BlockBeats will organize the key industry news content of the week (3.31-4.6) in this article, and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and learn about industry trends.
Important News Review
Trump's tariffs are set to be implemented: a 10% tariff on all imported goods, 20% retaliatory tariffs on EU countries, and 24% tariffs on Japanese goods.
On April 3, Trump said in the Rose Garden of the White House that the United States will impose a 10% comprehensive tariff on all imported goods. The detailed tariff measures for each country are as follows: 46% tariff on Vietnam; 10% tariff on the United Kingdom; 31% tariff on Switzerland; 49% tariff on Cambodia; 36% tariff on Thailand; 30% tariff on South Africa; 32% tariff on Indonesia; 10% tariff on Brazil; 10% tariff on Singapore. A 20% retaliatory tariff will be imposed on each EU country; a 24% tariff will be imposed on goods imported from Japan. Because the 10% comprehensive tariff was the lowest in the previous forecast (10%-20%), Bitcoin rose 2.7% in a short period of time that night, breaking through $88,000. However, after the detailed tariffs were announced, Bitcoin quickly fell 3.35%, Nasdaq futures plunged violently, and the decline widened to 1.2%. The US dollar index DXY also fluctuated by 0.5% in a short period of time. It is also worth noting that energy commodities are excluded from Trump's comprehensive tariffs, including crude oil, natural gas and refined oil.
On the same day, U.S. Treasury Secretary Benson wrote, "I advise all countries not to take retaliatory actions. We can see if there will be a different tariff floor (from the announced figure). Trump's mentality may be to let things stabilize temporarily. I am not involved in the negotiations, and we will see if there are any negotiations before April 9 (the date when the reciprocal tariffs take effect)." Earlier, senior White House officials stated that the base tariff rate (10%) took effect in the early morning of April 5, and the reciprocal tariffs will take effect in the early morning of April 9. Related reading: "US stocks evaporated $2 trillion in 15 minutes. Is "reciprocal tariffs" the last straw that broke the bull market?" , "How do tariffs stir up crypto asset prices?"
Justin Sun accused First Digital Trust, the issuer of FDUSD, of bankruptcy, and FDUSD briefly broke its anchor and fell below $0.8; the latter denied it.
On April 2, Justin Sun posted on social media that FDUSD issuer First Digital Trust (FDT) was actually bankrupt and unable to fulfill its obligations to redeem customer funds. Users are strongly advised to take immediate action to protect their assets. Subsequently, FDUSD briefly broke free and fell below $0.9. Affected by this, the price of multiple FDUSD-related trading pairs on Binance skyrocketed: BTC reached a maximum of 98,950 FDUSD; ETH reached a maximum of 2165 FDUSD. Since FDUSD is a new stablecoin supported by Binance after delisting BUSD, Binance, as the main application scenario, responded to this news and said that it can be redeemed 1:1.
In the early morning of the 3rd, Justin Sun once again posted that this FUD was only aimed at FDT, not Binance. At noon on the 3rd, First Digital posted that what Justin Sun said was untrue, and the first few redemptions after the FUD had been processed. FDUSD is still fully supported at a 1:1 ratio, its redemption channels are running smoothly, and it will continue to process all redemption requests in a timely manner.
According to Hong Kong media reports, Wu Jiezhuang, chairman of the Hong Kong Legislative Council Web3 and Virtual Asset Development Subcommittee, responded to the dispute between Justin Sun and FDT and said that the regulatory system should be reviewed as soon as possible. Wu Jiezhuang said that since there is no regulatory system for custody, Web3 companies will use trust companies as a basis to help third parties to custody assets. If this is done formally, there is no problem, but some people take advantage of this opportunity to do illegal things. He is worried that the outside world will have confidence in Hong Kong's financial center. He suggested that the authorities should do more publicity and education and review whether there is room for optimization.
