₿ Bitcoin showed initial signs of resilience after Trump’s tariffs announcement; Crypto.com partners with Sony Electronics Singapore for USDC payments in Sony Store Online

Bitcoin showed initial signs of resilience after Trump’s tariff announcement; Crypto.com partners with Sony Electronics Singapore for crypto payment; SEC clarified some stablecoins aren’t securities

Quick Take

• Bitcoin showed initial signs of resilience after Trump’s tariffs announcement; Crypto.com partners with Sony Electronics Singapore for USDC payments in Sony Store Online; US SEC clarified that some stablecoins are not securities
• US spot bitcoin ETFs had a net outflow of US$165 million last week, compared to a net inflow of $196 million the week before. Spot ether ETFs saw a net outflow of $50 million last week, the sixth consecutive week of net outflows. 
• On the macro side, US President Donald Trump announced “reciprocal tariff” rates that will impact its trading partners. This includes a 10% baseline tariff for countries that export to the US, while some countries will face higher tariffs (e.g., 34% additional tariffs for imports from China and 20% for the European Union). Equity indices dropped significantly after the news; S&P 500 dropped nearly 6% last Friday, its worst day since March 2020, wiping out over $5 trillion in market value in last Thursday and Friday’s sessions. The latest CME FedWatch Tool showed a 54% probability of a May rate cut in the US (vs 17% last week). Australia’s RBA kept interest rates unchanged at 4.1%. 
• Notable updates: Ethereum (ETH) developers set the target date for Pectra upgrade on 7 May; First Digital USD (FDUSD) depegged on 2 April; the Crypto.com App listed Gunz (GUN)
• Notable events in the coming week: RBNZ Interest Rate Decision, US Consumer and Producer Price Index

Weekly Market Index

Price index was down last week by -1.29%. Volume and volatility indices were up by +17.71% and +10.17%, respectively. The volume index increase was led by FIL (+83.98%)  and ONDO (+40.03%). 

Chart of the Week

Bitcoin showed initial signs of resilience last week after US President Donald Trump announced a 10% “baseline” tariff on imports to the US, and higher tariffs for select countries. The tariffs announcement caused significant turmoil in both traditional financial markets and crypto market.

However, Bitcoin’s price increased around 2% between 31 March and 4 April post-Trump’s tariff announcement. In contrast, the weekly performance of S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and Dow Jones Industrial Average indices saw significant drops of -9.08%, -10.02% and -7.86%, respectively. In addition, the five-day volatility in the last week for BTC was around 2.3%, less than the 2.9% to 3.5% of the three indices. 

Weekly Performance

BTC and ETH decreased by -3.5% and -10.6%, respectively, in the past seven days. 

Most of the selected top-cap tokens decreased in price, which coincided with Trump announcing “reciprocal tariff” rates that will impact its trading partners. 

ATOM (+5.3%) was the only token in the list that increased, which coincided with Interchain Labs testing an Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) transaction from Cosmos Hub to Ethereum to boost interoperability between the two networks. This is part of the upcoming Eureka upgrade for IBC. 

All key categories decreased in market capitalisation in the past seven days, led by the Layer-2 category. 

Notable Updates

Newly Listed Tokens in Crypto.com App

News Highlights

Crypto.com / Cronos News

• Crypto.com partnered with Sony Electronics Singapore (SES) to enable USDC payments in Sony Online Store. Crypto.com users will benefit from an optimised checkout experience in Sony Store Online through Crypto.com Pay. This partnership will bring a new way for users to spend their crypto and potentially broadens SES’s customer base. 

Adoption

• US financial market infrastructure company, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), launched a platform for tokenising real-time collateral management. It aims to enhance capital efficiencies and liquidity by improving the mobility and speed of global collateral movements. 
• Fidelity launched an individual retirement account (IRA) that allows individuals to invest in crypto under its Web3 subsidiary, Fidelity Digital Assets. The digital assets are currently limited to BTC, ETH, and LTC. There are requirements for eligible investors, including being a US citizen in an eligible state.  
• Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (Japanese bank), Ava Labs (developer of Avalanche Network), and Fireblocks (digital asset infrastructure company) signed an agreement to explore commercialising stablecoins in Japan. The companies will focus on strategies around issuing and distributing stablecoins pegged to USD and JPY. It will also explore stablecoins as settlement for tokenised real-world assets. 
• Brazil’s largest bank Itaú Unibanco is considering issuing a stablecoin, pending local regulations and the success of stablecoin issuances by US financial institutions, as the bank acknowledges the strength of blockchain in settling transactions.

Regulation

• The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published new guidelines stating that ‘covered stablecoins’ — those that are fully backed by physical fiat reserves or short-term, low-risk, highly liquid instruments, and are redeemable 1:1 with USD — are not securities and are exempt from transaction reporting requirements around minting and redeeming. According to the guidelines, covered stablecoin issuers cannot offer interest, profit, or yield to token holders.
• The US House Financial Services Committee passed the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE Act). The bill will provide regulations around issuance and trading of payment stablecoins.

Investment Vehicles

• Grayscale filed with the US SEC to list the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund, an ETF holding a crypto index portfolio including BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and ADA. The fund was created in 2018, but is not yet traded on exchange. In addition, Grayscale launched Grayscale Bitcoin Covered Call ETF (BTCC) and the Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BPI), two ETFs that aim to generate revenue leveraging BTC’s volatility. 
• Grayscale filed an S-1 to list the Grayscale Solana Trust ETF (GSOL) on the New York Stock Exchange. Canary Capital, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, and VanEck also previously filed for a Solana ETF. In addition, the US SEC acknowledged Fidelity’s application for a spot Solana ETF on Cboe BZX Exchange.
• VanEck listed VanEck Celestia ETN, a new exchange-traded product (ETP) tracking Celestia’s TIA. It is issued on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris.
• Asset manager First Trust launched two bitcoin strategy ETFs. The FT Vest Bitcoin Strategy Floor15 ETF (BFAP) tracks bitcoin performance up to a capped upside while limiting drawdown risk to ~15%. The FT Vest Bitcoin Strategy & Target Income ETF (DFII) aims to offer bitcoin exposure while generating yield that beats short-term treasuries by at least 15%.

Others

• USDC stablecoin issuer Circle filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL. The prospectus did not detail the initial public offering target price. 
• Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino mentioned that Tether may issue a US-domiciled stablecoin to comply with the pending US stablecoin laws. The current laws under discussion, including the STABLE act and the GENIUS act, will establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins, including anti-money laundering requirements and require issuers to provide transparency of their reserves.

Recent Research Reports

• Wall Street On-Chain: Will Bitcoin Be Another Asset?: Based on bitcoin’s recent developments and adoption in institutions, this report explores if BTC could become a new asset beyond crypto.
• Research Roundup Newsletter [February 2025]: We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our deep dives into ‘Will Bitcoin Be Another Asset’ and ‘Institutional Crypto Market: From Liquidity to Global Adoption’.
• Alpha Navigator: Quest for Alpha [February 2025]: Asset performance was mixed. Crypto and Equities led the drop, while Real Assets and Fixed Income increased. Eurozone, Australia, and New Zealand cut interest rates; China kept rates unchanged.

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