Weekly Rollup - April 1, 2025

Markets Overview

Macro Market Updates:

Trade tensions and rising inflation sparked fresh fears in markets this week. On 2 April 2025, so-called “Liberation Day”, President Trump will roll out reciprocal tariffs that could affect up to 25 countries. Automotive, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors are expected to be the most heavily impacted industries. Vehicle imports to the U.S. will be hit with 25% tariffs, while Australian pharmaceutical exports to the U.S. are expected to be among the other imports impacted. Part of a push to raise US$600 billion in revenue annually, President Trump’s tariffs are part of the newly created “External Revenue Service”, which still requires congressional approval. The week ended with February’s personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index coming in above forecast at 0.4% — the largest monthly increase in over a year. The reading sparked further stagflation fears, where economic growth slows while inflation continues to rise.

The S&P 500 finished the week down 3.2%, the Dow Jones closed down 2.4%, and the Nasdaq closed down by almost 5.5%. Going into the new week, investors will be watching President Trump’s tariffs announcement on 2 April, the U.S. non-farm employment change on 4 April, and U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s statement on 4 April.

Crypto Market Sector Performance

All sectors saw declines this week. Staking services, AI and data availability experienced the biggest losses. The most stable sector, privacy coins, was led by Zcash (ZEC), which gained 19.3% on the week. Some decentralised finance (DeFi) outliers saw growth this week (more on that below), though the wider market sell-off made it difficult for entire sectors to accelerate.

Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin traded sideways for much of the week before fresh inflation fears and uncertainty over President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs to be announced on 2 April caused a weekend sell-off. Over US$360 million in long-bitcoin positions were liquidated on Friday, 28 March, which coincided with the expiration of US$12 billion in bitcoin options, likely adding to the declines. Opening the week at US$86,093, bitcoin reached a three-week high of US$88,474 before declining to a low of US$81,265. Bitcoin is currently trading at US$82,565, a decrease of 6% on the week.

While recent volatility and uncertainty have seen bitcoin sell-off like other risk assets, negative exchange flows since early February indicate that sophisticated capital sees value in BTC at these levels. And with whale accumulation activity resuming after a period of dormancy (48 new wallets now hold over 100 BTC), large BTC holders and sophisticated investors may be getting positioned for a rally.

BlackRock launched a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Europe. The iShares Bitcoin ETP (IB1T) is listed on the German, French and Dutch stock exchanges. The firm’s U.S. iShares Bitcoin Trust has seen almost US$40 billion of net inflows since its January 2024 launch.

South Carolina representative Jordan Pace introduced the “Strategic Digital Assets Reserve Act,” which proposes that the state treasurer allocate up to 10% of public funds to buy bitcoin and other digital assets. The bill sets a cap of one million BTC and mandates that any digital asset holdings not exceed 3% of the state’s investment portfolio.

Brazil’s Chief of Staff to President Luiz Inácio Lula said that establishing a bitcoin reserve is critical to the country’s prosperity. The comments came after another Brazilian policymaker, Eros Biondini, introduced a bill proposing a “Strategic Sovereign Bitcoin Reserve,” mandating up to 5% of the country’s funds be used to acquire bitcoin. The bill requires passage through both houses and presidential approval before being enacted.

GameStop (GME) updated its investment policy this week, stating that it would add “certain cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin,” to its balance sheet. Like Strategy (formerly Microstrategy), GameStop aims to raise the funds to accumulate bitcoin via a US$1.3 billion convertible note offering. GME declined by 12.9% on the announcement.

In other BTC buys, Metaplanet bought 150 more BTC, bringing its bitcoin treasury to 3,350 BTC at a value of US$290 million. It follows Eric Trump being added to the firm’s strategic advisory board last week. And The Blockchain Group, a French tech firm, increased its BTC holdings to 620 bitcoins when it bought 580 BTC at a value of US$50.6 million.

Bitcoin asset investment products saw inflows of USS$195 million this week.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

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Ethereum (ETH)

It was a similarly shaky week for Ethereum. Opening the week at US$2,006, Ethereum saw a decline of over 15% before retracing slightly. The weekly low for ETH was US$1,767. The area around US$1,790 appears to be providing some support for price. The early-March sell-off declined to a low of US$1,754 before regaining lost ground in the weeks that followed.

Recent analysis of Ethereum indicates that implied volatility for the cryptocurrency is nearing recent lows, sitting at 59% for 7-day tenors and 45% for 30-day tenors. A low in implied volatility usually occurs before an uptick, which indicates weak investor confidence in the near term, while long-term confidence remains, especially as the circulating supply of ETH on exchanges recently hit a nine-year low.

Fidelity Investments filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to tokenise its US Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX) on the Ethereum blockchain. The money market fund invests in short-term U.S. treasuries and cash.

Custodia Bank, in partnership with Vantage Bank, launched Avit, a stablecoin on the Ethereum mainnet. It marks the first bank-issued stablecoin on a permissionless blockchain. Avit will enable users to transact with low fees, fast settlements, and programmability and auditability.