On April 3, Justin Sun said in a live press conference, "We have more than $500 million in FDT, but we can't withdraw it." At the same time, he called on FDT to hire a third-party auditing agency to audit it, "I believe the audit results will show that FDT is insolvent." He also said that because FDT failed to pay investment interest in 2023, Techteryx investigated FDT and found that a large amount of custodial customer funds were misappropriated. Justin Sun provided assistance to Techteryx with his own funds, ensuring that TUSD had sufficient liquidity and protecting the interests of all TUSD holders. TrueCoin is suspected of conspiring with FDT to illegally transfer $456 million in TUSD reserves to a Dubai company. Justin Sun said that "a $50 million reward will be provided to law enforcement agencies and clue providers to recover $456 million in funds." First Digital subsequently responded to the accusation: the dispute only involves TUSD and has nothing to do with FDUSD, and First Digital has full solvency. He also said that this was a typical smear campaign by Justin Sun, aimed at attacking his business competitors. Related reading: "FDUSD decoupling crisis: Justin Sun accused FDT of defrauding $456 million, the latter denied being insolvent"
This week, many altcoins continued to plummet, with ACT falling by more than 70% in 7 days; the community suspected that it might be related to market makers and Binance adjusting the leverage system
On April 1, many altcoins plummeted, with ACT falling more than 50% in a short period of time; DEXE falling more than 28% in a short period of time; DF falling more than 17.7% in a short period of time, etc. The plunge was triggered by a large number of short-term sell orders, which led to a sharp increase in spot trading volume. Subsequently, crypto KOL Benson Sun published an analysis saying, "ACT suddenly crashed 50% because Binance adjusted the leverage position limit of ACT. A leverage of one times can only open a position of up to 4.5 million US dollars. Some market makers' positions exceeded the limit and were directly closed at the market price. After the contract price collapsed, there was a huge price difference with the spot price, and the spot price also collapsed." Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy responded to the community's doubts that "the plunge was caused by Wintermute's market crash" and said: "It has nothing to do with us, but I also want to know what happened in the post-analysis." "If I had to guess, we reacted after the price fluctuated violently and arbitraged the AMM pool."
In the early morning of April 2, Binance responded to the plunge of some meme coins such as ACT, saying, "After preliminary investigation, we found that some small-cap tokens experienced a series of declines, including 3 VIP users cross-selling tokens equivalent to approximately 514,000 USDT in the spot market in a short period of time, and 1 non-VIP user transferred a large amount of ACT from other platforms and sold tokens equivalent to 540,000 USDT in the spot market in a short period of time. When the price fell, some users closed their futures contracts, which led to a decline in other tokens." It is worth noting that in the following days, tokens such as MASK, LEVER, TROY, and CATI once again experienced a large-scale plunge, and the trading volume suddenly increased by 5 to 10 times compared to usual. Related reading: "ACT Flash Crash Night: When the Exchange's "Circuit Breaker Mechanism" Turns into a Short Bullet"
The zkLend hacker accidentally clicked on a phishing website, resulting in the theft of 2,930 ETH; the hacker requested to cooperate with zkLend to try to recover the funds
On April 1, according to SlowMist monitoring, the zkLend hacker (the original case occurred in February) accidentally clicked on a phishing website when trying to use Tornado Cash, and the stolen money of 2,930 ETH was stolen by the phishing website. The hacker then sent an on-chain message to zkLend saying, "Hello, I wanted to transfer funds to Tornado Cash, but I mistakenly used a phishing website and lost all the funds. I collapsed. I am deeply sorry for the confusion and losses caused. All 2,930 ETH have been taken away by the operator of the website. I don't have any coins anymore. Please turn your attention to those website operators to see if you can recover some of the funds."
On the same day, zkLend officially released a statement saying that the phishing website appears to have been running for more than 5 years. At this stage, the security team has no solid evidence to prove the connection between the phishing website and the attacker. As a precautionary measure, zkLend has included these new wallet addresses from the phishing website in its fund tracking work for real-time monitoring, and is in contact with CEX and the authorities. The team will continue to work hard to track these funds. Related reading: "zkLend hackers were also stolen. Is the apology on the chain a sincere repentance or a self-directed performance? "
Bitcoin and Ethereum both recorded their worst returns in the past seven years in Q1; Bitcoin's average return in Q2 was 24.86%, with more declines than increases in the past five years.
On April 1, according to HTX market data, Bitcoin's first-quarter return rate was -11.82%, and Ethereum's first-quarter return rate was -45.41%, both of which recorded the worst performance since the same period in 2019. In 2018, Bitcoin's first-quarter return rate was -49.7%, and Ethereum's first-quarter return rate was -46.61%. According to other data, looking back at history, Bitcoin usually performs well in the second quarter, with an average quarterly return rate of 24.86% and a median quarterly return rate of 7.19% in the past 12 years, but it has performed poorly in the past five years, including: 42.33% increase in Q2 2020; 40.36% decrease in Q2 2021; 56.2% decrease in Q2 2022; 7.19% increase in Q2 2023; and 11.92% decrease in Q2 2024. In the past 12 years, Bitcoin has risen 7 times and fallen 5 times in April, with an average monthly return of 12.03% and a median monthly return of 2.81%. However, its performance has been mediocre in the past five years, including: an increase of 34.26% in April 2020; a decrease of 1.98% in April 2021; a decrease of 17.3% in April 2022; an increase of 2.81% in April 2023; and a decrease of 14.76% in April 2024.
