Weekly Rollup - April 15, 2025

Market Highlights

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• Markets gained on President Trump’s 90-day pause on new tariffs.
• The Senate confirmed Paul Atkins to be the next Chair of the U.S. SEC.
• The U.S. DOJ disbanded its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET).
• President Trump signed the first crypto-related bill into law, overturning Biden-era IRS rule.

Markets Overview

Macro Market Updates:

It was another week of whipsawing markets. After the sell-off to start the week, President Trump wound back some of the “Liberation Day” tariffs fourteen hours after they went into effect. On Wednesday, 9 April, he decreased most countries’ tariffs to 10% for 90 days amid negotiations, while China’s tariffs were increased to a total rate of 145%. Prior to the announcement, China announced an 84% tariff on US imports. Despite growing trade tensions between the U.S. and China, the S&P 500 gained almost 10%, while the Nasdaq and Dow Jones gained almost 16% and 9.4%, respectively, on the developments. At the close of the trading week, the S&P 500 was up 5.6%, the Nasdaq finished up 7.3%, and the Dow Jones closed up 5%.

In economic data, the March producer price index (PPI) was released on Friday, 11 April, with wholesale prices falling 0.4%. Over 70% of the PPI decline came from a 0.9% drop in goods prices, which is a key measure policymakers take into account for inflation. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment also came in on Friday, 11 March. It was below forecast at 50.8 — the lowest level seen since 2020. And over the weekend, President Trump indicated that new tariffs are coming for smartphones, computers and other electronics, including tariffs on imported semiconductor chips, potentially setting the stage for further uncertainty as the new week begins. This week, U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell speaks on Wednesday, 16 April, while the European Central Bank delivers its interest rate decision on Thursday, 17 April.

Crypto Market Sector Performance

Sector growth was mixed this week, with decentralised physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), artificial intelligence and store of value leading the growth, while real-world assets (RWA) saw significantly steeper losses than other sectors. The downturn in RWA occurred due to Mantra (OM) declining by 90.5% on the week. The sell-off happened within hours, presumably due to liquidations by central exchanges, when OM fell from over US$6 to around US$0.40 late Sunday.

The growth within DePIN was led by Helium (HNT) and JasmyCoin (JASMY), which gained 40.2% and 63.1%, respectively, on the week. Helium rallied after the team agreed to settle its legal dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), paying US$200,000 in civil securities fraud charges for allegedly misleading prospective investors about its enterprise customer base. JASMY gained on strong technical price action and increased volume (more on that below).

Crypto Market Sector Performance (7D)

Market sector performance - 15 April, 2025.

Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin regained some of last week’s losses as risk assets responded positively to President Trump’s 90-day pause on the latest round of tariffs and March’s PPI declines. Opening the week at US$78,370, bitcoin saw a sell-off across Tuesday when the White House initially denied rumours of a pause on tariffs. The week finished with a rally back to around US$83,000, though announcements about further tariffs to come on electronics caused a 2% sell-off on Sunday, 13 April. Bitcoin is currently trading at US$84,586, an increase of 6.8% on the week.

Digital asset managers Grayscale Investments and Osprey Funds reached a settlement agreement on their legal dispute over the firms’ marketing practices. The parties have 45 days to finalise the settlement. It follows Osprey’s appeal of a February decision that favoured Grayscale. The case was filed in January 2023, when Osprey alleged that Grayscale misled investors about converting its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

In bitcoin bills, Arizona’s bitcoin mining bill, HB 2342, passed the Senate and progressed to the Governor for signing. The bill mandates legal protections for crypto miners and blockchain node operators. And on Thursday, 10 April, New Hampshire’s House of Representatives passed HB 302, which would allow the State’s treasury to invest in digital assets. HB 302 will now proceed to the New Hampshire Senate.

Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, will make his first public appearance since his release from prison at the Bitcoin Conference in May. He was pardoned by President Trump in January after spending over 11 years in prison.

Bitcoin asset investment products saw outflows of US$751 million, bringing year-to-date inflows to US$545 million.

Bitcoin - 15 April, 2025.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

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Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum saw minor gains this week as the wider market rallied on the news of the 90-day pause on tariffs. Opening the week at US$1,579, Ethereum declined to a low of US$1,383 on Wednesday, 9 April, before gaining upward momentum. Uncertainty around whether Chinese-made electronics would be subject to new tariffs saw ETH decline by almost 3% on Sunday, 13 April.

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, published a roadmap designed to improve the network’s privacy. He proposed implementing privacy-enhancing systems such as Railgun or Privacy Pools, which would allow users to shield their balances and anonymise transactions. DeFi and dApps were also addressed, with Buterin stating the systems should have “one address per application”.

An Ethereum whale sold US$27 million worth of ETH after holding 18,437 ETH for nine years. The whale swapped their ETH for USDC in increments of 1,400 ETH via Uniswap over a 24-hour period, presumably to mitigate the potential market shocks caused by large sell orders. The wallet received ETH in 2016 from another wallet when Ethereum was changing hands for around US$8 per coin.

