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This Week in Review | Trump Signs Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Executive Order; Doge Meme Shiba Inu Owner Issues Token for New Pet Cocoro
BlockBeats will compile key industry news of the week (3.3-3.9) in this article, and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and industry trends.
Important News Recap
Trump Hosts First White House Crypto Summit and Delivers Speech, Attended by Multiple Industry Founders
On March 8, the first White House Crypto Summit was held. U.S. President Trump, White House AI and Cryptocurrency Czar David Sacks, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, and others attended. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Chainlink Co-founder Sergey Nazarov, Paradigm Co-founder Matt Huang, Strategy Founder Michael Saylor, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, and many other cryptocurrency project founders were invited to participate. Attendees took turns to speak, with most expressing a series of developments in the crypto space since Trump took office and praising Trump himself. Overall, the summit results were lukewarm, only proposing a commitment to establish a stablecoin legislative framework by August and ensuring a more relaxed regulatory approach. These measures failed to ignite market sentiment as expected.
Trump Signs Executive Order to Formally Establish Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
On March 7, White House AI and Cryptocurrency Czar David Sacks announced on social media that "President Trump has signed an executive order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve." The executive order states that this reserve will use approximately 200,000 federal government-owned bitcoins as capital and will not spend a penny of taxpayer money. The U.S. will not sell any bitcoins deposited into the reserve. It will be held as a means of storing value. Furthermore, the executive order also establishes the U.S. Digital Asset Reserve, which includes digital assets other than bitcoins confiscated in criminal or civil litigation. Apart from assets obtained through seizure procedures, the government will not purchase additional assets for the reserve. The purpose of the reserve repository is to manage government-held digital assets under the leadership of the Treasury Department. Related reading: "Full Text of U.S. Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Executive Order Overview", "Trump Signs Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Executive Order, Why Did the Market Instead Experience a Sharp Decline?"
Trump's Tariff Increase Triggers Crypto Market Volatility
On March 4, Trump held a press conference to announce tariff actions, confirming a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico and stating there was no room for negotiated agreements. Trump also announced that starting on April 2, tariffs would be imposed on imported agricultural products and that countries engaging in "currency devaluation tactics" would face sanctions in the form of tariffs, raising tariffs on China to 20%. As a result of the tariff threats, the U.S. stock market evaporated $1.5 trillion in value on the same day, with the S&P 500 erasing its gains since the election, and the cryptocurrency market losing nearly $300 billion in market capitalization. Related article: "U.S. Stock Market Evaporates $1.5 Trillion, Cryptocurrency Loses $300 Billion as Trump Hosts an Expensive Press Conference"
Trump: Will Advance Cryptocurrency Strategic Reserves Including XRP, SOL, and ADA
On March 2, Trump took to social media to state, "After years of suppression by the Biden administration, the U.S. cryptocurrency reserves will elevate the stature of this critical industry. That's why my Executive Order on Digital Assets directs the President's Working Group to advance a cryptocurrency strategic reserve including XRP, SOL, and ADA. I will ensure the U.S. becomes the global cryptocurrency capital. We are making America great again!" About an hour later, Trump tweeted again, "Clearly, BTC and ETH, along with other valuable cryptocurrencies, will be at the core of the reserve. I also like Bitcoin and Ethereum!"
On March 8, White House Cryptocurrency and AI Czar David Sacks, in an interview with Bloomberg, responded to the question of whether ADA, SOL, and XRP would be included in the U.S. cryptocurrency reserves and why the President mentioned them, stating that these assets were mentioned by Trump solely because of their top-five market cap ranking and that the amount of cryptocurrency held by the U.S. federal government would be accounted for. Related article: "Trump's Designated Cryptocurrency Strategic Reserves Candidate List, Is Cardano's 'Hot Air' Narrative Merely Based on Relationships?"
Utah Bitcoin Bill Passes Without Strategic Reserve Provision; Texas Senate Passes Bitcoin Reserve Bill, Aiming to Hold $500 Billion in Cryptocurrency
On March 8, it was revealed that the Bitcoin bill in the U.S. state of Utah passed without the strategic reserve component. The bill included basic protections for rights such as mining Bitcoin, running nodes, and self-custody.
On March 9, it was reported that the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 21 to establish a state Bitcoin reserve, further solidifying the state's leadership in the cryptocurrency field and setting a precedent nationally. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick announced that the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill received bipartisan support to create a fund managed by the state government for holding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, with holdings of at least $5 billion in cryptocurrency market value and eligibility for state budget appropriations. Additionally, the bill established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Council to provide guidance on fund management and required a biennial holdings report submission. The bill is still pending approval by the House and signature by the governor to become law.
Trump Crypto Project WLFI to Include SUI in Strategic Token Reserve
On March 6, Sui Network announced a partnership with the Trump crypto project WLFI. WLFI will include SUI in its strategic token reserve to support leading Web3 projects. WLFI and Sui have already begun exploring product development opportunities.
Doge Meme Shiba Inu Owner Introduces New Pet Cocoro and Issues Related Token
On March 8, Doge meme Shiba Inu's owner Kabosu announced her new pet Cocoro and issued the Cocoro token based on the Base network. Cocoro's market cap briefly surpassed $100 million and has now fallen to around $37 million.
Binance Releases Announcement on Recent GPS Price Anomaly Investigation and Freezes an Account of a Dumping Liquidity Provider
On March 7, according to official sources, Binance has expanded its monitoring tags to GPS. Binance stated that based on a recent review, after the GPS spot listing, the price immediately experienced a significant drop, with one liquidity provider exhibiting abnormal behavior. The liquidity provider sold approximately 70 million GPS tokens between March 4, 2025, 13:00 (UTC) and March 5, 2025, 9:55 (UTC) without placing any buy orders during that period. After the spot trading started, the liquidity provider continued to sell the tokens, becoming the biggest beneficiary and making around $5 million in profit. While Binance conducts a thorough follow-up investigation into this matter, the liquidity provider's account has been temporarily frozen. The next day, Binance officially released an explanation of the "large short" situation regarding GPS before the announcement about GPS, which, upon verification, was deemed normal market fluctuation behavior with no abnormal trading.
RedStone Airdrop Allocation Ratio Challenged by Community, Binance Temporarily Suspends Listing
On March 5, DeFi oracle RedStone launched an airdrop inquiry page. The following day, RedStone officially opened RED token airdrop claims and staking. However, shortly after the airdrop inquiry page went live, the community sentiment took a nosedive, with many users reporting that the airdrop had hidden barriers in its threshold. On the same day, according to a Binance official announcement, due to a last-minute change by the RedStone project team in the unexpected community airdrop amount ratio, Binance decided to temporarily suspend spot trading for RedStone (RED). RedStone originally promised to allocate 9.5% of the token total supply to the community airdrop but ended up distributing only 5% of the total supply. Later that evening, RedStone announced that they would allocate an additional 2% of the total RED token supply to the overlooked community members. Subsequently, Binance announced the resumption of trading for RedStone (RED). Related read: "RedStone 'False Advertising'? Only 4,000 out of 230,000 Community Members Receive Airdrop, Angering Many"
Solana Proposes Two Protocol Upgrades, SOL Inflation Rate Adjustment on the Horizon
On March 5, it was reported that asset management firm VanEck stated that on March 3, Solana validators will vote on two blockchain protocol upgrade proposals (SIMDs) aimed at ensuring stakers receive rewards and adjusting SOL's inflation rate. VanEck's Director of Digital Asset Research, Matthew Sigel, wrote that these two proposals have sparked "significant controversy" as they could potentially reduce validator income by up to 95%, thereby endangering small-scale operators. "While these changes may reduce staking rewards, we believe that reducing inflation is a goal worth pursuing to enhance Solana's long-term sustainability."
The first proposal, SIMD 0123, will introduce an on-chain mechanism to allocate Solana's priority fee to validator stakers. Traders can pay an additional fee to expedite transaction processing, with the priority fee representing 40% of the network revenue, which currently validators do not have to share with stakers. This proposal, which will be voted on March 6, aims to increase staking rewards, prevent off-chain transaction protocols, and strengthen on-chain execution.
The second proposal, SIMD 0228, is the "most impactful" proposal, which will adjust the SOL inflation rate to be inversely proportional to the percentage of staked tokens in supply, potentially reducing dilution and lowering stakers' selling pressure. According to a Coin Metrics report, as of February, Solana's inflation rate stands at 4%, lower than the initial 8%, but still well above the 1.5% final target, currently decreasing at an annual rate of 15%. Related Reading: "Solana Staking Reward Adjustment Proposal, What Impact on SOL Price?", "Assessing Solana's New Proposal SIMD-0228, What Does It Mean for SOL Validators?"
