Market Highlights
- Bitcoin broke US$100,000 for the first time since February.
- New Hampshire and Arizona both passed bitcoin and digital asset reserve legislation.
- The Ethereum Pectra upgrade went live, with ETH gaining almost 29% on the rollout.
- SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency is working on a crypto regulatory framework.
- Coinbase will join the S&P 500 from Monday, 19 May.
- Stablecoin bill, the GENIUS Act, was blocked in the U.S. Senate.
Markets Overview
Macro Market Updates:
This week, U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell kept the federal funds rate at 4.5%, citing ongoing economic growth, stable unemployment, and persistent inflation concerns. He noted the U.S. differs from peers like the U.K., which cut rates by 25bps to 4.25% amid slowing growth and weaker labour markets abroad. The Fed will await the impact of Trump’s trade policies before considering cuts.
A U.S.-U.K. trade deal was reached, with British plane parts exempted from tariffs, though a 10% blanket tariff remains on other imports. A U.S.-China trade deal progressed after two days of talks in Geneva, with a 90-day tariff pause and a “total reset” in relations. Risk assets rallied. The S&P 500 ended flat, Nasdaq rose 0.6%, and Dow Jones gained 0.2%.
This week, markets await Thursday’s U.S. producer price index and Powell’s speech. Friday brings fresh consumer sentiment and inflation expectations data.
Crypto Market Sector Performance
All crypto sectors rose this week, led by staking services and memecoins. Exchange tokens, utilities and services, and social saw the least growth. Within staking services, Eigenlayer (EIGEN) led with a 65.7% weekly gain. The protocol, which lets Ethereum validators support new networks, surged after Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade, likely driven by increased investor interest.
Sector-wide growth—especially in meme coins, which usually rally in bullish markets—signals renewed optimism. Still, geopolitical or macroeconomic shocks could challenge this momentum.
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin broke US$100,000 for the first time since February, hitting US$105,787 on Monday, 12 May. It opened at US$94,272 and climbed after the 8 May FOMC meeting, where Powell stressed caution before cutting rates. Gains continued as a U.S.-China trade deal emerged.
Vice President JD Vance will headline the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas (27–29 May), joined by Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and David Sacks. It marks the first time a VP headlines the event.
New Hampshire signed a bitcoin reserve bill into law, allowing up to 5% of public funds in digital assets with market caps above US$500B. Arizona updated its unclaimed property laws to create a Bitcoin and Digital Asset Reserve Fund. In Florida, two similar BTC bills were withdrawn.
Strive Asset Management, co-founded by Ohio candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, plans to become a bitcoin treasury company and list via reverse merger with Asset Entities. The firm filed with the SEC to raise up to US$1 billion through debt and equity offerings.
Metaplanet added 1,241 BTC, bringing its holdings to 6,796 BTC (US$706M). Tim Draper said firms without bitcoin treasuries are “being irresponsible”. At Strategy’s event, Michael Saylor shared how AI tools helped fund BTC purchases. The firm added 1,895 BTC last week (US$180M).
Bitcoin investment products saw US$867 million in inflows this week.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Ethereum (ETH)
Opening the week at US$1,808, Ethereum reached a weekly high of US$2,609 on Sunday, 11 May. ETH gained 28.9% throughout the second half of the week before retracing over the weekend. The gains are presumably due to positive sentiment among investors and users following the Pectra upgrade, which went live on the mainnet on Wednesday, 7 May. The largest upgrade since The Merge in 2022, Pectra brings new features aimed at improving the user experience — account abstraction, changes to data storage requirements, and increasing validator staking limits.
Ethereum asset investment products saw minor inflows of US$1.5 million this week.
Ethereum is currently trading at US$2,484, an increase of 36.7% on the week.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Altcoins
DeFi is back
- Ether.fi (ETHFI) gained 102.3%, taking its market cap to US$288.8 million. The decentralised liquid staking protocol on the Ethereum network saw gains as the Pectra upgrade went live and the announcement that Nexus Mutual DAO will stake 6,784 ETH using Ether.fi.
- THORChain (RUNE) gained 55.2%, taking its market cap to almost US$687.4 million. The decentralised liquidity protocol and cross-chain exchange saw gains throughout the second half of the week as volume and bullish momentum picked up across the market. Also this week, THORChain’s volume surpassed US$100 billion, indicating its strong user base and reliable infrastructure.
