Market Highlights
- Twenty One Capital will launch with a planned US$3.9 billion BTC treasury.
- Solana Foundation announces a new validating onboarding and offboarding policy.
- U.S. SEC holds its third crypto roundtable, focused on custody of digital assets.
- TRUMP token surged 66% on announcement that top holders can attend an exclusive dinner.
Markets Overview
Macro Market Updates:
Markets regained some of the previous week’s losses this week as President Trump wound back his commentary around removing U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell. Alleged progress in trade negotiations between the U.S. and China also buoyed markets. China rolled back tariffs on US semiconductors and some pharmaceuticals. Plus, President Trump said he’d spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping “many times”. The Chinese Embassy in Washington later posted on X, denying that the two leaders had spoken. Despite the conflicting commentary, markets reacted positively to the potential that trade tensions may be easing. At the close of the trading week, the S&P 500 was up 5.7%, the Nasdaq finished up 5.8%, and the Dow Jones closed up 3.1%. Still, consumer sentiment remains subdued. The University of Michigan’s April consumer sentiment reading was revised higher this week to 52.2, but it’s still the lowest reading since July 2022. Analysts suggest this means more uncertainty may come, given no trade deals have been formally agreed to yet.
Across Europe, the UK and the U.S., it was a week of purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data. The U.S. and German Flash Manufacturing PMI came in above forecast at 50.7 and 48, respectively. The UK and France came in on forecast at 44 and 48.2, respectively. While there weren’t any drastic PMI data misses, output growth in the U.S. has hit a 16-month low due to persistent trade uncertainty and stagflation concerns. This week, traders and investors will be watching the Bank of Japan’s next interest rate decision and the U.S. non-farm employment change for March, both to be released on Thursday, 1 May.
Crypto Market Sector Performance
All crypto sectors experienced growth this week. The gains were led by NFT applications, artificial intelligence (AI) and memecoins. In AI, the biggest gainers were Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) and Worldcoin (WLD), gaining 142.8% and 47.6%, respectively on the week. Sam Altman-linked WLD’s gains are presumably due to whales accumulating 13 million WLD last week. WLD’s team, Alex Blania and Sam Altman, will deliver an update on the Worldcoin project on 1 May at an event titled “At Last”.
The smallest gains this week were seen across file storage, store of value and utilities and services. With all sectors growing, it indicates the wider market gains due to seemingly positive news about U.S. trade negotiations and crypto-related developments buoying prices.
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin broke above US$95,000 this week for the first time since February. Opening the week at US$85,177, bitcoin rallied to a weekly high of US$95,976 on Friday, 25 April. This week’s gains are presumably due to the potential for easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China, and President Trump announcing that he won’t remove Jerome Powell. Further, as geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty persists, bitcoin may be returning to safe-haven status as investors look to allocate capital for a long-term store of value. Bitcoin is currently trading at US$94,592, an increase of 8.4% on the week.
Twenty One Capital, a new bitcoin treasury company, is going public via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) by merging with Cantor Equity Partners and teaming up with other crypto and TradFi players, including Tether, Bitfinex, Cantor Fitzgerald and SoftBank. Tether and Bitfinex will contribute 31,500 BTC to the company, which has a planned treasury of over 42,000 BTC (US$3.9 billion). Following the merger, SoftBank aims to maintain a significant minority ownership, while Tether and Bitfinex will be majority shareholders.
Nasdaq-listed Semler Scientific (SMLR) bought more bitcoin this week, adding 111 BTC to its portfolio. This takes its total holdings to 3,303 BTC, worth almost US$314 million. Chairman Eric Semler said investors are free to sell their shares if they don’t like the company’s bitcoin strategy. And Metaplanet bought 145 BTC, bringing the firm halfway to its 2025 goal of holding 10,000 BTC.
Also this week, Roger Ver, known as “Bitcoin Jesus”, paid US$600,000 to Roger Stone, a political operative, to lobby President Trump to drop the “exit tax” that people are required to pay when they renounce U.S. citizenship. Under the current tax code, Ver owes US$48 million in taxes associated with exiting the U.S. Ver’s legal team has filed a motion to dismiss the case, citing that the tax laws are vague and outdated in regards to crypto.
Bitcoin asset investment products saw inflows of almost US$3.2 billion, with assets under management now at US$132 billion — a level not seen since February.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum also saw gains this week. Opening the week at US$1,587, Ethereum rallied to a weekly high of US$1,857 on Sunday, 27 April, before retracing.
Two Ethereum community members proposed a new fee structure for the network’s application layer. The proposal suggests using a square root function to proportionally lower the percentage of fees as funding capital as a project grows. This would allow developers to balance revenue generation and fee extraction.
Ethereum asset investment products saw inflows of US$183 million, ending an eight-week streak of outflows.