Ethereum's Pectra Upgrade Hits a Bug in Final Test Phase, Developers Begin Investigation
On March 5, Ethereum's upcoming Pectra upgrade was activated on the Sepolia testnet. The Sepolia version is the final major release before the mainnet upgrade's expected launch next month. This deployment marks the second phase of the Pectra testnet activation, with Pectra previously launched on the Holesky testnet on February 24. On March 5, Ethereum's Core Developer and Foundation Protocol Support Lead, Tim Beiko, wrote that they are investigating issues caused by a custom deposit contract on the Sepolia network. This has led to problems in some execution layer (EL) clients, including transactions in blocks. Related Reading: "Ethereum's Pectra Test Faces Another Hurdle, Will the April Upgrade Proceed as Planned?"
ETH Dips Below $2000 This Week; XRP's Fully Diluted Market Cap Overtakes Ethereum for the First Time
On March 3, according to CoinGecko data, XRP's fully diluted market cap ($272.6 billion) surpassed Ethereum ($271.6 billion) for the first time. On the 5th, Ethereum briefly fell below $2000, marking the first time since November 2023, with a 24-hour drop of 11.16%.
Ethereum's L2 Linea: TGE Will Not Take Place in Q1
On March 8, a Linea Discord community manager stated that the TGE will not take place in Q1. The team will announce progress once the final timeline is determined. In November last year, Linea, an Ethereum zkEVM L2 Rollup developed by ConsenSys, announced the formation of the Linea Association to drive Linea governance. Previous reports indicated that the project's TGE would take place in Q1 of this year.
David Sacks: White House to Support CRA to Revoke "DeFi Broker Rule"
On March 4, White House AI and Cryptocurrency Czar David Sacks wrote, "The White House is pleased to announce its support for the 'Congressional Review Act' (CRA) introduced by Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Mike Carey to revoke the so-called 'DeFi Broker Rule' — the last-minute attack by the Biden administration on the crypto community." BlockBeats Note: The DeFi Broker Rule is a regulatory framework for intermediary service providers in decentralized finance (DeFi), such as exchanges, lending protocols, etc., aimed at ensuring compliance, user protection, and risk management. Key aspects include Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), smart contract audits, fund security, and transparency requirements. Related Read: "Senate Repeals 'DeFi Broker Rule,' Is the US Launching a Lightning War on DeFi Deregulation?"
Soccer Star Ronaldinho Launches Meme Coin, Community Accuses Him of Double-Cross
On March 3, soccer star Ronaldinho launched a meme coin, and according to user @R10coin_, Ronaldinho collaborated with a Chinese (Shenzhen) team to issue the token and scam investors. In May 2024, @R10coin_ formally began discussions with Ronaldinho regarding issuing cryptocurrency. In January 2025, @R10coin_ and Mr. Ronaldinho formally signed a collaboration agreement. The total contract amount was $6 million, with $3 million paid as a deposit. Without communicating with @R10coin_, Ronaldinho signed another $10 million cooperation agreement with a different company, receiving a $5 million deposit, and then began promoting and hyping the company's token. An investigation revealed that the company was located in Shenzhen, China, and their actions were extremely malicious. They rapidly attracted investor funds using exaggerated marketing tactics, pumped and dumped quickly, and then absconded with the funds.
Subsequently, the Ronaldinho X account posted that they have relinquished ownership of the STAR10 token and extended the lock-up period to 255 years. On the same day, Binance founder CZ also took to social media to thank Ronaldinho for launching the STAR10 token on the BNB Chain, stating he has been a fan for 20 years. Related reading: "From Earning 100 Million a Year to Selling Tokens, Football Wizard Kicks at Retail Investors"
CZ Responds to the Community: Investors should not overinterpret my words due to language and cultural differences; YZi Labs' investment project incurs an 80% loss, and interaction with the community is "very casual"
On March 3, Binance founder CZ posted on social media, saying, "In English, the clearer you are, the better. Sometimes, not being explicit can even lead to legal responsibilities. In Chinese, it's best to be concise. If you are too blunt, others tend to understand the opposite. My communication style is English translated into Chinese mode. Please just try to understand the literal meaning. Don't overthink it."
On the same day, CZ responded to the community's questioning of his interaction with a controversial project (the token launched by Ronaldinho on the BNB Chain): "When a big shot comes to BSC, I interact with them; if each X requires a background check before replying, how can I respond to you? I strive for more interaction with the community, not less. It should be more rather than less in the future too. The investment and advisory of Labs are generally optimistic, but 80% of Labs' investment projects actually incur losses." Related reading: "CZ's Twitter Responses Trigger Backlash, Responds by Prioritizing Community Interaction"
Singapore's Largest Money Laundering Suspect Wang Shuiming May Be Extradited to China, His Associate Is the Mastermind of Hong Kong Crypto Platform Scam AAX
On March 4, according to Netease's Project St. Clean Stream, Wang Shuiming, the key figure in Singapore's largest money laundering case and a native of Anxi, Fujian, was arrested in Montenegro and is to be extradited to China. His partner, Su Weiyi, was previously identified as the mastermind of the Hong Kong cryptocurrency scam AAX and was arrested by the Hong Kong police in July 2024. In August 2023, the Singaporean authorities uncovered a $3 billion Singapore dollar (approximately RMB 16 billion) money laundering case, arresting 10 suspects, all from Fujian. They whitewashed funds from illegal Southeast Asian gambling and fraud through forged documents, shell companies, and cryptocurrencies. Wang Shuiming, a person of interest in the case, holds significant assets in Singapore and overseas, including a 32 million RMB investment in China, a factory, two Xiamen apartments, Hong Kong bank deposits, and cryptocurrencies.
Bybit Hacker Completes Washing of All 499,000 ETH Stolen, Takes 10 Days
On March 4, according to Ashes Monitor, the hacker has successfully washed all 499,000 ETH (about $13.9 billion) stolen from Bybit, a process that lasted 10 days. During this process, the price of ETH dropped by approximately 23%. The main channel used by the hacker for money laundering, THORChain, also gained $5.9 billion in transaction volume and $5.5 million in fee income from the money laundering activities. Related reading: "Bybit Incident Timeline: $1.5 Billion Stolen in This Incident Due to Safe Exploit, Suspicions Still Linger"
YZi Labs Announces Investment in Decentralized AI Lab Tensorplex Labs
On March 7, YZi Labs announced that it has invested in the decentralized AI lab Tensorplex Labs. Tensorplex Labs focuses on building AI applications, infrastructure, and tools to accelerate AI development and the implementation of decentralized technology in AI scenarios. Projects include Tensorplex Dojo, Backprop Finance, and more. Related reading: "Rising 500% in One Day, Understanding Yzi Labs' Investment in Tensorplex Labs?"
Zora Launches Its Native Token ZORA, Set to List in Spring This Year
On March 4, the Ethereum L2 network Zora announced the launch of its native token, ZORA, which is set to list in spring this year. ZORA plans to launch on the Base network with a total supply of 10 billion tokens. The first snapshot was taken on March 3, and the second snapshot will be taken three days before ZORA goes live. Zora already has over 2.4 million collectors and 618,000 creators, generating over $27.7 million in rewards. Content on Zora has driven over $376 million in secondary market transactions. Related reading: "Zora Airdrop Imminent, How Is the 6-year Accumulated Ecosystem Doing Now?"
Aave Community Releases New Proposal, Seeking Updates to AAVE Tokenomics, Protocol Surplus Redistribution, and More
On March 4th, Aave DAO service provider Marc Zeller issued a governance proposal seeking governance approval to implement the first part of the updated Aavenomics, which includes refreshing AAVE tokenomics, protocol surplus redistribution, sunsetting the LEND token, and updating AAVE's Layer 2 liquidity protocol management. The proposal suggests introducing Umbrella as a protection mechanism for Aave users while using surplus income from Aave DAO to reward Umbrella aToken stakers as a growth mechanism. The proposal authorizes Tokenlogic to provide token approval to AFC during each monthly funding round of the AIP, enabling AFC to execute and/or partner with market makers to buy AAVE tokens on the secondary market and distribute them to the ecosystem fund. ACI believes the proposal would empower AFC to immediately kickstart an AAVE buyback and distribution plan at a rate of $1 million per week for the first 6 months of approval. Further reading: "Interpreting the AAVE Buyback Proposal, Finally Triggering DeFi Dividends?"
OnlyFans Streamer Amouranth Claims Armed Robbery After Publicly Displaying Personal Crypto Holdings
Reportedly, on March 2nd, popular streamer Amouranth (real name Kaitlyn Siragusa) took to X to post multiple updates revealing she had been a victim of an armed robbery with the robbers demanding cryptocurrency while inside her residence. In November 2024, Amouranth had previously shared a screenshot showcasing her ownership of approximately 211 Bitcoins (BTC) valued at $20 million at the time and around $80,000 worth of Ethereum (ETH). Amouranth is known for her financial transparency, having shared her income streams on a YouTube finance show. She rose to fame on Twitch and became the most-watched female streamer in 2021 and 2022. Recently, she has also ventured into content creation on the OnlyFans platform.
