• "Ok": Elon Musk's reply turns Asteroid Shiba into SpaceX mascot and ignites crypto market
• Ripple's Japanese expansion continues: XRP may become "bridge" for Tottori Bank
• TRON founder Justin Sun attempts to negotiate with KelpDAO hacker
• Crypto market outlook: Bitcoin at $75K awaits liquidity drivers with major inflation data ahead

TL;DR

• SpaceX mascot confirmed: Elon Musk honors late fan Liv Perrotti by naming "Asteroid Shiba" the official SpaceX mascot, sparking an ETH meme coin surge.
• Ripple’s Japan expansion: Tottori Bank integrates XRP for cross-border remittances starting April 20 to solve labor shortage payment delays.
• DeFi crisis: Justin Sun negotiates with a KelpDAO exploiter after a $236M Aave borrow triggered a massive $5.4B Ethereum withdrawal wave.
• Crypto market outlook: Bitcoin holds steady at $75K. All eyes are on Tuesday’s U.S. Retail Sales data to dictate the next move toward $80K.

"Ok": Elon Musk's reply turns Asteroid Shiba into SpaceX mascot and ignites crypto market

A story that brought together space, charity and crypto has reached its conclusion — Elon Musk has officially confirmed the plush dog Asteroid Shiba as the mascot of his space company, SpaceX.

The event, which became the main headline of the past 24 hours, traces back to 2022. That year, 11-year-old Liv Perrotti, who was battling osteosarcoma, created the design of a plush Shiba Inu in a spacesuit. The toy, named Asteroid Shiba, was sent into orbit in 2024 during the historic Polaris Dawn mission as a zero-gravity indicator.

HOT Stories Elon Musk Approves New SpaceX Mascot Asteroid Shiba, XRP Emerges as Bridge in Tottori Bank-SBI Remit Deal, TRON Founder Contacts KelpDAO Hacker Amid $6 Billion Ethereum Outflow — Morning Crypto Report Massive $290 Million Hack Hits Ethereum and Arbitrum

After Liv Perrotti’s passing, her mother published a list of eight questions the girl had dreamed of asking the head of SpaceX. On April 19, 2026, Elon Musk responded to them on his social platform X, briefly confirming Asteroid Shiba’s status as SpaceX’s mascot.

ASTEROID coin price reaction to Elon Musk tweet about SpaceX mascot, Source: TradingView

Musk’s reply triggered an immediate reaction in the market with multiple coins launched, though none of them is official. Following the news, two main ASTEROID tokens emerged — on Solana and on Ethereum. Despite Solana’s popularity for meme coins, the majority of capital concentrated on Ethereum, where market capitalization surged from $17 million to over $160 million.

On-chain data recorded a transaction that has already become a meme: an unknown holder controlled 1.8% of all Asteroid tokens for two months of quiet. Ironically, the entire position was sold at a slight loss just 24 hours before Musk posted his reply. At peak prices, that stake would have been worth $3.2 million.

Ripple's Japanese expansion continues: XRP may become "bridge" for Tottori Bank

On April 20, Japanese fintech giant SBI Remit will officially launch a cross-border remittance service in partnership with Tottori Bank, according to an SBI announcement. This marks the 26th regional bank integrated into the SBI ecosystem, which uses Ripple’s distributed ledger technology.

For Tottori Bank, this is not a trend-driven move but a matter of survival. Tottori Prefecture faces a record labor shortage, increasingly filled by foreign workers. Traditional transfers via SWIFT have become too costly and slow due to strict AML requirements and the transition to ISO 20022.

XRP Scoop📢Tottori Bank & @SBIRemit start international money transfer services, April 20. This marks the 26th Bank|FI SBI Remit partner, which actively uses @Ripple’s DLT for low-cost, 24/7 remittances. Where $XRP liquidity is ample, XRP can serve as an optional bridge.… pic.twitter.com/Qp7I77nHo6

— 🌸Eri ~ Carpe Diem (@sentosumosaba) April 19, 2026

The partnership allows the bank to offload “micro-remittances” from migrant workers onto SBI Remit’s infrastructure. Here, XRP acts as an optional bridge asset: where liquidity is sufficient, the system converts yen into XRP and then into the target currency such as Philippine peso or Vietnamese dong within seconds, bypassing correspondent banks.

A broader trend is emerging where Japan’s regional banks are effectively outsourcing their international operations to Ripple infrastructure, acknowledging the inefficiency of legacy banking for small payments. For the end user, the transaction appears as a standard transfer within an app. XRP operates behind the scenes, enabling 24 by 7 functionality that traditional banking hours cannot match.

TRON founder Justin Sun attempts to negotiate with KelpDAO hacker

The decentralized finance ecosystem has faced a black swan event that exposed vulnerabilities in restaking systems. The KelpDAO exploit led not only to direct asset theft but also to an unprecedented liquidity crisis in Aave, forcing major market participants, including Justin Sun, to urgently protect their capital.

The root cause was a misconfiguration in a LayerZero-based bridge. The attacker was able to deceive the protocol and mint 116,500 unbacked rsETH tokens. These assets had no real collateral, yet DeFi risk models accepted them as valid.

The attacker deposited these tokens into Aave V3 and borrowed real WETH worth about $236 million against them. News of bad debt triggered a massive withdrawal wave. More than $5.4 billion was pulled from Aave within hours.

Justin Sun reacts as AAVE price plunges amid KelpDAO exploit, Source: TradingView

TRON founder Justin Sun was among the first to react, withdrawing 65,584 ETH, about $154 million. Sun moved to public negotiations, offering a deal to the attacker, suggesting that such funds cannot be laundered without attracting law enforcement and that a collapse of major protocols would render the stolen assets unusable.

Wrapped rsETH tokens across more than 20 networks, including Base, Arbitrum and Linea, temporarily lost backing. Multiple DeFi projects began disabling LayerZero integrations pending investigation.

The incident demonstrated that a single compromised cross-chain route can threaten major protocols like Aave when complex derivatives such as LRTs are accepted as collateral. RsETH markets are currently frozen, and teams are preparing liquidity restoration plans, but trust in the liquid restaking sector has been damaged.

Crypto market outlook: Bitcoin at $75K awaits liquidity drivers with major inflation data ahead

Bitcoin has stabilized above $75,000, supported by steady weekly ETF inflows totaling $996 million. Despite a pullback from the local high of $78,000 and uncertainty in energy markets, the asset remains resilient. The current week lacks major inflation data such as CPI or PCE, leaving the market highly sensitive to secondary U.S. macro indicators.

Key checkpoints:

• Bitcoin trades around $75,500. After failing to break above $78,000, the price is searching for a new base, with local support formed at $74,000.
• April 21, Tuesday: U.S. retail sales for March. Markets expect weak data. If figures come in below expectations, it could reinforce expectations of a dovish Federal Reserve and restore risk appetite in crypto.
• April 22 to 23: labor market and services sector. Reports on initial jobless claims and the S&P Flash U.S. Services PMI. Any signs of economic cooling could push BTC back toward the $76,000 to $78,000 range.

Consensus outlook by analysts including Bitwise and CoinCodex maintains a moderately bullish stance, targeting $76,000 to $80,000 by the end of the month under stable macro conditions. Longer-term projections for 2026 remain in the $120,000 to $189,000 range.

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Sun, 04/19/2026 - 05:59 Massive $290 Million Hack Hits Ethereum and ArbitrumByAlex Dovbnya

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