Ethereum is currently trading at US$1,795, an increase of 13.9% on the week.
Altcoins
Get smart (contracts)
- Aleph Zero (AZERO) gained 62.7%. This takes its market cap to US$48.5 million. The privacy-focused network saw gains on Common App’s implementation of Aleph Zero’s technology to deliver “shielding” capabilities for users who hold tokens in the app.
- Sui gained 61.8%, which takes its market cap to US$11.6 billion. The layer-1 blockchain saw a rally due to growth in total locked value (TVL) on the network. This week, TVL on SUI grew to US$1.6 billion, a 38% increase on the week.
- Casper Network (CSPR) gained 56.8%, taking its market cap to US$194.9 million. CSPR surged over 130% on Monday, 28 April, before retracing. Trading volume grew by 2,500% on the same day. The gains are due to increasing investor interest ahead of the Casper 2.0 upgrade, scheduled for May 6.
DeFi flies high
- Flamingo Finance (FLM) gained 71.4%, which takes its market cap to US$18.6 million. The full-stack DeFi protocol saw growth when the team responded to community feedback to raise the price of FLM to mint FLOCKS — a multi-asset dividend-bearing token. For 1.1 FLM, a user can mint 1 FLOCKS. FLM was also listed on Bitmart this week.
- TokenFi (TOKEN) grew by 69.4%, taking its market cap to US$54.2 million. The real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation platform gained on news that the team had a successful meeting with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar, where building a regulation-friendly RWA blockchain was discussed.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
In Other News
Digital asset investment products saw their third-largest week of inflows on record, with US$3.4 billion flowing into funds. The inflows are presumably due to the adverse impacts of tariffs on corporate earnings, plus the recent weakening of the US dollar. These factors are driving investors towards safe-haven assets, with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin a valid option for those looking for a long-term store of value amidst ongoing inflation concerns and geopolitical instability.
In altcoins and other products, Solana investment products saw outflows of US$5.7 million, while Sui and XRP saw inflows of US$20.7 million and US$31.6 million, respectively. Blockchain equities saw inflows of US$17.4 million.
Other crypto news
- President Trump’s Solana meme coin, TRUMP, surged 66% on Wednesday, 23 April, when the team announced that top TRUMP token holders are invited to an exclusive dinner. In less than an hour, TRUMP went from US$9.30 to US$14.72 — the highest price for the coin since early March. TRUMP holders must be in the top 220 registered holders to be eligible to attend the 22 May dinner to be held at the National Golf Club in Washington D.C.
- The Solana Foundation announced a new validating onboarding and offboarding policy. It’s designed to improve decentralisation and reduce validators’ reliance on foundation support. Under the updated Solana Foundation Delegation Program (SFDP), for every new validator that joins, three validators will be removed if they've been eligible for delegation for at least 18 months and attracted less than 1,000 SOL outside stake.
- This week in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and futures products, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delayed its decisions on applications for Canary Capital’s Hedera ETF, Greyscale’s Polkadot Trust, and Bitwise’s fund based on bitcoin and Ethereum’s performance. The agency has until 11 June to make a decision on Canary and Grayscale’s applications and until 10 June for Bitwise’s application. There are currently 72 crypto applications before the SEC for approval. Also this week, the CME Group announced that it's launching XRP futures contracts on 19 May.
Regulatory
- Dragonchain Token (DRGN) gained 104% this week when the U.S. SEC dropped its lawsuit against the company. The case was brought against Dragonchain in August 2022, alleging that the sale of the DRGN token constituted a sale of unregistered securities. A joint filing from both sides of the case cited the Crypto Task Force’s work on regulatory clarity as the key reason to dismiss the case.
- The U.S. SEC held its third crypto roundtable on Friday, 25 April, focused on crypto custody. Newly sworn-in SEC Chair Paul Atkins gave an address before the roundtable, condemning previous Chair Gary Gensler’s approach. Atkins said that innovation has been hampered in recent years due to a lack of regulatory clarity. The focus of the SEC’s third roundtable session was on debating how regulations surrounding safeguarding digital assets will progress under the Trump administration and into the future.
- Crypto will now be treated like other banking services in the U.S. after the U.S. Federal Reserve withdrew the requirement for financial institutions to provide advanced notice of crypto and stablecoin-related activities. Moving forward, institutions’ engagements with the sector will be monitored like other banking activities.
Disclaimer: This assessment does not consider your personal circumstances, and should not be construed as financial, legal or investment advice. These thoughts are ours only and should only be taken as educational by the reader. Under no circumstances do we make recommendation or assurance towards the views expressed in the blog-post. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. The Company disclaims all duties and liabilities, including liability for negligence, for any loss or damage which is suffered or incurred by any person acting on any information provided.
from Caleb & Brown Cryptocurrency Brokerage.
