chinese supercomputers.

The H20 chip is the most advanced AI chip Nvidia is currently allowed to sell in China under the earlier rules. It’s reportedly been used by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek to train models, something that has raised concerns among U.S. lawmakers.

Even though Nvidia said it plans to spend hundreds of millions over the next four years making some AI chips in the U.S., that hasn’t stopped the stock from sliding after its latest filing and the expected hit to future revenues. NVDA dropped 6.3% in after-hours trading on April 15 to $105.10, and it’s down about 16.45% so far this year.

Nvidia’s decline mirrors a wider pullback in tech as Trump’s tariff escalation rattles investor confidence across the sector. Other prominent tech stocks were also in the red, with Apple down 0.20% from the previous close to $202.14, Microsoft off 0.56% at $385.73, Alphabet sliding 1.71% to $156.31, and Amazon dropping 1.33% to $179.59.

Adding to Nvidia’s troubles, a “death cross” has formed on the 1-day NVDA/USD chart, a bearish technical signal where its 50-day moving average drops below the 200-day one. The last time this happened was in April 2022, and Nvidia’s stock plunged nearly 50% in the following six months.

That’s got investors in AI crypto tokens on edge, as these tokens have often reacted to Nvidia-related news mostly due to the fact that Nvidia’s hardware plays a central role in powering the AI infrastructure that many of these projects rely on. 

For instance, in December, reports of China launching an antitrust probe into Nvidia caused the AI crypto token market cap to drop by over 14% in a single day. In the past, a surge in the Nvidia stock price has also resulted in bullish rallies for AI tokens.

Following Nvidia’s latest filing, the total market cap of AI-related tokens has fallen 3.7% in the past 24 hours, now sitting at around $20.1 billion. Trading volume also declined, signaling weaker demand.

Near Protocol (NEAR), the biggest AI crypto by market cap, slid 5.3% over the past day. Other major tokens like Internet Computer (ICP), Render (RENDER), Sei (SEI), Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL), and Akash Network (AKT) also lost between 5% and 12%.