Coinbase shares fell 33% in Q1, the worst quarterly performance since FTX crash
On April 1, Coinbase, a US-listed crypto trading platform, experienced its worst quarterly performance since the collapse of the FTX exchange in 2022, with its stock price falling 33% in the first quarter of 2025 despite strong revenue expectations. Coinbase is expected to release its 2025 financial data in early May. The company's recent shareholder letter showed that as of February 11, the company had generated approximately $750 million in trading revenue and expected subscription revenue to be between $685 million and $765 million. Although Coinbase has not yet released its profit data for the first quarter, MarketBeat analysis estimates that its profit is approximately $1.87 billion. Coinbase is not an isolated case, and most publicly listed crypto companies have reported similar results in the first quarter of 2025. Marathon Digital Holdings, a major crypto mining company, had a share price of nearly $17.5 at the beginning of the first quarter and closed at $11, a loss of more than 37%.
This week, the market value of Ethereum was overtaken by McDonald's and fell to $218.73 billion
On March 30, according to 8marketcap data, Ethereum's market value fell to $218.73 billion, a 7-day drop of 9.98%, and its ranking fell to 68th in the global asset market value ranking. McDonald's surpassed Ethereum with a market value of $219.4 billion, temporarily ranking 67th in the global asset market value ranking.
OpenAI completes $40 billion financing, led by SoftBank
On April 1, CNBC reported that OpenAI completed a $40 billion financing, bringing its post-investment valuation to $300 billion (including new capital). According to CB Insights, this valuation makes OpenAI one of the world's most highly valued private companies, second only to SpaceX at $350 billion, and tied with TikTok's parent company ByteDance. This round of financing was led by Japan's SoftBank, with an investment of $30 billion, and was supported by a group of other investors, including core investor Microsoft, as well as institutions such as Coatue, Altimeter and Thrive. According to people familiar with the matter, the initial investment was $10 billion, and the remaining $30 billion will be in place by the end of 2025. However, there is an additional condition for this round of financing: if OpenAI does not complete the reorganization into a for-profit entity by December 31, 2025, the scale of financing may be reduced by up to $10 billion.
F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun boarded the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on April 1 to carry out the sixth manned space mission, serving as commander
On March 31, SpaceX's manned Dragon spacecraft launched its sixth manned space mission (Fram-2) on April 1. This flight became the first polar orbit manned flight mission for mankind, lasting 3 to 5 days. It was launched from the 39A launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA on April 1, Beijing time. There are a total of 4 astronauts participating in this mission, namely F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun, Yannick Mickelson, LaBéa Rogge and Ann-Eric Phillips. Wang Chun's team funded the nearly $200 million cost of this flight plan. This is also the first polar orbit mission contracted by a private company in the history of commercial spaceflight. Wang Chun will serve as the commander in the mission. The spacecraft will enter a polar orbit with an inclination of 90° and an orbital altitude of between 425 and 450 kilometers. The spacecraft will operate along the polar orbit, flying from the South Pole to the North Pole of the Earth, and then from the North Pole back to the South Pole, and so on. Related reading: From Bitcoin Miner to Polar Astronaut: Wangchun’s Magical Realism Story
Musk clarifies that the US government has no plans to use Dogecoin
On March 31, Musk said at the "America PAC" town hall meeting held in Green Bay, Wisconsin on March 30 that the US government has no plans to use the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. He pointed out that the federal "Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)" has no connection with Dogecoin, saying "they are just similar in name, and the government will not use Dogecoin, at least there is no such plan that I know of." Despite this, the DOGE official website briefly displayed Dogecoin's Shiba Inu mascot in February, sparking market speculation about the government's connection with cryptocurrency, pushing DOGE up 14% at one point, with a market value of over $58 billion. Related reading: "Musk denies DOGE's relationship with the US government, is Dogecoin going to the end?"
The BitcoinDev mailing list of the Bitcoin development group was "permanently removed" by Google
On April 3, Bitcoin developer Ruben Somsen posted that the mailing list of the Bitcoin development group BitcoinDev was "permanently removed" by Google. Ruben previously said, "As far as I know, no inappropriate content was posted." He later updated, "It turns out that we did receive more information, but it was put in the spam folder (how ironic). Apparently we were "permanently removed." What was our fault? We were considered "unwanted content." Really, Google? Open source development is "unwelcome"? It looks like we have to migrate again." Block CEO Jack Dorsey has retweeted a tweet in support of Ruben Somsen and questioned Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Treasure is facing restructuring due to financial crisis and will terminate game operations and Treasure Chain
On April 3, John, the chief contributor of Treasure DAO, a blockchain gaming ecosystem, announced that he would terminate game operations and Treasure Chain due to restructuring due to deteriorating financial conditions. Documents show that its annual operating expenses are as high as $8.3 million, while the current treasury has only $2.4 million left, which was originally expected to last only until July 2025. Chief Contributor John resumed his leadership role and disclosed that the team size had reached 40 people, with an annual labor cost of $6.1 million and an infrastructure cost of $3 million, of which Treasure Chain had a fixed annual cost of $450,000. Faced with the pressure of survival, DAO has laid off 15 employees and decided to terminate game distribution support and Treasure Chain, and assist partners in migrating to other chains.
