CMC Market Pulse delivers actionable market insights, giving you all the key narratives and developments you need in under 5 minutes.
Market Overview 📉
The week kicked off with sentiment in the dumps after the bloodbath following Liberation Day. The volatility continued into the week, with market participants reacting to every headline relating to the global trade war. While the market ended the week slightly recovered from the lows, sentiment continues to remain weak as markets await further developments. Total crypto market cap fell 4.93% from $2.758T to $2.622T as markets fell amidst tariff shocks.
Bitcoin (BTC) closed the week 4.66% down, while Ethereum (ETH), suffered a much heavier blow, ending the week at 15.9% down from the week before.
The spike in volatility resulted in surges in liquidations on both long and short positions. The week saw more than $300M in combined liquidations, with the majority of the action taking place on 6th and 7th April. Across the two days, the market saw a combined $1.9B liquidated in both long and short positions. As expected, funding rates fell on lowered risk appetites, with most just trading around in the low positive to low negative range.
📌 The US Department of Justice (DoJ) announces that it will no longer initiate investigations into exchanges, wallets and mixers. In the same week, the DoJ scrapped their crypto unit. - Link
📌 Pro-crypto candidate, Paul Atkins, has been confirmed as the new SEC Chair. - Link
📌 BlackRock partners with institutional crypto platform, Anchorage Digital for custody solutions for institutional crypto products including ETPs and funds. - Link
Why does it matter?
The market continued to exhibit weakness resulting from fears of a global recession amidst the heightened tensions and a backdrop of an escalating trade war. Despite a seemingly positive resolution close to the end of the week, with Trump pausing majority of the reciprocal tariffs, the market seems to still have their concerns, with markets reversing most of the move by the next trading day. Nevertheless, the S&P 500 ended the week up 0.19%, while the Nasdaq bounced back stronger, with a 1.88% increase.
While Bitcoin dominance continued its trend from the week prior, to push towards its highs, the end of the week saw a reversal in this trend, with risk appetite in the market slowly increasing once again. Regardless, Bitcoin dominance ended the week up more than 0.5% at 63.15%.
Despite the volatility, several altcoins continue to show strength against the broader market. This included tokens like Solayer (LAYER), Hyperliquid (HYPE), Fartcoin (FARTCOIN), JasmyCoin (JASMY), Curve DAO (CRV) and Bittensor (TAO), among others.View CMC Gainers & Losers board
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Narrative of the Week 📰
Unsurprisingly, the developments in the US tariff plan continues to take centre stage for the week, with retaliation from foreign nations and a sudden rollback of the reciprocal tariff plan.
📌 President Trump signs the Executive Order rolling out the additional 50% tariffs on China imports, pushing effective tariffs to 104%, with the new tariffs kicking in on 9th April. - Link
📌 China places an 84% tariff on all US imports effective immediately, in retaliation to the increased 50% tariffs by the US. - Link
📌 Trump raises the tariffs on China to 125% while placing a 90-day pause on all other reciprocal tariffs announced thus far. - Link
Why does it matter?
Tariffs have been the key market mover over the last week, sending both traditional and crypto market spiralling. Although the week kicked off with the hopes that US President Donald Trump would roll back some of the tariffs, he instead escalated with additional tariffs, resulting in retaliation from the Chinese government. However, as the week came to a close, the US placed a pause on all of their reciprocal tariffs excluding China, with many speculating an intervention to prevent a full breakdown of the US markets. Nevertheless, the pause has given the market some temporary relief while it awaits further clarity.
Major Project Updates 🗓️
📌 SocialFi protocol, Lens Protocol, launches Lens Chain, built on the zkSync stack, with Avail as its data availability layer. Lens Chain is built for speed, low cost and scale, with its own storage solution and native account abstraction. - Link
📌 Market making firm, Wintermute, introduces QuoteChain, an AI-curated chain of content from X, with recognized users being rewarded in QuoteChain’s token, QT. - link
📌 Decentralized fiber network, DoubleZero, unveils tokenomics for their token, 2Z, outlining token utility, supply and vesting, as well as details of their upcoming token sale. - Link
📌 Programmable liquidity network, Mitosis, introduces the Mitosis DNA Program, a unique three-token system to align incentives between token holders and the project. - Link
📌 AI infrastructure project, Phala Network, introduces Phala Cloud, a secure and private hosting environment leveraging Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). - Link
📌 SVM L1 chain, Fogo, launches Fogo Flames, a point program for the chain which distributes Flames based on user actions and contributions weekly. - Link
Why does it matter?