Smart contract gains
- Xai (XAI) grew by 82.2%. This takes its market cap to US$112.9 million. The layer-3 blockchain, used primarily for gaming and interactive entertainment, saw gains presumably due to growth across gaming, culture and social tokens this week. Plus, the team announced that Arbitrum Gaming Ventures is investing in the network.
- Metis (METIS) gained 56.7%. This takes its market cap to US$147 million. The layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum saw gains as the Pectra upgrade went live. The team also announced that the Andromeda Upgrade will go live on the Metis network on 14 May, which will provide fraud proofs and data availability migration to Ethereum.
Currency wins
- SSV Network (SSV) gained 59.8%, which takes its market cap to US$66.8 million. The distributed validator technology for Ethereum stakers saw gains, presumably due to the Pectra upgrade going live. The network also reached a milestone of having 100,000 active validators on the network.
- Energy Web (EWT) grew by 55.8%, which takes its market cap to almost US$63.8 million. The native utility token for the Energy Web Chain gained throughout the week, presumably due to the network’s SAFc registry built for Alaska Airlines going live.
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
In Other News
Digital asset investment products saw US$882 million of inflows this week. It marks four consecutive weeks of inflows, which brings inflows for the year to date (YTD) to US$6.7 billion. The recovery of inflows in recent weeks is presumably due to growth in M2 money supply, stagflation risk in the US, and investors looking for hard assets like bitcoin to store value.
In altcoins, Sui was the biggest gainer, with US$11.7 million flowing into investment products for the asset. Solana saw outflows of US$3.4 million. Sui has now overtaken Solana for YTD inflows, with US$84 million flowing into these products, compared to US$76 million for Solana.
Other crypto news
- Coinbase will join the S&P 500 from Monday, 19 May, replacing Discover Financial Services, which will be acquired. Shares for the crypto exchange gained 8% on the news. At its 2021 highs, Coinbase traded at US$357. It closed Monday trading at US$207. Stocks added to the S&P 500 often gain as funds that track the S&P 500 will often add the company to their portfolios.
- Ethereum layer-2 startup, Movement Labs, terminated its co-founder, Rushi Manche, following a 66 million MOVE token sale by market maker Rentech, which triggered a governance crisis at the company. The tokens, which equate to 5% of MOVE supply were sold within 24 hours of its December 2024 launch. The company also announced Move Industries, a new company established following the dumping of MOVE tokens. The new company aims to provide improved transparency and internal governance.
- In exchange-traded fund (ETF) news, the U.S. SEC delayed its decision on Canary Capital’s application for a Litecoin ETF. The firm filed the application in October 2024. The SEC is currently considering applications from numerous asset management firms to launch ETFs for several altcoins, including XRP, SOL, DOGE, and Cardano, to name a few.
Regulatory
- The GENIUS Act, the U.S. Senate’s stablecoin legislation, was blocked this week when Democrats within the Senate decided to vote against the bill due to concerns over rushed revisions and gaps, such as insufficient anti-money laundering provisions. The Senate is expected to revise the legislation and address concerns as early as this week once the text is finalised and senators have reviewed the changes. And in other stablecoin news, Stripe announced its new stablecoin accounts at its annual user event, while Meta said it's planning to introduce a stablecoin for managing payouts.
- U.S. SEC Chair Paul Atkins gave an outline of how crypto assets may be regulated during a keynote address at the Crypto Task Force Roundtable on Monday, 12 May. He said the agency is considering rule changes that would allow registered broker-dealers with an alternative trading system to facilitate the trading of non-securities. He also emphasised their focus on creating a solid regulatory foundation for crypto assets.
- The crypto market structure bill, currently before the U.S. House of Representatives, was considered before a House committee this week. If passed, the bill would end the SEC’s oversight of crypto assets, and secondary market trading of digital assets would be exempt if the assets originate from a “mature blockchain system”. Democrats staged a walkout after Republican lawmakers refused to add clauses that would ban President Trump’s involvement in crypto ventures. The walkout preceded Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal opening an investigation into President Trump’s crypto businesses, including the President’s meme coin, TRUMP, and DeFi platform, World Liberty Financial.
- The U.S. SEC filed for a US$50 million settlement with Ripple. The settlement amount is vastly lower than the US$1.3 billion lawsuit brought against Ripple in December 2020 over sales of XRP tokens. Under the settlement, the US$125 million fine Ripple was ordered to pay last year will cover the US$50 million settlement, with the remaining US$75 million returned to Ripple. XRP gained over 8% on the news.
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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.