Top Articles of the Week
"Everyone's Criticizing VC Coins, How Did This VC Round Perform?"
This article analyzes the investment performance of various VC firms in the crypto field, particularly focusing on their project token issuance rate and listing success rate on mainstream trading platforms (such as Binance, Bybit, Upbit, etc.). Based on this data, the article categorizes VCs into different levels, where T0-level VCs (such as Continue Capital and YZi Labs) have a significant advantage, especially excelling in multi-platform and cross-sector investments. T1 and T2-level institutions like Bain Capital and Mint Ventures, while having a higher number of investments, show a more balanced success rate. T3 and T4-level institutions possess unique advantages in specific sectors or regions, albeit with lower overall listing efficiency. Overall, the listing efficiency of VCs is a key indicator reflecting their investment precision but cannot entirely represent their overall strength.
"Trump: I Will Ensure the U.S. Becomes the Global Cryptocurrency Capital"
Trump has announced plans to make the U.S. a global cryptocurrency hub and to include five cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and ADA, in the national digital asset reserves. This move follows his earlier proposals to establish a Bitcoin strategic reserve and sign an executive order on the cryptocurrency working group. By advancing cryptocurrency policies, Trump not only has a short-term impact on market prices but also contributes to the long-term development of related cryptocurrencies' ecosystems. Trump's determination is evident in various initiatives, including issuing Trump tokens, promoting cryptocurrency donations, and establishing a cryptocurrency strategic reserve.
Cardano's performance in the crypto market has always been closely watched, and its recent nomination by Trump as a U.S. strategic reserve asset has sparked discussions. Despite its relatively lagging technology and ecosystem development, Cardano's ADA price has seen a significant increase due to its ties with the U.S. government and market attention. Its founder, Charles Hoskinson's close government connections and Cardano's multi-narrative strategy have helped it stand out in the market. However, there are still many doubts about whether it can truly break through technical bottlenecks with the support of policy dividends. The market is also cautious about the implementation effect of this policy, believing it remains more at the intention stage.
"Trump's Influence on Coin Price Fluctuation: When Is the Best Time to Buy the Dip?"
The Trump administration has introduced a series of supportive measures for the crypto industry but failed to prevent the decline in Bitcoin's price and negative sentiment in the industry. The cryptocurrency market's downturn has been influenced by multiple factors, including meme coin dramas, hacks, and a decrease in investor risk appetite. Additionally, a drop in consumer confidence and international trade issues have exacerbated the external headwinds. Analysts believe that the industry may not see sustainable growth until 2026, especially through initiatives such as establishing a Bitcoin reserve or developing clearer market rules to encourage institutional investment.
"Bull and Bear Monthly Cycle: What's Next for the Crypto Market?"
The current market is full of uncertainty, especially against the backdrop of Trump's policies and the stock market's all-time highs, leading many investors to feel anxious. However, based on multiple market indicators, Bitcoin is still in the mid-stage of a bull market. While there has been some profit-taking behavior in the short term, there is still room for the market to rise. Ethereum faces significant challenges, especially given the price lag compared to Bitcoin and a lack of clear catalysts. Nevertheless, with the progress of L1 scaling and L2 modularization, ETH still has the potential for a strong rebound in the later stages of the market. As for altcoins, the current low speculation index may indicate an upcoming rebound, but caution should be exercised when considering factors such as market demand and tokenomics.
"Arthur Hayes: BTC Could Drop to $70,000 at Worst, But the Bull Market Cycle Continues"
Trump plans to drive his "America First" policy through debt financing, which could potentially trigger a recession to push the Federal Reserve to adopt loose monetary policies. To address the massive U.S. debt burden, Treasury Secretary Benson and Fed Chair Powell have implemented different measures, which could lead to an increase in money supply and lower interest rates, significantly impacting the market. Trump's initiatives to promote economic activity through cutting government spending, reforming bureaucratic agencies, and strengthening debt restructuring could result in significant fiscal stimulus and growth in the cryptocurrency market, particularly for Bitcoin.
"Trump's 'Pump-and-Dump' Strategic Reserves: Who Will Be the Next Crypto ETF?"
After Trump announced the cryptocurrency strategic reserve plan, the market reacted strongly, with major cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, SOL, and ADA experiencing significant gains. The U.S. crypto market also saw a series of positive signals, including the SEC expediting the review of multiple cryptocurrency ETFs. In particular, spot ETFs for LTC, DOGE, SOL, and XRP are considered to have a higher probability of approval, which will bring a large influx of traditional funds into the crypto market, enhancing market stability. With the gradual development of crypto ETFs, it is expected that cryptocurrency will gradually move towards the mainstream financial market, with global policy convergence or accelerated crypto adoption, reshaping the market's investment structure.
"Cryptocurrency's 'Schrodinger's Cat': Trump's Cryptocurrency Strategic Reserve Plan"
Trump announced on Twitter that he would push for the inclusion of XRP, SOL, ADA, and other cryptocurrencies in the U.S. strategic reserve and expressed support for Bitcoin and Ethereum, leading to a significant surge in the crypto market. While this news triggered a positive market response, it also sparked various discussions. Some believe that this move could bring favorable conditions to the crypto industry, even potentially driving cryptocurrency to become a reserve asset for the U.S., while others view it as mere political strategy or rhetoric. Additionally, the market remains cautious about whether Trump's crypto policies and bills can be passed, leading to significant short-term volatility.
"Solana Staking Rewards Adjustment Proposal: What Impact Will It Have on SOL Price?"
The author of this article expressed concerns about Solana's proposed inflation reduction measure SIMD-0228, believing that the existing proposal does not fully address key risks and issues, especially regarding staking rewards, the relationship between inflation and selling pressure, tax optimization for staking rewards, and the number of validators. The author refuted several points in the proposal one by one, emphasizing that high staking rewards can boost DeFi profits, inflation has a minor impact on selling pressure, and staking rewards should not only consider U.S. tax policy. Furthermore, the author pointed out that deeper data analysis is necessary, especially to evaluate the proposal's impact on validators in different market environments.
"Rumors Abound: Can Trump's Cryptocurrency Capital Gains Tax Exemption Materialize?"
The market briefly surged on the news of Trump's support for cryptocurrency, only to quickly return to the starting point. The Trump administration may announce a tax-exempt policy for cryptocurrency sales at the March crypto summit, although this news has sparked controversy and skepticism. Currently, the U.S. imposes capital gains tax on cryptocurrency, and if this tax is repealed, it could attract more investment and market activity, but it would also reduce government revenue, potentially creating other fiscal pressures. However, tax reform would require congressional approval and is difficult to achieve in the short term. Therefore, this policy seems more like a vision that could impact the market but is challenging to implement.
"2025 Crypto Market Survival Plan: Is Stablecoin the Next Casino?"
This article discusses the possible direction of the cryptocurrency market in 2025, especially considering the lack of innovation, where the demand for stablecoins may increase. The author believes that if the market continues to bearish, yield-generating stablecoin products may account for 20-30% of the stablecoin market. With the growth of the stablecoin market, more developers and new DeFi innovations may emerge. Additionally, Trump's support for cryptocurrency policies contributes to the development of the U.S. domestic crypto industry, and investors should pay attention to the potential of U.S. domestic crypto tokens.
"Senate Repeals 'DeFi Broker Rule,' Is the U.S. Launching a Regulatory Lightning War on DeFi?"
The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted to repeal the 'DeFi Broker Rule,' demonstrating bipartisan support for the crypto industry. The rule required DeFi platforms to implement KYC and tax reporting, criticized as excessive regulation that does not align with DeFi's decentralized nature. The White House supports the repeal and indicates that Trump may quickly sign the bill into law. This decision is seen as part of the Trump administration's crypto deregulation policy, in conjunction with recent SEC regulatory loosening, approval of crypto ETFs, and other measures, which may create a more relaxed development environment for DeFi and the entire crypto market. However, balancing encouragement of innovation with regulation remains a key challenge.
In this interview, SBF discusses his life in prison, interactions with Diddy, the Democratic Party's betrayal, the future of cryptocurrency, and his reflections on effective altruism with Tucker Carlson. SBF describes the monotony and challenges of prison life, reflects on the reasons for FTX's collapse, and criticizes the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) regulation of the cryptocurrency industry. While he still believes in the principles of effective altruism, he acknowledges that helping others requires a deeper understanding. The interview also touches on SBF's uncertainty about the future and his struggles in law and relationships.