Decentralized social networks and protocols built around social data have always been a narrative that long-time crypto builders have been interested to explore. With the recent success of Kaito, a platform built around social data and analytics, new protocols have emerged surrounding social data. Most recently, this has manifested in Wintermute’s QuoteChain, which seeks to reward users on X based on their content, which is screened by their AI model. Other users however, have expressed skepticism around the demand for such a project and its longevity.
DeFi Brief 🏦
📌 Binance introduces LDUSDT, its latest yield-bearing margin asset, allowing users to earn yield on their USDT holdings while using it as collateral for trading. - Link
📌 Lending protocol, Aave, kicks off their token buyback program on 9th April. - Link
📌 NFT marketplace, Magic Eden, acquires crypto trading platform, Slingshot. - Link
📌 Trump’s World Liberty Financial puts up a governance proposal for the distribution of their USD1 stablecoin to WLFI holders to reward them for their early support. - Link
📌 Mantle introduces Mantle Banking and MI4. Mantle Banking is an all-in-one app to bridge the gap between TradFi and DeFi, while MI4 is a basket of yield-bearing assets including BTC, ETH, SOL and USDe. - Link
📌 RWA-stablecoin issuer, Usual, proposes to raise the floor price of their bond product USD0++ to $0.92 as well as to redistribute accumulated USUAL tokens to USUALx holders. - Link
📌 DEX aggregator, Matcha, expands to Solana, enabling cross-chain swaps between SVM and EVM chains, auto token listings, and partnerships with Backpack, Madlads and more. - Link
Why does it matter?
Stablecoins remain a core narrative for the cycle, as one of the most retail-friendly narratives to adopt. With its position as the top exchange by volume, Binance is naturally well-positioned to initiate new stablecoin products to enable users and traders to earn yield on their idle stablecoins. This is especially so in the recent volatile environment, which has deterred many traders from over-trading in an attempt to protect their capital. Additionally, the move could also be a counter to Coinbase’s recent promotion offering 12% annual yield on USDC deposits in the Coinbase Perpetuals Account.
Meme Coins 🚀
📌 Memecoin launchpad, pump.fun relaunches their live-streaming feature to 5% of their users, with “industry-standard moderation systems” and “transparent guidelines”. - Link
📌 21Shares files for a Dogecoin spot ETF, joining fellow asset managers, Bitwise and Grayscale. - Link
Fundraises 💰
📌 Stablecoin infrastructure protocol, Codex, raises $16M in a funding round led by Dragonfly, with support from Circle, Coinbase, Cumberland and more. - Link
📌 MegaETH-based Stablecoin protocol, Cap, raises $8M in a seed funding round led by Franklin Templeton and Triton Capital, with other investors including GSR, Flow Traders, Laser Digital and more. - Link
📌 Base USDC to fiat infrastructure protocol, P2P.me, raises $2M in a seed funding round with investors including Multicoin Capital and Coinbase Ventures. - Link
📌 Smart contract security platform, Octane Security, raises $6.75M in a seed funding round led by Archetype and Winklevoss Capital, with participation from Druid Ventures, Circle, Gemini and more. - Link
📌 Ripple acquires crypto-friendly multi-asset prime broker, Hidden Road for $1.25B. - Link
Airdrops Abound 🎁
📌 Hyperliquid-based lending platform, HyperLend, kicks off their points program, distributing points to users weekly based on actions taken. Holding the Hypio NFT and successful referrals unlock additional rewards. - Link
📌 Bitcoin staking infrastructure protocol, Babylon Labs, airdrops their governance token, BABY, to eligible recipients. Token holders may now stake their tokens for rewards and governance rights. - Link
📌 AI agent infrastructure protocol, Wayfinder, opens claims for their PROMPT token, enabling claims on both Base and Ethereum L1. - Link
📌 Base liquidity management layer, Arcadia, releases their airdrop checker for their AAA token. 10% of the token supply will be airdropped to Arcadia point holders in the genesis airdrop. - Link
Tweet of the Week 📝
Source: @boldleonidas
Monday was a test pump, Wednesday was the real pump. Who could’ve seen that coming?
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