BTCRepublic Market Pulse delivers actionable market insights, giving you all the key narratives and developments you need in under 5 minutes.
Market Overview
Bitcoin (BTC) closed the week down 6.26%, while Ethereum (ETH) plunged lower, closing down 13.23% in the same period. Total crypto market cap fell 9.23% to end the week at $3.8169T, up from $4.199T in the week before.
This week’s liquidations spiked this week, with an exceptionally large liquidation event on Monday, taking out more than $1.65B in longs, while Wednesday’s flush wiped out another $1B in long positions. Funding rates continued to fall, with some majors seeing slightly negative funding following the market decline..
📌 US SEC Chair, Paul Atkins, aims to roll out an Innovation Exemption for crypto companies by December, allowing faster product launches.
📌 The US CFTC launches the Tokenized Collateral and Stablecoins Initiative, planning to integrate the use of tokenized collateral, including stablecoins, in traditional markets. – Caroline Pham crypto statement
📌 Crypto custody firm, BitGo, files for an IPO, the latest in a string of hot crypto-related IPOs. – Bloomberg BitGo IPO report
Why does it matter?
Despite the earlier week’s announcement of a 25 bps rate cut and expectations for more rate cuts later in the year, both the crypto and traditional markets took a hit this week, with crypto taking the lead and equities following shortly after. The S&P 500 is down 0.64% on the week, with the Nasdaq down 0.58%.
Notable altcoin outperformers this week included ASTER (ASTER), Avantis (AVNT) Fluid (FLUID), Synthetix Network (SNX) and LayerZero (ZRO).
Narrative of the Week
All eyes are on Tether-backed stablecoin L1 chain, Plasma, as the chain officially goes live, alongside their token, XPL.
📌 Tether is in the process of evaluating a raise from selected high-profile investors, in a bid to continue expanding and maximize the scale of the company.
📌 Tether-backed stablecoin L1, Plasma, introduces Plasma One, their stablecoin native neobank and debit card ecosystem, enabling idle stablecoins to earn yield, stablecoin cashbacks and zero fee transfers. – Plasma One app introduction
📌 The Plasma token, XPL, goes live, just one month after their presale, opening at more than 15x the presale valuation of $500M.
Why does it matter?
The stablecoin narrative remains hot, and with Tether at the top of the stablecoin sector, XPL presents an interesting investment opportunity as the only public way to gain exposure to Tether.
Major Project Updates
📌 Cloudlfare introduces the NET Dollar, a US dollar-backed stablecoin to support instant and secure transactions for the agentic web. – Cloudflare Web3 post
📌 Messaging application, LINE, and Kaia, collaborate to launch a stablecoin superapp for cross-border payments. – Korea Times crypto update
📌 PayPal makes a strategic investment into stablecoin L1, Stable, integrating their stablecoin, PYUSD, with the Stable chain. – Stable crypto post
📌 Centralized exchange, Gate, announces their own L2 chain, Gate Layer, boasting high TPS and low fees, with the GT token powering the ecosystem. – Chainlink (LINK) token on Twitter
Why does it matter?
Stablecoins remain the central narrative and use case for crypto, with traditional Web 2 companies like Cloudflare and LINE to differentiate themselves from competitors and earn a piece of the stablecoin pie.
DeFi Brief
📌 Circle is allegedly exploring reversible transactions, marking a questionable departure from the immutability of traditional blockchain transactions. – Financial Times crypto coverage
📌 Interoperability protocol, LayerZero, executes a buyback of $50M in ZRO tokens from early investors, representing a repurchase of 5% of the token supply. – LayerZero Core update/a>
📌 A community proposal by Jon Charbonneau and Hasu has been put forward to reduce the max token supply of the HYPE token by 45%, through reducing future emissions, burning HYPE held by the Assistance Fund, and more. – Jon Charb crypto tweet
Why does it matter?
Circle’s recent exploration into reversible transactions brings into question the erosion of the original ethos of crypto as projects become increasingly dominated by traditional finance players.
Meme Coins
📌 A memecoin allegedly launched by the creators of Baby Shark, Pink Fong, and endorsed by Story Protocol founder, S.Y. Lee, shot to a market cap of $500M before a 95% dump after Pink Fong refutes claims that the token is official. – IP Dot World crypto news
Fundraises
📌 Solana infrastructure project, Raiku, raises $13.5M in a funding round led by Pantera, with support from Jump, Ligthspeed, Big Brain Holdings, and more. – Raikucom crypto insights
📌 Stablecoin issuance platform, Bastion, raises $14.6M in a funding round led by Coinbase Ventures, with participation from a16z crypto, Hashed, Samsung Next, and the Sony Innovation Fund. – Bastion Platform crypto tweet
📌 Payment infrastructure project, RedotPay, raises $47M in strategic funding from Coinbase Ventures, Galaxy, and Vertex Ventures. – RedotPay crypto update
📌 Solana perp DEX, Bulk, raises $8M in a seed round led by Robot Ventures and 6th Man Ventures, with other investors including Mirana, Wintermute, Chapter One, and more.
Airdrops Abound
📌 Stablecoin L1, Plasma, unlocks presale tokens, XPL, distributing an additional 9,304.06 tokens as an airdrop to all depositors, regardless of deposit amount. – Wals ETH crypto post
📌 AI L1, 0G, opens claims for the 0G token airdrop, distributing tokens to early adopters, Kaito yappers, and One Gravity NFT holders. – Gate.io market update on X