In order to extend the funding runway, John proposed to withdraw the idle $785,000 from the market maker Flowdesk. If approved, the stablecoin balance will increase to $3.2 million, and the operation can be optimistically extended to February 2026. In addition, the Eco Fund holds 22.3 million MAGIC (worth $2.3 million), but if the price of MAGIC plummets, DAO may be unsustainable between December this year and February next year. The new strategy in the future will focus on four major products: Marketplace, Bridgeworld, Smolworld and AI agent expansion technology, aiming to demonstrate the application potential of MAGIC through Smols and Bridgeworld, and develop Neurochimp agents to enhance market competitiveness.
Neon Machine, the developer of blockchain game Shrapnel, is in financial crisis
According to Blockworks, Neon Machine, the developer of the crypto shooting game Shrapnel, is facing serious financial difficulties. The company has consumed nearly $86.9 million in operating funds. Although it has $21.7 million in revenue in 2024, it has a net loss of $11.4 million due to $33 million in operating costs.
The company is currently burning through $2-3.5 million per month, has run out of cash, owes millions of dollars to external suppliers, and has failed to secure a new round of financing planned for early 2025. The company has conducted at least three rounds of layoffs, with the number of employees dropping from nearly 100 to more than a dozen, and its Seattle headquarters closed at the end of March. Despite its dire financial situation, Neon Machine still claims to be "at its strongest state ever" and plans to launch Shrapnel globally by the end of 2025, but people familiar with the matter are skeptical.
Social app Phaver shuts down due to running out of funds, token price drops by 99%
The social media app Phaver has ceased operations, and the price of its token has fallen by 99% since the TGE in September 2024. Phaver team members said that first, there were technical problems with the TGE and airdrops, which prevented users from receiving their tokens in time, causing FUD; second, Phaver paid more than $1 million in fees for the listing of 5 CEXs; third, due to low market sentiment, the team did not sell tokens during the TGE, resulting in insufficient operating funds.
As a Finnish company, Phaver also needs to pay employees 1 to 2 months of severance pay. Some former team members are developing SocialDAO to find new uses for SOCIAL tokens.
Binance Launches Second Round of Voting for Listing Coins
On April 2, Binance announced the launch of the second round of voting for listing. The currencies participating in this event include: VIRTUAL, BIGTIME, UXLINK, MORPHO, GRASS, ATH, WAL, SAFE, ZETA, IP, ONDO, PLUME. The voting period is from 21:30 on April 2, 2025 to 07:59 on April 10, 2025. During the voting period, users must log in to a verified account and hold at least 0.01 BNB in the main account for the vote to be valid. Each user can vote for up to 5 projects, and a single project can only vote once.
Binance Wallet launches two new TGEs: PumpBTC oversubscribed 327.56 times; StakeStone oversubscribed 218.2 times
On April 1, Binance Wallet announced that it would join PancakeSwap to hold an exclusive TGE event for PumpBTC, an AI-driven Bitcoin asset management solution, with a subscription of 3BNB. On the same day, PumpBTC announced the PUMP token economics, with a total of 1 billion tokens, 9% of which will be used for airdrops. The details are as follows: 38% for the community ecosystem; 9% for initial PUMP claims; 5% for marketing; 3.5% for liquidity; 19.5% for contributors; 20% for investors; and 5% for IDO. In the early morning of April 2, PumpBTC ended its investment and distributed tokens, and finally invested 406,023 BNB, which was 327.56 times more than the original amount.
On April 3, Binance Wallet launched StakeStone TGE, with a total fundraising amount of 1,000,000 USD BNB and 50,000,000 STO tokens open for subscription (accounting for 5% of the total supply). In the end, 369,445 BNB were invested, exceeding the fundraising by 218.2 times.
Paidun: More than 60 crypto hacking incidents occurred in Q1 2025, with a total loss of $1.63 billion
On April 1, according to Paidun’s monitoring, more than 60 cryptocurrency hacking incidents occurred in the first quarter of 2025, with a total loss of $1.63 billion, an increase of 131% from $706 million in the first quarter of 2024. In March 2025, 20 cryptocurrency hacking incidents occurred, with a loss of $33.46 million, including a $5 million hacking incident affecting 1inch, of which 90% has now been recovered.
