Crypto weekly is authored by maaria and david blumenfeld
PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Crypto Market Cap ($2.60T): -6% / -23%
- BTC ($79,243): -4% / -15%
- ETH ($1,623): -11% / -51%
- SOL ($108): -14% / -43%
- UNI ($5.20): -13% / -61%
- OP ($0.61): -18% / -65%
- Tether Mkt Cap ($144B): 0% / +4%
- USDC Mkt Cap ($60.5B): +1% / +38%
- BTC / ETH Dominance: 60% / 8%
THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- Crypto markets fell on the news of President Donald Trump’s announcement of tariffs on US trading partners worldwide, with BTC and ETH falling below $80k and $1.7k respectively. Gold reached a new all time high of $3,160/oz, with bullion being one of the few commodities exempt from the tariffs. Link.
- The SEC announced that stablecoins backed by stable currencies, commodities, or high-quality liquid assets are not securities requiring registration. Link. Official Statement.
- The Senate Banking Committee advanced the nomination of Paul Atkins to lead the SEC to a Senate vote. Link.
- Ethereum transaction fees have fallen to less than $500,000 daily, down from a 12-month peak of $30 million in March 2024, despite daily transaction volumes staying relatively stable at 1.2 million transactions per day. Link.
- Tether is considering launching a new US-compliant stablecoin rather than adapting its USDT stablecoin to meet pending American regulations. Link.
- PayPal and Venmo users will soon be able to buy, sell, hold, and transfer Solana and Chainlink directly from their accounts. Link.
- Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, filed an S-1 with the SEC to go public at a $5 billion valuation. Circle previously tried going public via SPAC in 2022. Link. Link.
- Illinois is dropping its lawsuit against Coinbase for allegedly violating state securities laws through its staking products. 3 of the 10 states that sued Coinbase in 2023 have dropped their charges. Link.
- Ethereum's Pectra hardfork is scheduled for May 7. The Pectra upgrade includes native account abstraction, increased ETH staking limits from 32 to 2048 ETH, and higher transaction throughput through increased blob count. Link.
- Crypto asset manager Grayscale filed a registration statement for a Solana exchange-traded program called the Grayscale Solana Trust (GSOL). Link.
- The SEC is seeking a 60 day pause in its lawsuit against Gemini as the two sides explore a resolution. The lawsuit alleged Gemini's Earn program, a lending program that went insolvent during the collapse of FTX, was an unregistered securities offering. Link.
- Decentralized exchange aggregator Matcha now supports Solana, making it the first DEX aggregator to support cross-chain trading. Link.
- Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer is introducing slashing to its system, which will create a mechanism to punish bad actors by seizing a portion of their capital. Link.
- BlackRock CEO Larry Fink warned investors that the US would lose its world reserve currency status to digital assets like bitcoin if it didn't get its debt under control. Fink also suggested that every asset -- from bonds to stocks to funds -- would be tokenized. Link.