Virgil Griffith, an Ethereum developer who spoke at a 2019 blockchain conference in North Korea, was released from jail after serving a shortened sentence. Griffith pled guilty to one charge of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in September 2021. Prosecutors alleged his presentation at the conference provided information that would help the nation state circumvent U.S. sanctions. He remains on parole, where he is effectively prohibited from working in the crypto sector.

Ethereum asset investment products saw outflows of US$37.6 million.

Ethereum is currently trading at US$1,620, an increase of almost 3.5% on the week.

Ethereum - 15 April, 2025.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

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Altcoins

Got currency?

• Aergo (AERGO) gained 232.6%, taking its market cap to US$171.2 million. The hybrid blockchain rallied after a vote on proposal AIP-21, to expand the network into an Ethereum virtual machine (EVM)-based layer-2 network, passed.
• Gas (GAS) grew by 57.3%, which takes its market cap to US$176.8 million. The transparent DeFi currency network that recently rebranded to Neo (NEO) gained on news that it was listed on crypto exchange, XBO.com, while the network’s successful Neo Bond funding round also buoyed investor interest and trust.

Computing power

• JasmyCoin (JASMY) gained 61.5%. This takes its market cap to US$762.9 million. The IoT technology platform that democratises data saw upward momentum after many investors and traders acted on bullish technical price action. JASMY’s listing on crypto exchange Kanga also presumably boosted prices.
• Aleph.im (ALEPH) gained 61.5%, taking its market cap to US$13.1 million. The open-source DePIN saw a rally on news of its SonicLabs integration. The integration will provide a seamless experience for developers looking to build data-driven dApps on the network.

Single chain gains

• VeThor (VTHO) grew by 59%, taking its market cap to US$271.1 million. The real-world and enterprise dApps network gained on news that Dana White became an official advisor to VeChain to support the team’s sustainability app ecosystem.

DeFi delight

• Orca (ORCA) gained 57.3%. This takes its market cap to US$176.8 million. The automated market maker gained after its 30-day volume flipped Raydium and a crucial network vote on a proposal to complete a token buyback and burning passed.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

In Other News

Outflows continued in digital asset investment products this week, with US$795 million leaving funds as uncertainty over President Trump’s tariffs and the Fed’s interest rate trajectory saw markets whipsaw throughout the week. This week’s outflows mark the third consecutive week of declines, bringing total outflows since early February to US$7.2 billion, almost overtaking year-to-date inflows.

XRP was the outlier this week, with US$3.5 million flowing into digital investment products for the altcoin. The inflows are presumably due to Ripple Labs and the SEC likely settling its long-standing legal dispute and Ripple’s US$1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road (more on that below). Ondo, Algorand and Avalanche digital asset investment products saw minor inflows.

Other crypto news

• Trump-backed World Liberty Financial (WLFI) announced that it’s proposing to do an airdrop of its newly launched stablecoin, USD1, to select supporters. In an X post, the team said the airdrop’s purpose is to test the platform’s functionality and reward WLFI’s earliest supporters. The announcement comes as policymakers raise questions over President Trump’s close ties to WLFI’s projects, especially as both houses of Congress work on the passage of stablecoin and other crypto regulation. In other Trump-related crypto news, the Official Trump (TRUMP) meme coin will have its first token unlock on Friday, 18 April, when the project’s team is set to receive 40 million TRUMP coins.
• In ETFs, Teucrium’s XXRP leveraged exchange-traded fund (ETF) launched on the NYSE Arca, offering investors 2x leverage. The Nasdaq filed for a rule change to list VanEck’s Avalanche ETF, while the U.S. SEC approved options trading on Ethereum ETFs. And a U.S. Dogecoin ETF became a step closer when 21Shares applied for a Dogecoin-backed ETF. 21Shares also launched a Dogecoin ETF (DOGE) on Switzerland’s SIX Swiss Exchange. Finally, the Cboe filed paperwork with the SEC to proceed with Canary’s Capital’s plans to launch a SUI ETF.

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Regulatory

• In its second digital assets roundtable on Friday, 11 April, the U.S. SEC said it would be open to creating a regulatory sandbox so that crypto exchanges could experiment with new sectors and offerings. Acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda made a pre-recorded video address before the roundtable, encouraging exchanges to consider how they may offer tokenised securities and what exemptive relief should be put in place. The next roundtable is on 25 April and focuses on custody considerations.
• The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) disbanded its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET). According to an internal memo, the DOJ will no longer pursue criminal charges against crypto exchanges, mixing services or holders of cold wallets. In instances where a state enemy uses a crypto service to launder funds, the agency will pursue the actors and not the crypto platform itself, signalling a significant shift in policy.
• Anchorage Digital Bank is reportedly being investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Though the nature of the investigation is unknown, the El Dorado Task Force is handling the matter. This task force typically focuses on cases related to money laundering and other financial crimes. It follows an instance in April 2022 when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency flagged the company for not complying with anti-money laundering regulations.
• President Trump signed the first crypto-related bill into law on Thursday, 10 April. The bill eliminates a Biden-era Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rule that required DeFi platforms to collect and report the same amount of taxpayer information as required of traditional brokers.
• The Senate confirmed Paul Atkins, President Trump’s nominee to be the next Chair of the U.S. SEC, with a 52-44 vote. Giving crypto a “firm regulatory foundation” will be a key focus throughout his tenure.