Trump's eldest son and second son jointly established mining company American Bitcoin with mining company Hut 8 Mining
On March 31, WSJ reported that the Trump family is fully advancing its cryptocurrency strategy, this time targeting Bitcoin mining. The president's two sons are investing in a Bitcoin mining company, which further expands the Trump family's territory in the cryptocurrency business. American Data Centers, owned by Trump's eldest and second sons, will merge with American Bitcoin and hold a 20% stake in it. American Bitcoin is a mining business majority-controlled by Hut 8, a publicly listed crypto mining company. They plan to jointly build the world's largest digital currency mining company and intend to build their own "Bitcoin reserves."
U.S. House of Representatives to hold hearing on crypto market structure legislation
On March 31, crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett tweeted that the House of Representatives will hold a hearing on legislation for crypto market structure. The House Financial Services Committee’s Digital Assets Subcommittee will hold a hearing next Wednesday (April 9) to discuss the establishment of a federal regulatory framework for digital assets. The theme of the hearing, “American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets: Adapting U.S. Securities Laws to the Digital Age,” marks the first time that the 119th Congress has publicly pushed for rules to regulate how the $2.7 trillion crypto industry operates in the United States.
This week's hot articles
Trump signed an executive order on "reciprocal tariffs". The United States will establish a 10% base tariff on its trading partners and impose higher tariffs on some countries, up to 49%. This has triggered violent fluctuations in the financial market. Bitcoin and the stock market rose and then fell, and gold hit a record high. The tariffs are based on a calculation method that has been criticized as "pseudo-scientific". The economics community is generally worried that it will push up inflation, hit manufacturing and consumer confidence, and backfire on U.S. companies. The market is waiting to see whether subsequent negotiations will be initiated.
Late in the night of April 2, Justin Sun accused First Digital Trust (FDT), the issuer of the stablecoin FDUSD, of being insolvent, causing FDUSD to be severely decoupled in a short period of time, triggering market panic and user selling, and the price once fell to US$0.76; although Binance subsequently refuted the rumor and stated that FDUSD had sufficient reserves and the price gradually rebounded to US$0.98, the incident exposed the trust crisis between Sun and FDT caused by the TUSD management dispute, and also triggered the community's doubts about Binance's untimely information disclosure and suspected "cutting leeks".
What was Vitalik thinking when ETH fell below $1,800?
Vitalik recently published two blog posts in a row, expressing his in-depth thinking on the relationship between real-world political culture and technological development, and calling for a shift in attention from "public goods funding" to clearer and more actionable "open source funding". He proposed the "annual ring model", arguing that the cultural attitude towards new and old things is deeply influenced by historical stages and difficult to change quickly, while the crypto space provides a relatively free soil suitable for nurturing new behavior patterns. At the same time, he believes that the term "public goods" has been abused in practice, and is not as clear as "open source" in definition and practice, and is more suitable as a core concept for funding and innovation in the digital age.
"ACT Flash Crash Night: When the Exchange's "Circuit Breaker Mechanism" Turns into a short Bullet"
On April 1, Binance adjusted the contract rules of some low-market-cap tokens, causing the prices of multiple tokens, including ACT, to halve in a short period of time, and the contract holdings plummeted, triggering market panic and stampede. Although Binance attributed the cause to large-scale selling, the on-chain changes of market maker Wintermute, the simultaneous decline in the prices of some tokens, and the liquidation data of users all showed that this flash crash was not an isolated incident, but the result of the combined effects of factors such as the risk control adjustment of the exchange, the fragile liquidity of MEME coins, and the high leverage strategy of market makers, exposing the limits of the crypto market's control of systemic risks and the structural disadvantages of retail investors.
"Circle IPO aims for a $5 billion valuation. Is there a stablecoin concept stock?"
Circle is accelerating its IPO plan, with a target valuation of $4-5 billion, and plans to submit a prospectus at the end of April. This is its second attempt to go public after the failed SPAC merger in 2021, against the backdrop of increasingly clear global stablecoin regulation and improved policy environment. USDC has gradually narrowed the gap with USDT with its compliance and transparency, and has been supported by institutions such as Visa, Mastercard, and BlackRock. The success of Circle's IPO is not only expected to provide funds for its expansion, but may also promote a reshuffle in the stablecoin market and further challenge Tether's market dominance.