Ethereum asset investment products saw minor inflows of US$14.5 million this week.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

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Altcoins

DeFi-ing the odds

• VIDT DAO (VIDT) had another strong week, growing by 66.6%. This takes its market cap to US$20.9 million. VIDT soared over 70% on Friday, 28 March, when one of the project’s partners, Carbon Timestamps, outlined how VIDT DAO and BNB Chain were working together to provide whitelabel timestamping services and consulting for offset companies.
• Enzyme (MLN) saw gains of 37.9% this week, which takes its market cap to US$38.8 million. The on-chain asset management network gained almost 85% throughout the weekend before retracing. The gains are potentially due to the team outlining how a crypto project worked with Enyme to bootstrap US$62 million in total value locked (TVL) before launch.

SAFEty net

• Safe (SAFE) gained 29.2%, taking its market cap to US$328.4 million. The multisig wallet saw gains following the passage of Kentucky’s self-custody law, which provides greater protections for those self-custodying their digital assets. Safe also saw 46% quarter-on-quarter volume growth in Q4, which could be increasing investor interest.

This week’s biggest losers

• Loom Network (NEW) (LOOM) declined by 38.6%, which takes its market cap to almost US$29 million. The project, which is building an ecosystem of blockchains for DeFi protocols, declined by over 60% on Friday, 28 March, potentially due to the wider market sell-off.
• Chex Token (CHEX) lost 32%, taking its market cap to US$187 million. The compliance-focused layer-1 blockchain launched its first official airdrop on Thursday, 27 March, which may have caused a drop in the price of CHEX as more tokens flood the market.
• NEO (NEO) declined by 36.3%. This takes its market cap to US$367 million. The Chinese open network for the smart economy declined by almost 30% throughout the week before a small retrace. The losses are potentially due to rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

In Other News

Despite the uncertainty gripping markets, digital asset investment products saw US$226 million of inflows this week, signalling investors are cautious but positive. Following the five-week streak of outflows, ETFs saw nine consecutive days of inflows, which was broken on Friday, 28 March, when US$74 million left funds. These outflows align with the wider market sell-off that occurred on the same day.

All altcoin digital asset investment products saw inflows this week, with Solana, XRP and Sui seeing inflows of US$7.8 million, US$4.8 million and US$4 million, respectively.

Other crypto news

• Trump Media and Technology Group and Crypto.com announced a non-binding agreement to explore launching ETFs together. The announcement stated that the new ETF products would provide investors with exposure to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Cronos, plus other industries like energy. Once launched, the ETFs will be available on the Crypto.com app.
• In ETFs, the NASDAQ exchange applied to the U.S. SEC to list shares of Grayscale’s Avalanche (AVAX) ETF. Grayscale still needs to file an S-1 registration statement to progress the process. It follows VanEck, which registered an AVAX ETF in Delaware in recent weeks, while several other asset managers already offer AVAX exchange-traded products. Also this week, the Cboe exchange submitted a filing to list Fidelity’s Solana ETF.
• Bpifrance, France’s public investment bank, announced that it plans to invest US$27 million into cryptocurrencies and decentralised technologies to “strengthen the French blockchain ecosystem.” It's one of the first moves by the bank to invest in open-market tokens alongside its existing support activities, such as grants, loans and equity funding to blockchain projects predominantly based in France.

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Regulatory

• It was another big week for the U.S. SEC. The agency officially dropped its ongoing cases against Kraken, ConsenSys and Cumberland DRW with prejudice. The agency’s case against Crypto.com was also dropped. The SEC announced four upcoming crypto roundtables, inviting industry experts to provide input on current regulatory issues as the SEC looks to change its approach under President Trump. And President Trump’s SEC Chair nominee, Paul Atkins, said he would work with policymakers to establish a “rational, coherent, and principled approach” to crypto regulation ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing and vote.
• Ripple Labs agreed to pay a US$50 million fine to end the U.S. SEC’s investigation into the firm. In return, Ripple agreed to drop its cross-appeal of U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres’ decision that XRP is “necessarily a security on its face,” in the context of sales to unknown buyers. It may be several weeks before the case is officially closed.
• The U.S. Senate voted 70-28 to overturn a Biden administration IRS rule that required DeFi platforms to collect and report taxpayer information. A parallel version of the resolution was passed in the House in early March. The resolution will now proceed to the White House for President Trump to sign.
• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) rescinded the requirement for FDIC-regulated institutions to notify the agency before engaging with crypto-related firms.
• The New York Attorney General and Galaxy Digital agreed to a settlement over the company’s handling of the collapsed cryptocurrency Terra LUNA. Galaxy will pay US$200 million for allegedly violating the Martin Act and New York Executive Law. The company allegedly made misrepresentations and omissions about LUNA while failing to disclose its intent to sell. Terraform Labs’ co-founder Do Kwon pleaded not guilty earlier this year to criminal charges arising from the Terra ecosystem collapse.
• Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) is considering officially classifying crypto assets as financial products. It forms part of the FSA’s new regulations around crypto insider trading. Currently, cryptocurrencies are classified as a settlement instrument under the Payment Services Act. The FSA aims to propose amendments to the relevant legislation by early 2026.