Crypto Market

BTC and ETH Market Insight

This week, BTC ETFs saw a surge with $2.75 billion in inflows, marking a new record. Bitcoin hit an all-time high of over $111,500. Despite the breakout, funding rates on most crypto exchanges stayed at or below baseline, indicating low market euphoria. Meanwhile, altcoins experienced a mini rally, leading to a dip in Bitcoin dominance from its peak. Trump stated that negotiations with the EU are stalled and threatened to impose 50% tariffs beginning June 1st. BTC’s price movement during the recent tariffs-driven selloff told a strong story as the asset continues to show increasing signs of maturity.

Upcoming Macro Calendar - Source: Trading Economics

Options Market

The market held firm as BTC reached a new all-time high this week, but President Trump's tariff remarks targeting the European Union dampened the enthusiasm. Implied volatility increased in tandem with realized volatility, with front-end volatility rising by roughly 6 points for BTC and 5 points for ETH. The one-week tenor saw a shift in skew toward puts, reflecting reduced market optimism as traders purchased puts to brace for a potential pullback. The ETH/BTC pair consolidated but stayed resilient above its support level.

Altcoins and Blockchain News

• Kraken announced a strategic partnership with tokenized stock issuer Backed and the Solana Foundation to jointly launch xStocks, aiming to provide global investors with access to tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs.
• Swiss watchmaker Franck Muller has launched a collection of 1,111 watches linked to Solana wallets, with pairing done via a QR code on each watch. Each watch is individually numbered and priced at 20,000 Swiss francs.
• Modular blockchain Celestia has announced the integration of Hyperlane as its native interoperability solution. The native token TIA will expand to platforms such as Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum One, Eclipse, and Abstract, powered by Hyperlane.
• The Ethereum-based MMORPG Ember Sword has halted development due to financial issues. The game raised $203 million in 2021 through the sale of NFT land.
• Ondo Finance has announced the launch of its "Ondo Global Markets" platform, which will support on-chain trading of public securities, including stocks, on the Solana blockchain.
• Strategy announced plans to issue up to $2.1 billion in 10% Series A perpetual preferred shares (ticker: STRF), with TD Securities, Barclays Capital, and Benchmark Company serving as underwriters.
• According to Lookonchain monitoring, Cetus has suffered a hack resulting in losses exceeding $260 million. The team is actively working to recover the stolen funds.
• The GENIUS Act, a bill concerning stablecoins, has passed the debate motion with 69 votes in favor and 31 against, and has now entered the amendment phase.

Macro

The major indices declined after three consecutive weeks of rise: the DJIA lost 2.5%, the S&P 500 -2.6%, and the Nasdaq -2.5%. The Chinese stock market also closed slightly lower for the week: the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.57%, the CSI 300 -0.18% while the Hang Seng index added +1.10%.