Powell fell into psychological difficulties after pressure from U.S. Treasury Secretary Benson, and sought psychological counseling, reflecting the limited independence of the Federal Reserve under the "fiscal dominance" pattern. Against the backdrop of high debt and persistent deficits, the Federal Reserve faces realistic pressure to relax policies to maintain government financing, and may restart quantitative easing and exempt banks from leverage restrictions. Despite strong economic indicators and high inflation, the Federal Reserve still showed signs of a policy shift, indicating that its anti-inflation stance is gradually softening. Changes in the global liquidity pattern have provided an opportunity for assets such as Bitcoin to rise, and the entanglement of politics, mathematics and history also reveals the increasingly complex role of central banks.
Base Builder Talk 3, Haole is an independent developer who sticks to his technical ideals. He has witnessed the rise and fall of Steemit and DeFi. Now he continues to build the Recaster client on the Farcaster protocol to explore the possibility of decentralized social networking. He invests his spare time in developing products at the lowest cost, not for commercialization, but only to respond to his belief in data sovereignty and open networks. At a time when the AI craze is sweeping and the mainstream focuses on centralization, he has chosen a more difficult but more realistic path, practicing the concept of "data belongs to users", reflecting a rare persistence and sobriety.
The liquidity of stablecoins of crypto assets has dropped significantly, reflecting the current zero-sum attention game in the crypto industry - the number of projects has increased sharply but the funds have not increased synchronously, resulting in scattered resources and weakened communities. Short-term attention cannot bring sustainable development. Only projects with cash flow and real demand can survive. Depending on the stage of development, crypto protocols should adopt corresponding revenue strategies: focus on survival and experimentation in the early stage, balance growth and distribution in the mid-term, and focus on stable operations and value feedback for mature projects. At the same time, good investor relations and transparency have become key moats to build trust and promote long-term development.
Perpetual contracts are a type of derivative without a delivery date. Their prices are anchored to the spot market in the long term through the funding rate mechanism. When the long and short forces are unbalanced, the funding rate, as a market regulation tool, encourages one party to pay the other to restore price balance. Arbitrageurs can earn funding rate income by hedging their positions. The mainstream strategies include single-platform arbitrage, cross-platform arbitrage, and multi-currency arbitrage. The core is risk hedging and compound interest effect. Although the theoretical threshold is not high, institutions have advantages due to systematic risk control, data monitoring, and execution efficiency. Although retail investors can understand the strategy, it is difficult to implement it. It is suitable for participating in compliant institutional products to obtain stable returns.
Ethereum faced a trough in the first quarter of 2025, with the ETH/BTC exchange rate hitting a five-year low and the price falling below $1,800, causing community anxiety. However, at the ETH Hangzhou event, many developers are still actively engaged in ecological construction. A small-scale survey showed that most participants held a limited number of coins and believed that Ethereum had entered its "middle age". Although the ecological infrastructure is complete, it lacks new narrative support. There is a general pessimism about future price expectations, believing that it will be difficult to set a new high within three years, which mainly depends on new asset forms, application development or major breakthroughs. Although ETH is seen as fungible, it is still the core battlefield in the current encryption field.
《Exclusive interview with Mr. Mao: I am in Japan, using cryptocurrency to sell houses》
Mr. Mao is a practical person who combines traditional finance with crypto assets. With many years of banking and wealth management experience, coupled with a keen sense of cryptocurrency, he has successfully pioneered the path of buying houses in Japan with digital currencies such as USDT. He understands the language of the crypto and is familiar with the Japanese real estate process. In the information asymmetry market, he provides reliable services for crypto investors. He does not chase the trend, but runs through each transaction process steadily, accumulates word of mouth through real delivery and personalized content, and turns "buying a house in the crypto" into a realistic and trusted choice.
Stablecoin issuer Circle has officially launched its listing plan in the United States, intending to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with a valuation expected to reach US$5 billion, and the stock code is CRCL. Its core product USDC is the world's second largest stablecoin, with a market value of US$60.1 billion in 2024, accounting for 24% of the stablecoin market. Circle mainly obtains income from interest on reserve assets. In 2024, its total revenue reached US$1.68 billion, of which 99% came from reserve income, but it is highly dependent on interest rate levels. Although cooperation with Coinbase, Binance and others has enhanced the ecological penetration of USDC, the high distribution costs have also eroded profits. This IPO is Circle's second sprint after the failure of the SPAC merger. If successful, it will become the first listed stablecoin issuer, facing competition from strong rivals such as Tether and PayPal, and is also expected to seize compliance advantages in the context of increasingly clear supervision.
