Bitcoin and cryptoassets have pared losses today after experiencing sharp declines earlier this week. BTC briefly dropped below $58,000, its lowest point since February, marking a 22% correction from its March 2022 all-time high. After seven consecutive months of steadily increasing prices, Bitcoin closed April with a red candle. Despite this recent pullback, when viewed in a larger context, it seems to be a typical correction within a bull market, particularly as other risk assets have shown similar weaknesses during this period. Today’s broader market recovery was partly driven by the weaker than expected US non-farm payrolls for April, which recorded only 175,000 jobs versus the anticipated 243,000. The reading supports the expectation of interest rate cuts next year. Earlier in the week, amidst ongoing US inflation concerns, the central bank maintained its key interest rate at the highest level in over 23 years. Fed Chair Jerome Powell addressed the difficulty in reducing inflation to 2%, but mentioned it was “unlikely that the next policy rate move will be a hike.”
In spot Bitcoin ETFs, issuers have seen net outflows for two consecutive weeks following their record debut. On the other hand, Hong Kong’s new spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs had a fairly sluggish start on Tuesday but eventually took in $292 million on the first day, led by the ChinaAMC Bitcoin ETF. In other Bitcoin-related news, MicroStrategy held its fourth annual Bitcoin for Corporations event, announcing a new open source Bitcoin inscription method that facilitates decentralized identification management. Elsewhere, Jack Dorsey revealed that Block, previously known as Square, will begin dollar cost-averaging into Bitcoin monthly. The forthcoming favorable change in FASB rules by year-end could encourage more corporations to include Bitcoin on their balance sheets.
It was also a significant week for tokenization announcements, with BlackRock leading a $47 million strategic funding round in tokenization firm Securitize (see headline below), and other tokenization teams securing new investments as well.
Market Overview
The global cryptoasset market capitalization currently amounts to roughly $2.41 trillion – compared with $2.47 trillion last week, with bitcoin accounting for about 50.3%. Among the Top 30 cryptoassets by market cap, Toncoin (TON) outperformed, gaining about 6.3% over the week. The price of bitcoin (BTC) fell by 3.5% to $61,700 while the price of ether (ETH) decreased by 2.6% to $3,067. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is sitting at $89 billion, with Ethereum (excluding Layer 2s) accounting for about 59% of TVL..
This Week’s Headlines
- Coinbase‘s Q1 earnings jump to $1.6 billion amid soaring transaction revenue
- Binance founder Zhao (CZ) sentenced to four months in prison
- VanEck says about $175 billion in bitcoin held by ETFs, nations and companies
- MoonPay integrates PayPal to allow US users easier access to crypto purchases and sales
- Jack Dorsey’s Block faces scrutiny from federal authorities over non-compliant crypto services, NBC News reports
- US lawmakers introduce bill to clarify taxation of staking rewards
- Tether tallied an all-time high net profit of $4.52 billion in the first quarter, according to attestation report by BDO
- BlackRock‘s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity (BUIDL) Fund hits $375 million AUM
- BNP Paribas bought BlackRock Bitcoin ETF shares, SEC Filing shows
- EigenLayer reveals plan for token airdrop with 15% allocation to ecosystem participants
- Early Bitcoin investor Roger Ver arrested in Spain, charged with tax fraud by DOJ
Notable Deals and Fundraising
- BlackRock leads $47 million strategic funding round in tokenization firm Securitize
- Optimism raises $90 million in an OTC deal from a16z
- Swiss-based tokenized asset issuer Backed raises $9.5 million in a funding round
- Tokenized asset marketplace Ironlight raises $12 million
- Ex-Revolut exec raises $6.5 million for hybrid crypto exchange X10
- Paragraph raises $5 million from USV and Coinbase Ventures, acquires Web3 blogging platform Mirror
- Cross-chain governance platform Agora raised $5 million in seed funding
- Celestia liquid staking protocol MilkyWay raises $5 million ahead of token launch and airdrop
- Blockchain wine and spirits trading platform Baxus raises $5 million in a seed round led by Multicoin, Solana Ventures and others
- ZK onchain game engine builder Blade Games raised $2.4 million in a seed round
- Pantera Capital invests an undisclosed amount in The Open Network (TON) token
