There’s never a dull moment on the blockchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:

MARKET BYTES

Why bitcoin is outperforming gold and tech stocks

For the second week in a row, crypto prices have held strong in the midst of a turbulent economic backdrop. As of Wednesday, BTC was hovering near $94,000 and ETH was around $1,750.

In fact, over the month of April BTC has outperformed major asset classes including tech stocks and gold. Since the beginning of the month, the Nasdaq Composite index lost 1.48%, the U.S. dollar declined by 4%, and gold gained 6.1%. 

In the same period, BTC was up around 12%, with “advocates saying it acted as an alternative hedge amid growing concerns over U.S. fiscal policy and institutional stability,” per Bloomberg. (The Coinbase 50 index, which measures the market for major cryptocurrencies, was up a similar amount.) 

According to Standard Chartered, BTC could continue to rally as investors increasingly see it as a key hedge against broader uncertainty. 

Here’s what else you need to know…

Blockbuster crypto dealmaking is on the rise in 2025

Amid an increasingly constructive regulatory environment (see main story below), crypto-company dealmaking has kicked into high gear in 2025, with 88 deals so far that are worth a total value of $8.2 billion, according to data from advisory firm Architect Partners. That’s already more than three times the value of all the crypto deals made in 2024. 

In April alone there have been multiple deals worth more than $1 billion, making them some of the biggest in the history of the crypto industry. This week, for instance, a new BTC firm called Twenty One Capital launched with plans to go public via a $3.6 billion merger with Cantor Equity Partners. Earlier in April, crypto-powered payments firm Ripple announced it was acquiring prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion.

• Growth mindset… “There’s optimism that finally things changed,” Architect Partners founder Eric Risley told the Wall Street Journal. “The traditional crypto players that are large and at scale are now back in a growth-minded mode, and one of the tools that they have for growth is acquisitions.”

Crypto ETFs roared back to life last week

Even though BTC hit a new all-time high in January, the total inflows for all crypto investment products in 2025 sat at just $171 million up until last week, with markets struggling following a sustained period of outflows. 

That’s all changed. According to CoinShares’ latest report, investors returned to crypto investment products (like spot BTC ETFs) to the tune of $3.4 billion last week — making it the third biggest week ever. “It’s cautiously optimistic, I’d say.” CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill told Decrypt regarding the ETF comeback. 

• The breakdown… Bitcoin ETFs made up 93% of last week’s inflows. ETH and XRP investment products tallied up $183 million and $31 million, respectively. 

Deloitte forecasts trillion-dollar growth in tokenized real estate

In a new report, consulting and financial services giant Deloitte predicts that tokenized real estate could grow into a $4 trillion market, a sizable leap from current $300-billion levels. 

(Quick refresher: Tokenization is the process of putting real-world assets on blockchains to make transactions cheaper, more efficient, and more broadly accessible.)

For the real estate industry, at least one promising aspect of tokenization is “fractional ownership,” in which investors can more easily buy into smaller portions of real estate-backed assets. Deloitte sees this benefit accruing across three main sectors: loans and securitizations, private real estate, and undeveloped land.

• Real talk… Real estate is a notoriously opaque industry with a lot of intermediaries — which is why tokenization could be transformative. As CoinDesk notes, tokenization could help “automate and simplify complex financial agreements” and offers benefits including “operational efficiencies, faster settlements, and broader investor access.” 

CRYPTO CAPITAL

Trump’s first 100 days: The key crypto developments

Donald Trump campaigned in part on the promise that he’d make the United States the “crypto capital of the world.” And in the months since his inauguration there have been notable changes in the SEC’s approach to digital currencies and an executive order that could lead to a strategic bitcoin reserve, among other initiatives, as well as increased bipartisan support for crypto legislation in Congress. 

With Tuesday marking the 100th day of President Trump’s second term, it seemed like a good time to take stock of what has shifted for crypto in Washington, and what could still be to come. Here’s what you need to know. 

New SEC leadership seeks to foster crypto innovation

Some of the biggest shifts around crypto at the federal level have come from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which under the Biden administration had pursued a “regulation by enforcement” approach, often frustrating the crypto industry.

