Macro Update

Last week, Bitcoin surged by 11%, surpassing its yearly open and marking its strongest weekly performance this year. The ETHBTC spread rose 3% on Ethereum outperformance, as investors allocated into ETFs at the highest rate since February. GMCI30 gained 10%, while the GMMEME led other categories with a 25% rally, further mirroring growth in the broader market. Derivatives also reflected heightened speculative activity, with open interest rising by 16% last week to $56 billion. Although Bitcoin accounts for over 50% of open interest, altcoin open interest (excluding BTC and ETH) has increased by 42% since President Trump’s tariff pause on April 9.

This market enthusiasm was accompanied by robust corporate and institutional activity; Strategy expanded its Bitcoin holdings by acquiring 6,556 Bitcoins for $556 million at an average price of $84,785 per coin. This purchase was financed through the sale of 1.76 million shares of its common stock (MSTR) and over 91,000 shares of its preferred stock (STRK) from its $42 billion stock sale programs, with $1.5 billion in MSTR and $21 billion in STRK still available for future issuance. As a result, Strategy now owns 538,200 Bitcoins, purchased at an average price of $67,766 per coin. 

In a similar vein, Cantor Fitzgerald, in collaboration with Tether, Bitfinex, and SoftBank, has launched 21 Capital, a $3 billion Bitcoin-focused investment vehicle set to become a publicly traded entity through a merger with Cantor Equity Partners (CEP), a Special Purpose Acquisition Company. Aimed at maximizing Bitcoin per share, 21 Capital will acquire Bitcoins directly and develop Bitcoin-based financial infrastructure, including lending products and capital market instruments. The initial $3 billion funding includes $1.5 billion from Tether, $900 million from SoftBank, and $600 million from Bitfinex, with Cantor Fitzgerald raising an additional $385 million via convertible senior secured notes and $200 million via a private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction. Post-merger, Tether is expected to hold 42.8% equity, Bitfinex 16%, and SoftBank 24%, with CEP shareholders retaining the remainder. Following the announcement on April 23, CEP’s stock surged 193%, reflecting market enthusiasm. Once fully deployed, 21 Capital is projected to hold over 42,000 Bitcoins, positioning it as the third-largest corporate Bitcoin holder behind MicroStrategy and mining company Mara Holdings. 

Also mirroring Strategy's Bitcoin accumulation method, several companies are focusing on Solana as a treasury asset. Last week, three firms: SOL Strategies, DeFi Development Corporation (formerly Janover), and Upexi, unveiled over $1.6 billion in funding initiatives to bolster their Solana treasuries. SOL Strategies secured a $500 million convertible note facility to purchase and stake SOL, issuing an initial $20 million in convertible notes, with the remaining $480 million accessible in future tranches. Following this news, SOL Strategies’ shares, traded as HODL, rose by 25%. Similarly, DeFi Development filed a $1 billion shelf offering with the SEC, enabling the gradual issuance of securities like common stock, preferred stock, warrants, and debt instruments. Upexi, transitioning from consumer products, secured a $100 million private placement from GSR, Big Brain Holdings, and others to build a Solana treasury.

Our take: Surging institutional investment in Bitcoin and Solana reflects increasing interest in digital assets. With Trump hinting at tariff de-escalations, if macro indicators show taming inflation and no sharp economic slowdown, markets could be poised for renewed activity.

ETF Update

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $3 billion in inflows last week, the second-highest weekly inflows since inception. BlackRock’s IBIT led, followed by ARK and Fidelity’s FBTC. This contrasts with the $660 million net outflows over the previous four weeks, reflecting a shift in investor activity. Similarly, Ethereum ETFs attracted $150 million in inflows last week.

Institutional interest in crypto ETFs remains elevated: 72 ETF applications have been filed with the SEC pending approval. Established firms like Grayscale, Bitwise, 21Shares, VanEck, and Franklin Templeton, alongside newer entrants such as Canary Capital and Hashdex, have filed spot and derivatives-based ETF applications covering assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other layer-1 blockchains, and memecoins such as Dogecoin, BONK, and others. The filings also include broad-based crypto index funds, catering to diversified investment strategies. Bitcoin ETFs are largely expected to maintain dominance, with the current spot ETF AuM of $113 billion.

Following the recent U.S. launch of the first XRP-linked leveraged ETF, as highlighted in a previous newsletter, CME Group plans to introduce XRP futures within the next month, pending Commodity Futures Trading Commission approval. This would make XRP the fourth cryptocurrency on CME’s derivatives platform, alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The March 2024 settlement between the SEC and Ripple reduced Ripple’s penalty from $125 million to $50 million and resulted in the lifting of an injunction that had previously restricted Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP. This outcome has been viewed as a positive regulatory development for XRP, potentially strengthening the case for future spot XRP ETF approvals.

Our take: The surge in crypto ETF applications from both established and emerging firms highlights a race to capture a rapidly maturing market. By simplifying access to digital assets, these ETFs are laying the foundation for a future where it's feasible for investors to easily include cryptocurrencies in their portfolios as part of a broader diversification strategy.

DeFi Update

AI

Bittensor subnet ecosystem’s combined market capitalization exceeded $600 million last week, representing a more than 100x surge from $4 million at launch in February. At its core, Bittensor is an open-source, blockchain-based protocol designed to incentivize decentralized machine learning and AI models through a subnet ecosystem. Each subnet operates as an independent service market with its token and automated liquidity system under the dTAO model, where value discovery is governed by TAO reserves and embedded AMMs. Among the growing ecosystem, Chutes (SN-64) has emerged as Bittensor’s largest subnet, with a market capitalization of $96 million, marking a 118% increase over the past month. Specializing in serverless, decentralized AI compute infrastructure, Chutes enables the real-time deployment, execution, and scaling of AI models. Its most popular public model, the Chinese LLM DeepSeek v3, recorded over 38 million runs in the last seven days, highlighting strong user engagement. Bittensor subnets are backed by prominent investors like Digital Currency Group, underscoring the potential for subnets to attract significant capital and expertise, serving as a powerful catalyst for growth within Bittensor’s ecosystem. Since the tariff pause on April 9, the Crypto AI market cap has increased by 50% to $32 billion, while the GMCI30 climbed 24%. Meanwhile, the crypto AI category leader TAO (Bittensor’s native token) has more than doubled, partially catalyzed by the rapid growth of its subnet ecosystem.

Lending

Amid the surging popularity of tokenized private credit, Maple Finance has solidified its position as a leading permissionless lending protocol focused on institutional tokenized private credit, facilitating $7 billion in loans since its inception in 2021. Its total value locked (TVL) has surged by 280% in 2025, rising from $460 million to over $1.3 billion, primarily via Syrup USDC and Syrup USDT- stablecoin products designed to offer institutional-grade yields to non-U.S. DeFi participants. Syrup USDC has grown 233% year-to-date to reach $590 million, now accounting for nearly half of Maple Finance’s AUM, while Syrup USDT has increased by 30% to $80 million. The greater growth in Syrup USDC likely reflects its stronger regulatory compliance, broader DeFi integration, and potentially more attractive incentive structures. To sustain growth, Maple aims to expand into Asia and Latin America, regions potentially characterized by high DeFi adoption driven by underbanking and currency volatility, creating a natural demand for tokenized credit solutions. In addition, the protocol is deepening its involvement in Bitcoin DeFi with an upcoming BTC liquid staking product, aimed at generating yield on Bitcoin holdings while enabling BTC to be used as collateral, to bridge TradFi and DeFi further.

Our take: While DeFi has generally underperformed sectors with more attention like Memes, its continued growth and development remain critical in an increasingly financialized crypto industry.