"Zora Airdrop Imminent, How is the 6-Year Ecosystem Maturation Now?"
Zora is set to launch the $ZORA Memecoin in Spring 2025, with a total token supply of 10 billion, 10% of which is allocated for airdrop. The Zora ecosystem primarily revolves around art social and creator tools, aiming to address the ownership issues of the Web2 era. It has introduced several innovative products such as an NFT trading protocol and a social app, even enabling every tweet to be converted into Memecoin. The team emphasizes that $ZORA is not a governance token but a Memecoin, and users participating in the airdrop need to qualify through interaction with the platform, including tweet rewards, likes, comments, and more.
"IOSG Founder: From Hong Kong to Denver, Ethereum Is Facing Its 'Dunkirk Moment'"
This article discusses the struggles and challenges of the crypto industry in the current stage, particularly focusing on the state of the Ethereum ecosystem. As market sentiment shifts towards short-termism, many investors and practitioners are abandoning long-term goals in favor of quick arbitrage, posing a severe test to Ethereum's long-term vision and ecosystem development. The article also mentions that entrepreneurs within the Ethereum ecosystem, especially tech-driven developers, are gradually losing confidence, with more turning their attention to the integration of AI and Web3. Despite this, the industry is actively seeking new breakthroughs, with capital and innovation bringing hope for the future, especially as Ethereum may address challenges by adjusting its governance structure and focusing on innovation at the application layer.
"ETHDenver2025 Short Essay Collection: The Market Is Not as Bleak as It Seems"
With a decrease in attendance at ETHDenver 2025 against the backdrop of a bearish market, the density of core builders has increased. Discussion topics have expanded from previous years' focus on Layer2 and Restaking to areas such as AI, modular blockchain, stablecoins, and RWA. While the short-term market sentiment is pessimistic, there is long-term optimism regarding technological development and regulatory trends in the crypto industry. Bitcoin L2, Ethereum high-throughput chains, and the Solana ecosystem remain active, with DePIN and AI topics receiving attention. Investors are more cautious about early-stage projects, and stablecoins and RWA tracks are gaining more focus. Overall, ETHDenver reflects that despite the crypto market being in a downturn, true builders are still deep in development, with the industry reverting to its technological essence.
"With a 20x Leaderboard Emerging, Is Sonic NFT Taking the Inside Track?"
The Sonic NFT market stands in stark contrast to the Hyperliquid NFT, with the former mainly led by DeFi players, and its ecosystem primarily focused on "equity-type" NFTs. Participants are mostly Sonic chain natives and DeFi users, and the ecosystem has a clear top-down characteristic. Sonic's flagship project Derps has garnered attention due to its close association with Sonic official personnel; holders can obtain $DERP tokens through NFTs and participate in DeFi gameplay. Furthermore, Sonic's other popular projects are mostly linked to token presales, airdrops, and other equity-related activities, and the future market direction will depend on further development of the Sonic ecosystem.
"Interpreting the AAVE Buyback Proposal, Finally Starting DeFi Dividends?"
The Aave DAO has proposed a governance proposal aimed at reshaping its economic model, including income redistribution, AAVE token buyback, Umbrella security mechanism, and LEND token retirement. In the proposal, Aave plans to allocate part of the protocol's revenue to stkAAVE stakers, introduce a new incentive mechanism called Anti-GHO, and initiate a $1 million weekly AAVE token buyback. Additionally, the Umbrella mechanism will enhance protocol security, facilitate cross-chain deployment, and strengthen risk management. The LEND token will eventually be retired, with unredeemed AAVE tokens being reclaimed. These series of measures are aimed at improving Aave's financial stability and market competitiveness, attracting more investor attention.
"Strategic Reserves and Power Games: The Crypto Order of the Trump Era"
Trump's negotiation style is centered around "controlling the pace" and "creating surprises," maximizing benefits by pressuring opponents and leveraging the media to magnify events. In the cryptocurrency field, he announced the inclusion of multiple currencies in the "strategic reserves," boosting the market, but his true intentions are hard to fathom, possibly aiming to secure US dominance by controlling the trend of the crypto market. Trump's strategy not only involves tough business and diplomatic tactics but also integrates cryptocurrency market intervention into the US interest network, promoting the "Americanization" of crypto. This authoritarian style of regulation may limit innovation in the crypto space.
Recently, the Bitcoin market has experienced intense volatility, and in the turbulent market, some top whales have made huge profits through high-leverage trading. Whales like "Cool Xi" earned millions of dollars in a week with a $2000 principal, while another whale, with 50x leverage, seized a precise market opportunity to make a $6.83 million profit within 24 hours. However, some whales have also suffered significant losses due to operation errors or excessive market fluctuations, highlighting the enormous risk of high-leverage trading. These cases illustrate the challenges of extreme trading and fund management in the crypto market.
"a16z: Understanding the 7 Token Categories and the Origin of Crypto Asset Value"
With the diversification of blockchain tokens, different types of tokens exhibit significant differences in functionality, value, and risk. The main token types include network tokens, security tokens, company-backed tokens, utility tokens, collectible tokens, asset-backed tokens, and Memecoin. Network tokens are usually used to power the operation of blockchain networks, security tokens represent digitized securities assets, and company-backed tokens are associated with off-chain services of centralized organizations. Utility tokens serve as the currency in the digital economy, while collectible tokens represent ownership of tangible or intangible assets. Asset-backed tokens are usually linked to physical or digital assets, and Memecoin is primarily driven by speculation without intrinsic value. The design and function of each token determine its role and potential risks in the market.
"2030 Lookback at 2025: The Year Wall Street Officially Took Over Bitcoin"
The Bitcoin market is currently in the distribution phase, where traditional whales (OG retail and whales) are gradually selling off Bitcoin, and institutional investors are heavily buying through channels like ETFs. During this process, the market structure has undergone significant changes, institutional funds' entry has reduced market volatility, and the market is gradually maturing. Unlike past cycles, the participants in this bull market are more diversified, retail investors are exhibiting more rational behavior, and institutional funds are providing stable buying support. It is expected that in the second half of 2025, the Bitcoin market may enter the final distribution phase, with institutions becoming dominant, marking the maturity of the cryptocurrency market and the restructuring of the global capital structure.
"WSJ: The Battle of Life and Death Between Tether and Circle"
Tether's primary holder Giancarlo Devasini resides in seclusion in Switzerland, but a fierce competition with rival Circle's founder Jeremy Allaire is unfolding globally. USDT holds a dominant position in the crypto market, but is under scrutiny by the US government and regulatory agencies for alleged use by criminal syndicates. Allaire is advocating for regulation to weaken USDT's influence, while Devasini is attempting to block legislation against USDT. With Circle gaining regulatory advantages in the US, EU, and elsewhere, Tether faces a survival challenge, but the support of the Trump administration may bring new opportunities.
"Market Showing Bullish Sentiment Again, Recent Potential of AI Agent Field Alpha"
The US commitment to establish a strategic cryptocurrency reserve has boosted the market, especially after Trump mentioned BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, and ADA, while AI tokens as a whole remained largely unaffected, hovering around a market cap of $6.5 billion. Launch platforms have been severely impacted by the market downturn, with Virtuals io experiencing a significant market cap decline, yet this has presented a challenge for new platforms, with some projects exploring fairer launch mechanisms. The AVA holo token launched by HoloworldAI has seen a counter-trend rebound, drawing attention with features such as AI character creation and personalized knowledge base, as its launch platform is set to debut. The market continues to explore innovative models, with some AI tokens showing greater resilience, warranting ongoing attention.
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$COIN Joins S&P 500, but Coinbase Isn't Celebrating
On May 13, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Coinbase would officially replace Discover Financial Services in the S&P 500 on May 19. While other companies like Block and MicroStrategy, closely tied to Bitcoin, were already part of the S&P 500, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange whose primary business is in the index. This also signifies that cryptocurrency is gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream in the U.S.
On the day of the announcement, Coinbase's stock price surged by 23%, surpassing the $250 mark. However, just 3 days later, Coinbase was hit by two consecutive events: a hack where employees were bribed to steal customer data and a demand for a $20 million ransom, and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the authenticity of its claim of having over 100 million "verified users" in its securities filings and marketing materials. These two events acted as mini-bombs, and at the time of writing, Coinbase's stock had already dropped by over 7.3%.