This week, new SEC chairman Paul Atkins said at his first roundtable event that innovation in crypto “has been stifled for the last several years” and that the agency’s current regulatory framework “badly needs attention.”

Since the inauguration, the SEC has established a crypto task force led by longtime commissioner Hester Peirce to help chart a new regulatory approach; dropped litigation against crypto firms including Coinbase, Ripple, and Kraken; and rolled back the controversial Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 rule, which served as a major barrier for financial institutions looking to offer digital-asset custody services. 

Next on the docket for the agency will be a review of the dozens of crypto ETF applications currently sitting in the agency’s backlog. More than 70 crypto ETFs are awaiting approval, including spot ETFs for altcoins including XRP, Litecoin, Solana, HBAR, Polkadot, and Avalanche. The next approval deadline comes in early June. 

President Trump plans to launch a “strategic bitcoin reserve” 

There isn’t yet an official U.S. “strategic bitcoin reserve.” But last month Trump signed an executive order declaring bitcoin to be treated as a “reserve asset,” the first step towards the U.S. building a digital asset stockpile similar to its reserves of oil and gold. 

The executive order’s stated goal is to position the United States as the global leader in its digital asset strategy, an issue that continues to gain bipartisan momentum in Congress.

For now, the executive order directs the Treasury Department not to sell any of the approximately $20 billion worth of bitcoin it has accumulated via asset seizures, and also directs the agency to work to develop “budget-neutral” strategies for the government to acquire more bitcoin. 

The move from the federal government comes as more than a dozen states are also pursuing bitcoin reserve strategies of their own. On Monday, Arizona’s state legislature passed the first such law, authorizing the state treasury to invest up to 10% in bitcoin — the state’s governor has threatened to veto the bill, however. 

Bipartisan support is growing in Congress for stablecoin rules    

The president’s executive order also set an August deadline for Congress to deliver major legislation aimed at solidifying crypto’s regulatory status in the U.S.

Bipartisan momentum appears to be building toward a bill’s passage ahead of that deadline, with stablecoin legislation first on the docket. In the Senate, the GENIUS Act — introduced by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and co-sponsored by lawmakers including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) — has already cleared the Senate Banking Committee and is awaiting a vote from the full Senate. 

In the House, the STABLE Act of 2025 passed out of the House Financial Services Committee earlier this month with bipartisan support and is also awaiting a full vote. 

The bills, if passed, would create clear definitions for who can issue stablecoins, establish bank-like regulations for issuers, and protect the right for stablecoins to be issued on public blockchains like Ethereum. 

The bottom line… 

In just a matter of months, the U.S. has transitioned from being at risk of falling behind the world in terms of crypto adoption, to becoming among the most innovation-forward jurisdictions for the crypto industry – with support coming from both sides of the political aisle.

Upon launching the Congressional Crypto Caucus last month, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Mn.) and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) summed up the opportunity of this moment in the U.S., saying their goal was to “build a unified, bipartisan coalition to cement America’s leadership in the future of digital assets and blockchain innovation.”

NUMBERS TO KNOW

$1.42 billion

Value of the 15,355 BTC that Strategy (the company formerly known as MicroStrategy) purchased last week for around $1.42 billion. The latest buy put the firm’s total holdings at 553,555 BTC, worth around $52 billion.

$2.4 million

Ark Invest’s 2030 price target for one bitcoin in a bullish scenario, raising its prior bull-case price from $1.5 million per BTC. The Cathie Wood-helmed investment firm cites institutional investment via spot ETFs, BTC’s “digital gold” narrative, and emerging market investment among a handful of reasons for their prediction.

7

Age at which kids in El Salvador will begin learning about Bitcoin and financial literacy via a new program set to roll out across 50 public schools. According to Bitcoin Magazine, the curriculum “aims to introduce young Salvadorans to fundamental financial literacy and concepts, such as Bitcoin, at an early and critical stage in their lives.”

TOKEN TRIVIA

When was Dogecoin originally created?

Find the answer below.

Trivia Answer