"a16z accelerator CSX is back in "money-throwing mode", is the next batch of hits here?"
a16z's crypto startup accelerator CSX is becoming an important promoter of the Web3 startup circle, helping startups quickly implement ideas and attract a large amount of follow-up investment through financial support, intensive coaching and industry resources. Even in the market downturn, CSX continues to incubate innovative projects such as AminoChain, Cork Protocol and Cambrian Network, covering multiple fields such as biotechnology, financial technology and AI blockchain. Its "star-making factory" model and strong mentor team are accelerating the development and breakthroughs of the entire crypto ecosystem.
The current crypto is no longer in a traditional bull-bear market pattern, but an alienated state centered on "selling coins". Project owners and VCs no longer focus on products and innovation. Only the circulation end of the industry is active. Middlemen extract resources through publicity and listing, resulting in the exhaustion of value creation and the gradual disappearance of entrepreneurs. The entire market has become a distribution chain with a high pumping ratio, losing its positive circulation ability and facing ecological decline in the long run. Despite this, the market will eventually return to the cyclical law, and breakthroughs in technological innovation and usage scenarios may still bring about a new round of reconstruction, but before that, it is necessary to go through a difficult and chaotic period.
Since 2020, traditional financial institutions have gradually deepened their integration with the crypto field. As of early 2025, about 15% of Bitcoin is held by institutions, and major banks and asset management companies have launched crypto-related products. The core factors driving this process include the approval of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, the rise of tokenization of real assets, and the widespread use of stablecoins in settlement. Although regulatory uncertainty, technological integration and market volatility remain obstacles, the global compliance framework has gradually become clear, allowing institutions to explore the efficiency and innovation potential of blockchain through methods such as permissioned DeFi. The tokenization trend has become a bridge connecting TradFi and DeFi, indicating that the next few years will be a critical period for the deep integration of the financial system.
"Disassembling Saylor's Bitcoin Financial Magic: The stock price has tripled since last October"
Driven by its founder Michael Saylor, MSTR has raised a large amount of funds to purchase Bitcoin and holds more than 506,000 BTC through efficient and flexible financial means. Its core strategy is to issue options, convertible bonds and preferred stocks to obtain cash flow, and to issue additional stocks at the right time to achieve a high-leverage but low-risk Bitcoin reserve model at a low cost. This model is similar to a bank in terms of operating logic, but does not rely on government guarantees. It mainly relies on the capital appreciation of Bitcoin to generate income. As the market's recognition of this model increases, its potential influence and sustainability are also increasing.
Web3's New Tale of Two Cities: Stablecoins and Money Market Funds
The regulatory battle over stablecoins is similar to what money market funds (MMFs) experienced half a century ago. MMFs initially provided cash management for companies, but were criticized for problems such as lack of deposit insurance and susceptibility to bank runs, which affected bank stability and monetary policy. Despite this, MMF assets now exceed $7.2 trillion. The 2008 financial crisis led to the collapse of the Reserve Fund, and the SEC is still pushing for MMF regulatory reforms in 2023. The history of MMFs suggests that stablecoins may experience similar regulatory challenges, but may eventually become an important part of the financial system.
《From Binance Launchpool data, we can see the current market's "coin holding anxiety"》
The LaunchPool data released by Binance reveals market sentiment and capital flows: despite the cautious market, idle funds in the market have increased instead of decreased, and the increase in the number of participants shows that investors choose to cash out but do not leave the market; the increase in the average locked amount per person shows that funds are concentrated in the hands of large investors, who are still optimistic about the market outlook after completing wealth redistribution and are waiting for the next round of opportunities.
From Bitcoin Miner to Polar Astronaut: Wangchun's Rise to Fame in Magical Realism
Wangchun, who dreamed of "landing on the moon" at the age of 7, went from being an early Bitcoin player to building the world's largest mining pool F2Pool, and then spent $200 million to board the SpaceX space capsule. He used "geek spirit + business calculation" to turn science fiction into reality. Not only did he send the mining pool logo into space, he also entered the space economy by collecting climate data in polar orbit, completing the gorgeous transformation from a coder to an astronaut. He used Casio watches, Bitcoin cold wallets and the phrase "give time light years" to make idealism shine in the vacuum.
《VC Perspective: The Hyperliquid Incident Reveals the Secret Power Struggle between CEX and DEX》
A short squeeze caused by memecoin JELLYJELLY exposed serious flaws in the mechanism of Hyperliquid's decentralized trading platform, including opaque market-making mechanisms, non-existent governance processes, and internal conflicts of interest. In order to save its own liquidity pool HLP, the platform intervened in the market by manipulating the oracle price, triggering widespread doubts about its "decentralized" credibility. At the same time, the rapid intervention of Binance and OKX was also seen as a competitive blow to Hyperliquid. This incident not only reflects the vulnerability of DeFi platforms in extreme situations, but also ignites a new round of thinking on issues such as decentralized science (DeSci) and stablecoin regulation, revealing the deep tension between power concentration, lack of transparency and regulatory games in the crypto industry.