Coincidentally, Discover Financial Services, being replaced by Coinbase, can also be considered the "Coinbase" of the previous payment era. Discover is a U.S.-based digital banking and payment services company headquartered in Illinois, founded in 1960. Its payment network, Discover Network, is the fourth largest payment network apart from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
In April, after the approval of the acquisition of Discover by the sixth-largest U.S. bank, Capital One, this well-established digital banking company of over 60 years smoothly handed over its S&P 500 "seat" to this emerging cryptocurrency "bank." This unexpected coincidence also portrayed the handover between the new and old eras in Coinbase's entry into the S&P 500, resembling a relay race scene. However, this relay baton also brought Coinbase's accumulated "external troubles and internal strife" to a tipping point.
Over the past decade, cryptocurrency exchanges have been the most stable "profit machines." They play a role in providing liquidity to the entire industry and rely on trading fees to sustain their operations. However, with the comprehensive rollout of ETF products in the U.S. market, this profit model is facing unprecedented challenges. As the leader in the "American stack," with over 80% of its business coming from the U.S., Coinbase is most affected by this.
Starting from the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, traditional financial capital has significantly onboarded users and funds that originally belonged to exchanges in a more cost-effective, compliant, and transparent manner. The transaction fee revenue of cryptocurrency exchanges has started to decline, and this trend may further intensify in the coming months.
According to Coinbase's 2024 Q4 financial report, the platform's total trading revenue was $417 million, a 45% year-on-year decrease. The contribution of BTC and ETH's trading revenue dropped from 65% in the same period last year to less than 50%.
This decline is not a result of a decrease in market enthusiasm. In fact, since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, the inflow of BTC into the U.S. market has continued to reach new highs, with asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity rapidly expanding their management scale. Data shows that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) alone has surpassed $17 billion in assets under management. As of mid-May 2025, the cumulative net inflow of 11 major institutional Bitcoin spot ETFs on the market has exceeded $41.5 billion, with a total net asset value of $1214.69 billion, accounting for approximately 5.91% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.
Institutional investors and some retail investors are shifting towards ETF products, partly due to compliance and tax considerations. On one hand, ETFs have much lower trading costs compared to cryptocurrency exchanges. While Coinbase's spot trading fee rate varies annually in a tiered manner but averages around 1.49%, for example, the management fee for IBIT ETF is only 0.25%, and the majority of ETF institution fees fluctuate around 0.15% to 0.25%.
In other words, the more rational users are, the more likely they are to move from exchanges to ETF products, especially for investors aiming for long-term holdings.
According to multiple sources, several institutions, including VanEck and Grayscale, have submitted applications to the SEC for a Solana (SOL) ETF, with some institutions also planning to submit an XRP ETF proposal. Once approved, this may trigger a new round of fund migration. According to a report submitted by Coinbase to the SEC, as of April, the platform's trading revenue from XRP and Solana accounted for 18% and 10%, nearly one-third of the platform's fee revenue.
However, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs passed in 2024 also reduced the fees for these two tokens on Coinbase from 30% and 15% to 26% and 10%, respectively. If the SOL and XRP ETFs are approved, it will further undermine the core fee revenue of exchanges like Coinbase.
The expansion of ETF products is gradually weakening the financial intermediary status of cryptocurrency exchanges. From their original roles as matchmakers and clearers to now gradually becoming mere "on-ramps and off-ramps" for funds, exchanges are seeing their marginal value squeezed by ETFs.
On May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins gave a keynote speech at the Tokenization and Cryptocurrency Working Group roundtable. The theme of his speech revolved around "It is a new day at the SEC," where he indicated that the SEC would not approach enforcement and regulation the same way as before but would instead pave the way for cryptocurrency assets in the U.S. market.
With signs of cryptocurrency compliance such as the SEC's "NEW DAY" declaration, an increasing number of traditional brokerages are attempting to enter the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most representative cases is the well-known U.S. brokerage Robinhood, which began expanding its crypto business in 2018. By the time of its IPO in 2021, Robinhood's crypto business revenue accounted for over 50% of the company, with a significant boost from the Dogecoin "moonshot" promoted by Musk.
In Q1 2025 earnings report, Robinhood showcased strong growth, especially in revenue from cryptocurrency and options trading. Fueled by Trump's Memecoin, cryptocurrency-related revenue reached $250 million, nearly doubling year-over-year. Consequently, Robinhood Gold subscription users reached 3.5 million, a 90% increase from the previous year, with the rapid growth of Robinhood Gold providing the company with a stable source of income.
Meanwhile, RobinHood is actively pursuing acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024, it announced a $2 billion acquisition of the long-standing European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Additionally, Canada's largest cryptocurrency CEX, WonderFi, which recently went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announced its integration with RobinHood Crypto. After obtaining virtual asset licenses in the UK, Canada, Singapore, and other markets, RobinHood has taken a proactive approach in the compliant cryptocurrency trading market.
Furthermore, an increasing number of brokerage firms are exploring the same path. Futu Securities, Tiger Brokers, and others are also dipping their toes into cryptocurrency trading, with some having applied for or obtained the VA license from the Hong Kong SFC. Although their user bases are currently small, traditional brokerages have a natural advantage in user trust, regulatory licenses, and low fee structures. This could pose a threat to native cryptocurrency platforms in the future.
In April 2025, security researchers discovered that some Coinbase user data was leaked on the dark web. While the platform initially responded by attributing it to a "technical misinformation," it still raised concerns among users regarding its security and privacy protection. Just two days before Dow Jones Indexes announced Coinbase's addition to the S&P 500 Index, on May 11, 2025, Coinbase received an email from an unknown threat actor claiming to have obtained customer account information and internal documents, demanding a $20 million ransom to keep the data private. Subsequent investigations confirmed the data breach.
Cybercriminals obtained the data by bribing overseas customer service agents and support staff, mainly in "non-U.S. regions such as India." These agents abused their access to Coinbase's internal customer support system and stole customer data. As early as February this year, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X platform that between December 2024 and January 2025, Coinbase users lost over $65 million to social engineering scams, with the actual amount potentially higher.
Among the victims was a well-known figure, 67-year-old Ed Suman, an established artist in the art world for nearly two decades, having been involved in the creation of artworks such as Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture. Earlier this year, he fell victim to an impersonation scam involving fake Coinbase customer support, resulting in a loss of over $2 million in cryptocurrency. ZachXBT critiqued Coinbase for its inadequate handling of such scams, noting that other major exchanges have not faced similar issues and recommending Coinbase to enhance its security measures.
Amidst a series of ongoing social engineering incidents, although there has not been any impact on user assets at the technical level so far, it has raised concerns among many retail and institutional investors. Especially institutions holding massive assets on Coinbase. Just considering the U.S. BTC ETF institutions, as of mid-May 2025, they collectively hold nearly 840,000 BTC, and 75% of these are custodied by Coinbase. If we price BTC at $100,000, this amount reaches a staggering $63 billion, which is equivalent to the nominal GDP of two Iceland in the year 2024.
In addition, Coinbase Custody also serves over 300 institutional clients, including hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and endowments. As of the Q1 2025 financial report, Coinbase's total assets under management (including institutional and retail clients) reached $404 billion. The specific amount of institutional custodied assets was not explicitly disclosed in the latest report, but it should still be over 50% based on the Q4 2024 report.
Once this security barrier is breached, not only could the rate of user attrition far exceed expectations, but more importantly, institutional trust in it would undermine the foundation of its business. Therefore, after a hacking event, Coinbase's stock price plummeted significantly.
Facing a decline in spot trading fee revenue, Coinbase is also accelerating its transformation, attempting to find growth opportunities in derivatives and emerging assets. Coinbase acquired a stake in the options platform Deribit at the end of 2024 and announced the official launch of perpetual contract products in 2025. This acquisition fills in Coinbase's gap in options trading and its relatively small global market share.
Deribit has a strong presence in non-U.S. markets, especially in Asia and Europe. The acquisition has enabled Coinbase to gain a dominant position in bitcoin and ethereum options trading on Deribit, accounting for approximately 80% of the global options trading volume, with daily trading volume remaining above $2 billion.
Meanwhile, 80-90% of Deribit's customer base consists of institutional investors, with their professionalism and liquidity in the Bitcoin and Ethereum options market highly favored by institutions. Coinbase's compliance advantage, coupled with its already robust institutional ecosystem, makes it even more suitable. By using institutions as an entry point, it can face the squeeze from giants like Binance and OKX in the derivatives market.
Facing a similar dilemma is Kraken, which is attempting to replicate Binance Futures' model in non-U.S. markets. Since the derivatives market relies more on professional users, fee rates are relatively higher and stickiness is stronger, making it a significant source of revenue for exchanges. In the first half of 2025, Kraken completed the acquisition of TradeStation Crypto and a futures exchange, aiming to build a complete derivatives trading ecosystem to hedge the risk of declining spot transaction fee income.
With the surge of Memecoin in 2024, Binance, OKX, and various CEX platforms began massively listing small-market-cap, highly volatile tokens to activate active trading users. Due to the wealth effect and trading activity of Memecoins, Coinbase was also forced to join the battle, successively listing popular tokens from the Solana ecosystem such as BOOK OF MEME and Dogwifhat. Although these coins are controversial, they are frequently traded, with fee rates several times higher than mainstream coins, serving as a "blood-boosting" method for spot trading.
However, due to its status as a publicly traded company, this practice is a riskier endeavor for Coinbase. Even in the current crypto-friendly environment, the SEC is still investigating whether tokens like SOL, ADA, and SAND constitute securities.
In addition to the forced transformation strategies carried out by the aforementioned CEXs, they are also starting to lay out RWAs and the most talked-about stablecoin payment fields, such as the PYUSD launched through a collaboration between Coinbase and Paypal, Coinbase's support for the Euro stablecoin EURC by Circle that complies with EU MiCA regulatory requirements, or the USD1 launched through a collaboration between Binance and WIFL. In the increasingly crowded trading field, many CEXs have shifted their focus from just the trading market to the application field.
The golden age of transaction fees has quietly ended, and the second half of the crypto exchange platform game has silently begun.
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1.Binance Alpha Launches HIPPO, BLUE, and Other Tokens
2.Believe Ecosystem Tokens See General Rise, LAUNCHCOIN Surges Over 250% in 24 Hours
3.Tiger Securities Introduces Cryptocurrency Deposit and Withdrawal Service, Supports Mainstream Cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH
4.Current Bitcoin Rally Possibly Driven by Institutions, Retail Traders Yet to Join
5.Binance Wallet's New TGE Privasea AI Participation Requires a 198 Point Threshold, with a Point Consumption of 15
Source: Overheard on CT (tg: @overheardonct), Kaito
PUMP: Today's discussions about PUMP focus on its new creator revenue-sharing model: the platform will allocate 50% of PumpSwap revenue to token creators, sparking varied reactions from users. Some criticize the move as insufficient or even misleading, while others view it as a positive step the platform is taking to reward creators. Meanwhile, PUMP faces market pressure from emerging competitors like LetsBONKfun and Raydium, which are rapidly gaining market share. Users also express concerns about PUMP's sustainability and potential regulatory risks in the U.S., with discussions extending to the platform's impact on the entire memecoin ecosystem.
COINBASE: Today, Coinbase became the first crypto company to join the S&P 500 Index, replacing Discover Financial Services, sparking widespread industry attention. The entire crypto community views this milestone as a significant development, signaling that crypto assets are further integrating into the mainstream financial system. The news has sparked lively discussions on Twitter, with many users pointing out that this may attract more institutional investors to enter the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency markets.
XRP: XRP became the focal point of today's crypto discussion, with its significant market movements and strategic advances drawing attention. XRP has surpassed USDT to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, sparking market excitement and discussions about its future potential. The surge in market capitalization and price is believed to be related to increasing institutional interest, deepening strategic partnerships, and its role in the crypto ecosystem. Additionally, XRP's integration into multiple financial systems and its potential as a macro asset class are also seen as key factors driving the current market sentiment.
DYDX: Today's discussions about DYDX mainly focused on the dYdX Yapper Leaderboard launched by KaitoAI. The leaderboard aims to identify the most active community participants, with a total of $150,000 in rewards to be distributed over the first three seasons. This initiative has sparked broad community participation, with many users discussing the potential rewards and the incentive effect on the DYDX ecosystem. Meanwhile, progress on the ethDYDX to dYdX native chain migration and historical airdrop events have also been topics of discussion.
1. "What Is 'ICM'? Holding Up the $4 Billion Market Cap Solana's New Narrative"
Overnight, the hottest narrative in the crypto space has become "Internet Capital Markets," with a host of crypto projects and founders, led by the Solana ecosystem's new Launchpad platform Believe, releasing this phrase. Together with "Believe in something," it has become the new slogan heralding the onset of a bull market. What exactly is the so-called "Internet Capital Market," will it become a short-lived hype phrase like the Base ecosystem's previous Content Coin, and what related targets are available for selection?2.《LaunchCoin Surges 20x in One Day, How Did Believe Create a $200M Market Cap Shiba Inu After Going to Zero?｜100x Retrospective》
LAUNCHCOIN broke through a $200 million market cap today, with the long-lost liquidity and such a high market cap "Memecoin" almost bringing half of the on-chain crypto community CT into the fray. The community is crazily discussing this token, with half of it being FOMO and the other half being FUD. This token, originally issued by Believe founder Ben Pasternak under his personal identity, transformed into a new platform token after a renaming. From once going to zero to a $200 million market cap, what happened in between?May 14 On-chain Fund Flow
Within 24 hours, GOONC's market cap soared to 70 million, could GOONC be the next billion-dollar dog on the Believe platform?
Bitcoin has broken $100,000, Ethereum has surpassed 2500, and is Solana's hot streak about to make a comeback?
The current market is in a state of macro euphoria, with GOONC riding the wave today, skyrocketing 10x in just a few hours, reaching a market cap of tens of millions of dollars, trading volume soaring past 50 million, and rumors swirling that the developer may be from OpenAI (unconfirmed but intriguing enough).
A ludicrous and absurd Solana meme that some actually buy into.
GOONC is a meme coin that has sprouted from the "gooning" subculture, offering no technological innovation or practical use, its sole function being speculation.
It takes inspiration from an NSFW term "gooning," which refers to a person being deeply immersed in certain content (you know what), eventually entering a nearly religious-like trance.
In Reddit (such as r/GOONED, r/GoonCaves) and some counterculture media outlets (such as MEL Magazine in 2020), "gooning" has gradually transitioned from an adult label to a meme-addicted, digital content and virtual self-indulgence synonym, arguably the epitome of Degen spirit.
GOONC is playing around with this concept, packaging the addictive nature, uselessness, and irony of gooning into a tradable financial product. The project team has made it clear: "We do not solve blockchain problems, we only trade absurdity." Blunt but oddly genuine.
GOONC launched on May 13, 2025, using the meme coin launch platform Believe App's LaunchCoin module on Solana. This tool is highly Degen: zero technical barriers, a few clicks to create a coin, perfect for projects like GOONC that can come up with ideas out of the blue.
The mastermind behind GOONC is also quite something and is the most talked-about, with KOL @basedalexandoor on X platform (alias "Pata van Goon") personally involved. His profile even caught the attention of Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z, making onlookers unable to resist speculating if GOONC has a hint of OpenAI lineage.
While this 'OpenAI Endorsement' is currently just community speculation, it is definitely a good card to play to fuel hype. Saying "we are pure speculation" on one hand, while tagging a few "AI + a16z" on the other.
GOONC took off as soon as it launched. After its launch on May 13, 2025, its market capitalization skyrocketed to $22 million within 4 hours, with a trading volume exceeding $25.6 million in 24 hours. According to platform data, the first day of trading saw an astonishing +41,100% surge, soaring from $0.0000001 to $0.02, becoming a "missed-the-boat" situation.
GOONC quickly formed an active trading community post-launch, with a lot of discussion and trading signals appearing on X platform (such as the 292x return signal provided by DeBot). Liquidity pools on exchanges like Raydium and Meteora grew rapidly, supporting high trading volumes and price increases.
The real climax occurred between May 13 and May 14, with the market cap rising to $5.5 million in the morning and directly surpassing $55 million in the afternoon. By the 14th, it briefly approached a $70 million market cap, with the trading volume soaring to $59 million. Some community members even posted screenshots claiming an increase of +85,000%, creating a new myth out of the ruins.
As of 1:30 pm on May 14, the price stabilized around $0.039, with a total market cap and FDV both around $39.6 million, and a 24-hour trading volume of $5.43 million. Active platforms include XT.COM, LBank, Meteora, and others.
Although there was a slight pullback from the peak ($0.07), the coin's popularity remains strong. For a coin that relies purely on "irony + community + X post" to thrive, this performance is already at a stellar level.
Currently, the background of the token's development team is not transparent, increasing the potential risk of a rug pull. Rugcheck.xyz warns that the creator of the GOONC contract may have permission to modify the contract (e.g., change fees or mint additional tokens), posing certain security risks.
Community members speculate that the meteoric rise of GOONC may be the "last hurrah".
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After Surging 40%, Has Ethereum Price Peaked Upon Exiting the Craze?
Whether you are an insider or an outsider, these days you must be familiar with the news about Ethereum. The reason is simple, causing Ethereum enthusiasts to sigh with emotion and almost throwing off-guard those who defend Ethereum, Ethereum, with a "3-day surge of 40%," climbed to the top of the Douyin Hot List.