From getting rich to losing money, a deep reflection on the "four-year cycle"
The author reviews his experience in the crypto market, from the excitement in 2017 to the crash in 2018, and then to the reincarnation of new hot spots such as NFT and agents. He points out that market cycles continue to create frenzy and illusions, making investors mistakenly believe that they have mastered the rules, but ultimately they still cannot escape losses. Emotions drive people to repeat the same mistakes, and the market always runs against expectations. The only way to survive is to make as much profit as possible when it goes up and reduce losses when it goes down, but this is harder than you think. The market will not change, and the real challenge is how to control your emotions and decisions.
Paradigm: Uncovering the Mystery of the Lazarus Group Threat from North Korea
In February 2025, the crypto exchage Bybit suffered the largest hacker attack in history, with more than $1 billion in assets stolen. The mastermind behind the attack is believed to be the North Korean Lazarus Group hacker organization. Investigations show that the attackers indirectly seized control of the cold wallet by destroying Bybit's Safe Wallet infrastructure and injecting malicious code to induce engineers to sign malicious transactions. North Korea's cyber attack system is huge, involving multiple organizations such as RGB and MID, with multiple branches such as TraderTraitor, APT38, and AppleJeus. These hackers are good at social engineering, supply chain attacks, and disguised infiltration, posing a continuous threat to the crypto industry. To prevent such attacks, users and organizations are advised to strengthen permission management, adopt two-factor authentication, enhance security awareness, and establish an effective industry collaboration network to quickly respond to potential threats.
Berachain founder reflects on entrepreneurship: Don’t let tokens drag down your project
This article discusses the recent phenomenon of multiple projects issuing tokens in the Berachain ecosystem, and reminds founders not to issue tokens blindly. Tokens should drive growth when the product reaches market fit, otherwise it may affect user adoption. In a sluggish market environment and limited community funds, falling token prices will damage the product image. Token issuance should avoid simultaneous competition, ensure reasonable valuation, and focus on long-term value rather than short-term exit. The author supports the development of Berachain, but emphasizes that success requires patience and strategy, and recommends that the team prioritize profitability and user growth.
Ethereum has been in a slump recently, with ETH/BTC falling to a five-year low, sparking dissatisfaction and pessimism in the community. The core problem is said to stem from EIP-1559 and the deflationary narrative promoted in 2021, which not only failed to bring about the expected development, but also led to community divisions, developer exodus, and an intensified politicized atmosphere. In addition, Ethereum missed the opportunity to transform PoW into AI computing power. Although it has been continuously upgraded, the user experience is mediocre, and the brand is gradually decoupled from the actual value. The future trend may continue to be weak.
"Coinbase has an insider? Behind the $300 million fraud case, user data was accurately leaked"
Recently, a large number of Coinbase users have been scammed by social engineering, with more than $46 million stolen in March and a total loss of $300 million for the whole year. Scammers use methods such as impersonating official phone calls, phishing emails, and cloned websites to induce users to transfer funds to "safe wallets" and are suspected of having detailed user information, which has raised concerns about Coinbase's internal data access management. The incident of Coinbase employees illegally viewing account records and rumors of user data leaks on platforms such as Gemini and Kraken show that the crypto industry is facing a serious crisis of information security and internal risk control.
Ethereum at a crossroads: go, or hold on?
Ethereum is currently at the center of a valuation controversy: bulls believe that its position as the core infrastructure of Web3 is solid, that technology upgrades and macroeconomic benefits have injected long-term value into it, and that its ecological and developer advantages are still obvious; while bears point out that its value capture ability has weakened, its technology route is bearish for token prices, and that narrative power and users have been lost to new public chains, with the ETH/BTC ratio hitting a five-year low. Overall, Ethereum faces a misalignment between technological progress and lagging prices. It still has potential in the long run, but in the short term, we need to be wary of intensified competition and shaken market confidence.
《In-depth comparison of GMX, Jupiter and Drift, who is the king of Solana's sustainability?》
This article analyzes the main derivatives protocols on the Solana chain, including GMX-Solana, Jupiter Perps, and Drift, and compares their liquidity, trading volume, capital efficiency, and risk management. Jupiter and Drift have shown sustained growth but low capital efficiency, while GMX-Solana has high capital efficiency and less liquidity. Solana As the protocol introduces better features and incentives, market competition will intensify, and the ratio of derivatives trading volume between DEX and CEX has reached an all-time high, and Solana will benefit from it.
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