As we all know, Ethereum launched the Pectra upgrade on May 7th. This most significant network upgrade since early 2024 integrates the Prague execution layer hard fork and the Electra consensus layer upgrade, significantly improving Ethereum's performance through 11 improvement proposals. The account abstraction feature (EIP-7702) allows users to flexibly manage wallets through social media accounts or multi-signature schemes, reducing the user threshold, attracting more users and developers. The staking mechanism optimization increases the validator ETH cap from 32ETH to 2048ETH and introduces a flexible withdrawal method, making it easier for institutions and individuals to participate in network security, enhancing the market's confidence in Ethereum's long-term value.
At the same time, Pectra optimized the interaction efficiency of Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism, making transactions faster and cheaper, leading to a surge in on-chain activity. As a crucial step for Ethereum's transition from "2G" to "5G," the Pectra upgrade not only enhances network vitality but also "recharges confidence" in the market, directly driving the price increase.
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It's not just Ethereum itself, as Wall Street also brought important bullish news.
The world's largest asset management company, BlackRock, proposed to the SEC allowing Ethereum ETFs for staking. This proposal is expected to elevate Ethereum ETFs from a mere investment tool to a bond-like "interest-bearing asset," bringing investors both capital appreciation and passive income, igniting market optimism about Ethereum's future potential.
Specifically, BlackRock has proposed to amend its S-1 filing to allow investors to create and redeem ETF shares directly with Ethereum instead of the U.S. dollar (i.e., in-kind redemption). This move, combined with its $2.9 billion BUIDL Fund launched in March 2024, aims to deepen the integration of traditional finance with blockchain. The BUIDL Fund is a tokenized fund operating on the Ethereum network, investing in traditional assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds. This setup is highly attractive to institutional investors, as they can not only benefit from Ethereum's price appreciation but also earn stable cash flow through staking.
Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock's Head of Digital Assets, stated in a CNBC interview in March 2025 that the addition of staking functionality will significantly enhance the appeal of the Ethereum ETF. He admitted that when the Ethereum spot ETF was launched in July 2024 without staking functionality, the market demand was lackluster, and staking could be the key to reversing this trend.
Meanwhile, the SEC's shifting stance on cryptocurrency regulation has also fueled this upward trend. During the tenure of the previous SEC chairman, the regulatory approach was tough, and staking was strictly viewed through the Howey test as a potential unregistered security. Therefore, when approving the Ethereum spot ETF in May 2024, staking functionality was explicitly prohibited.
However, with Trump back in the White House and Paul Atkins taking over the SEC, there has been a noticeable relaxation in crypto regulation. Apart from BlackRock, ETF issuers such as Invesco Galaxy, VanEck, WisdomTree, and 21Shares have also submitted applications for similar staking and in-kind redemption.
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If staking ETFs are approved, the benefits are likely to go beyond price appreciation. The introduction of staking functionality could redefine the role of crypto assets, making them more similar to traditional financial products that provide returns and value appreciation, thereby driving Ethereum closer to mainstream finance.
Currently, the SEC still needs to address several decisions related to crypto ETFs, including whether to approve ETFs for Solana, XRP, Litecoin, and even Dogecoin. With the calls for an "altcoin season" growing louder, Ethereum's strong performance may just be the beginning of a larger crypto market frenzy.
In addition, the Trump family-related DeFi project WLFI is also bullish on this wave of rise, with frequent on-chain activities. According to on-chain data analyst @ai_9684xtpa's monitoring, a WLFI-related address is currently borrowing coins to go long on ETH, borrowing 4 million U from Aave to buy 1590 ETH at an average price of $2515 per ETH.
For this epic surge of Ethereum after half a year of silence, the community has indeed gained more confidence and hope, which has also led to a revival of the entire altcoin market. However, amidst the joy, there are also voices of pessimism. Below is a summary conducted by BlockBeats based on community discussions.
The optimists point out that the current market structure is similar to the eve of the bull markets in 2016 and 2020, predicting a life-changing surge in the next 3-6 months, where some altcoins may even achieve astonishing single-day gains of up to 40%.
@liuwei16602825 stated that this surge signifies the return of the bull market as a sure thing. There is no need to worry about a pullback. The driving force behind the surge uses a high-cost isolated operation, fearing a drop more than any retail investor and will definitely do everything to support the price.
Related Reading: "Ethereum Leads the Surge Triggering the 'Altcoin Season' Speculation, How Do Traders View the Future Market?"
The bears mainly believe that this surge is different from the bull market of 2021, as the current market lacks the confidence of large-scale retail investors entering and holding positions for the long term, with funds rotating too quickly.
@market_beggar observed that a Bitfinex E/B whale has started to close positions and believes that if this whale maintains its high-speed position-closing operation for the next few days, it can be inferred that the whale no longer sees the upside potential of ETH, preparing to take profits and exit. The closing time will be a key focus going forward.
@FLS_OTC stated that there are still many uncertainties at the macro level, and the liquidity cannot support a major bull market. At this stage, it is a "last hurrah," not a complete reversal, and will continue to remain in a short position.
@off_thetarget believes that after ETH transitioned from POW to POS, it lost the "gold standard" of mining machine power cost support. The staking economic model led to a breakdown in value anchoring. Additionally, the L2 ecosystem (such as Starknet, zkSync, etc.) suffered from liquidity fragmentation, failing to establish an effective capital inflow mechanism, causing the collapse of the split disc pattern. Furthermore, the ETH community's excessive pursuit of technical narratives divorced from real-world needs resulted in a weak ecosystem growth. Therefore, he believes that ETH's intrinsic value system has crumbled, and the price is bound to plummet to the 800-1200 range, with a decisive short position at 1800.
@Airdrop_Guard, based on the core logic of the "High Probability Trading Strategy," where three sets of underlying logic different trading systems (such as volume depletion, price supply-demand, long/short position funding rate, etc.) simultaneously issue a short signal at the same point (2580), creating a high-probability trading opportunity. He emphasizes that these systems must be based on different algorithms and logics (rather than mere technical indicator overlays). The current ETH trend aligns with the short conditions in multiple independent dimensions of his trading system, hence the decision to short.
Overall, Bitcoin still maintains over 54% market dominance, and institutional funds' continued preference for it may limit the altcoin's upward potential. The market's future direction will depend on multiple factors, such as Bitcoin's price trend, global macroeconomic conditions, and whether funds can effectively rotate from Bitcoin to the altcoin sector.
Although Ethereum's recent leadership in the market has brought about optimistic sentiment, investors still need to remain rational as different sectors of altcoins are likely to show divergence in trends. Whether this round of Ethereum's rise will usher in a true altcoin frenzy may require more time and conducive conditions.
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$COIN Joins S&P 500, but Coinbase Isn't Celebrating
On May 13, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Coinbase would officially replace Discover Financial Services in the S&P 500 on May 19. While other companies like Block and MicroStrategy, closely tied to Bitcoin, were already part of the S&P 500, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange whose primary business is in the index. This also signifies that cryptocurrency is gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream in the U.S.
On the day of the announcement, Coinbase's stock price surged by 23%, surpassing the $250 mark. However, just 3 days later, Coinbase was hit by two consecutive events: a hack where employees were bribed to steal customer data and a demand for a $20 million ransom, and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the authenticity of its claim of having over 100 million "verified users" in its securities filings and marketing materials. These two events acted as mini-bombs, and at the time of writing, Coinbase's stock had already dropped by over 7.3%.
Coincidentally, Discover Financial Services, being replaced by Coinbase, can also be considered the "Coinbase" of the previous payment era. Discover is a U.S.-based digital banking and payment services company headquartered in Illinois, founded in 1960. Its payment network, Discover Network, is the fourth largest payment network apart from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
In April, after the approval of the acquisition of Discover by the sixth-largest U.S. bank, Capital One, this well-established digital banking company of over 60 years smoothly handed over its S&P 500 "seat" to this emerging cryptocurrency "bank." This unexpected coincidence also portrayed the handover between the new and old eras in Coinbase's entry into the S&P 500, resembling a relay race scene. However, this relay baton also brought Coinbase's accumulated "external troubles and internal strife" to a tipping point.
Over the past decade, cryptocurrency exchanges have been the most stable "profit machines." They play a role in providing liquidity to the entire industry and rely on trading fees to sustain their operations. However, with the comprehensive rollout of ETF products in the U.S. market, this profit model is facing unprecedented challenges. As the leader in the "American stack," with over 80% of its business coming from the U.S., Coinbase is most affected by this.
Starting from the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, traditional financial capital has significantly onboarded users and funds that originally belonged to exchanges in a more cost-effective, compliant, and transparent manner. The transaction fee revenue of cryptocurrency exchanges has started to decline, and this trend may further intensify in the coming months.
According to Coinbase's 2024 Q4 financial report, the platform's total trading revenue was $417 million, a 45% year-on-year decrease. The contribution of BTC and ETH's trading revenue dropped from 65% in the same period last year to less than 50%.
This decline is not a result of a decrease in market enthusiasm. In fact, since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, the inflow of BTC into the U.S. market has continued to reach new highs, with asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity rapidly expanding their management scale. Data shows that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) alone has surpassed $17 billion in assets under management. As of mid-May 2025, the cumulative net inflow of 11 major institutional Bitcoin spot ETFs on the market has exceeded $41.5 billion, with a total net asset value of $1214.69 billion, accounting for approximately 5.91% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.
Institutional investors and some retail investors are shifting towards ETF products, partly due to compliance and tax considerations. On one hand, ETFs have much lower trading costs compared to cryptocurrency exchanges. While Coinbase's spot trading fee rate varies annually in a tiered manner but averages around 1.49%, for example, the management fee for IBIT ETF is only 0.25%, and the majority of ETF institution fees fluctuate around 0.15% to 0.25%.
In other words, the more rational users are, the more likely they are to move from exchanges to ETF products, especially for investors aiming for long-term holdings.
According to multiple sources, several institutions, including VanEck and Grayscale, have submitted applications to the SEC for a Solana (SOL) ETF, with some institutions also planning to submit an XRP ETF proposal. Once approved, this may trigger a new round of fund migration. According to a report submitted by Coinbase to the SEC, as of April, the platform's trading revenue from XRP and Solana accounted for 18% and 10%, nearly one-third of the platform's fee revenue.
However, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs passed in 2024 also reduced the fees for these two tokens on Coinbase from 30% and 15% to 26% and 10%, respectively. If the SOL and XRP ETFs are approved, it will further undermine the core fee revenue of exchanges like Coinbase.
The expansion of ETF products is gradually weakening the financial intermediary status of cryptocurrency exchanges. From their original roles as matchmakers and clearers to now gradually becoming mere "on-ramps and off-ramps" for funds, exchanges are seeing their marginal value squeezed by ETFs.
On May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins gave a keynote speech at the Tokenization and Cryptocurrency Working Group roundtable. The theme of his speech revolved around "It is a new day at the SEC," where he indicated that the SEC would not approach enforcement and regulation the same way as before but would instead pave the way for cryptocurrency assets in the U.S. market.
With signs of cryptocurrency compliance such as the SEC's "NEW DAY" declaration, an increasing number of traditional brokerages are attempting to enter the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most representative cases is the well-known U.S. brokerage Robinhood, which began expanding its crypto business in 2018. By the time of its IPO in 2021, Robinhood's crypto business revenue accounted for over 50% of the company, with a significant boost from the Dogecoin "moonshot" promoted by Musk.
In Q1 2025 earnings report, Robinhood showcased strong growth, especially in revenue from cryptocurrency and options trading. Fueled by Trump's Memecoin, cryptocurrency-related revenue reached $250 million, nearly doubling year-over-year. Consequently, Robinhood Gold subscription users reached 3.5 million, a 90% increase from the previous year, with the rapid growth of Robinhood Gold providing the company with a stable source of income.
Meanwhile, RobinHood is actively pursuing acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024, it announced a $2 billion acquisition of the long-standing European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Additionally, Canada's largest cryptocurrency CEX, WonderFi, which recently went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announced its integration with RobinHood Crypto. After obtaining virtual asset licenses in the UK, Canada, Singapore, and other markets, RobinHood has taken a proactive approach in the compliant cryptocurrency trading market.
Furthermore, an increasing number of brokerage firms are exploring the same path. Futu Securities, Tiger Brokers, and others are also dipping their toes into cryptocurrency trading, with some having applied for or obtained the VA license from the Hong Kong SFC. Although their user bases are currently small, traditional brokerages have a natural advantage in user trust, regulatory licenses, and low fee structures. This could pose a threat to native cryptocurrency platforms in the future.
In April 2025, security researchers discovered that some Coinbase user data was leaked on the dark web. While the platform initially responded by attributing it to a "technical misinformation," it still raised concerns among users regarding its security and privacy protection. Just two days before Dow Jones Indexes announced Coinbase's addition to the S&P 500 Index, on May 11, 2025, Coinbase received an email from an unknown threat actor claiming to have obtained customer account information and internal documents, demanding a $20 million ransom to keep the data private. Subsequent investigations confirmed the data breach.
Cybercriminals obtained the data by bribing overseas customer service agents and support staff, mainly in "non-U.S. regions such as India." These agents abused their access to Coinbase's internal customer support system and stole customer data. As early as February this year, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X platform that between December 2024 and January 2025, Coinbase users lost over $65 million to social engineering scams, with the actual amount potentially higher.
Among the victims was a well-known figure, 67-year-old Ed Suman, an established artist in the art world for nearly two decades, having been involved in the creation of artworks such as Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture. Earlier this year, he fell victim to an impersonation scam involving fake Coinbase customer support, resulting in a loss of over $2 million in cryptocurrency. ZachXBT critiqued Coinbase for its inadequate handling of such scams, noting that other major exchanges have not faced similar issues and recommending Coinbase to enhance its security measures.
Amidst a series of ongoing social engineering incidents, although there has not been any impact on user assets at the technical level so far, it has raised concerns among many retail and institutional investors. Especially institutions holding massive assets on Coinbase. Just considering the U.S. BTC ETF institutions, as of mid-May 2025, they collectively hold nearly 840,000 BTC, and 75% of these are custodied by Coinbase. If we price BTC at $100,000, this amount reaches a staggering $63 billion, which is equivalent to the nominal GDP of two Iceland in the year 2024.
In addition, Coinbase Custody also serves over 300 institutional clients, including hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and endowments. As of the Q1 2025 financial report, Coinbase's total assets under management (including institutional and retail clients) reached $404 billion. The specific amount of institutional custodied assets was not explicitly disclosed in the latest report, but it should still be over 50% based on the Q4 2024 report.
Once this security barrier is breached, not only could the rate of user attrition far exceed expectations, but more importantly, institutional trust in it would undermine the foundation of its business. Therefore, after a hacking event, Coinbase's stock price plummeted significantly.
Facing a decline in spot trading fee revenue, Coinbase is also accelerating its transformation, attempting to find growth opportunities in derivatives and emerging assets. Coinbase acquired a stake in the options platform Deribit at the end of 2024 and announced the official launch of perpetual contract products in 2025. This acquisition fills in Coinbase's gap in options trading and its relatively small global market share.
Deribit has a strong presence in non-U.S. markets, especially in Asia and Europe. The acquisition has enabled Coinbase to gain a dominant position in bitcoin and ethereum options trading on Deribit, accounting for approximately 80% of the global options trading volume, with daily trading volume remaining above $2 billion.
Meanwhile, 80-90% of Deribit's customer base consists of institutional investors, with their professionalism and liquidity in the Bitcoin and Ethereum options market highly favored by institutions. Coinbase's compliance advantage, coupled with its already robust institutional ecosystem, makes it even more suitable. By using institutions as an entry point, it can face the squeeze from giants like Binance and OKX in the derivatives market.
Facing a similar dilemma is Kraken, which is attempting to replicate Binance Futures' model in non-U.S. markets. Since the derivatives market relies more on professional users, fee rates are relatively higher and stickiness is stronger, making it a significant source of revenue for exchanges. In the first half of 2025, Kraken completed the acquisition of TradeStation Crypto and a futures exchange, aiming to build a complete derivatives trading ecosystem to hedge the risk of declining spot transaction fee income.
With the surge of Memecoin in 2024, Binance, OKX, and various CEX platforms began massively listing small-market-cap, highly volatile tokens to activate active trading users. Due to the wealth effect and trading activity of Memecoins, Coinbase was also forced to join the battle, successively listing popular tokens from the Solana ecosystem such as BOOK OF MEME and Dogwifhat. Although these coins are controversial, they are frequently traded, with fee rates several times higher than mainstream coins, serving as a "blood-boosting" method for spot trading.
However, due to its status as a publicly traded company, this practice is a riskier endeavor for Coinbase. Even in the current crypto-friendly environment, the SEC is still investigating whether tokens like SOL, ADA, and SAND constitute securities.
In addition to the forced transformation strategies carried out by the aforementioned CEXs, they are also starting to lay out RWAs and the most talked-about stablecoin payment fields, such as the PYUSD launched through a collaboration between Coinbase and Paypal, Coinbase's support for the Euro stablecoin EURC by Circle that complies with EU MiCA regulatory requirements, or the USD1 launched through a collaboration between Binance and WIFL. In the increasingly crowded trading field, many CEXs have shifted their focus from just the trading market to the application field.
The golden age of transaction fees has quietly ended, and the second half of the crypto exchange platform game has silently begun.
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