Bitcoin in the Spotlight Again
Weekly Crypto & Markets: Bitcoin had a huge week, marked by major movements across exchanges and markets. Data from CryptoQuant showed that Bitcoin just saw its largest withdrawal from exchanges since February 2023. This usually signals that investors are moving coins into private wallets, often hinting at accumulation and expectations of a price increase.
On a bigger scale, Bitcoin officially became the fifth-largest asset in the world by market value, even surpassing Google. Now, people are wondering when Bitcoin will jump ahead of NVIDIA.
There’s also growing interest from institutions. Cantor, Tether, and Bitfinex are working together to create a massive Bitcoin investment entity. The goal is to soak up huge amounts of Bitcoin from the market, showing that big players are moving in aggressively.
Meanwhile, MicroStrategy continued its legendary Bitcoin buying spree, adding 6,556 more BTC worth about 555.8 million USDT. The company’s total Bitcoin holdings are now over 538,000 BTC, making it one of the biggest whales out there.
Growing Strength in Altcoins and Layer-1 Networks
It wasn’t just Bitcoin making noise.
Solana had a record-breaking week. The total stablecoin supply on Solana hit an all-time high, showing trust in the network’s infrastructure and ease of use. Plus, Ark Invest announced it added Staked Solana to its funds ARKW and ARKF by buying into a Canadian ETF. More proof that big money is getting behind Solana.
SUI had a major breakout too. In just one week, SUI’s price jumped 60%. Its Total Value Locked (TVL) rose 38% to 1.645 billion USDT, and decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume surged by 177%. Stablecoins on SUI grew by 82% in just two months. It’s clear that the network is attracting serious liquidity.
Ethereum also had a surprising comeback.
The number of active Ethereum addresses shot up by almost 10% in 48 hours. Meanwhile, discussions about Vitalik Buterin’s RISC-V proposal (a new coding language to replace EVM) picked up steam. If accepted, this could speed up Ethereum’s performance by up to 100 times, especially in Zero-Knowledge (ZK) functions. However, ETH prices remain shaky, nearing 1,800 USDT.
Governments, Regulations, and Global Tensions
On the regulatory front, the US Federal Reserve canceled old guidelines that had restricted banks’ dealings with crypto. This move could pave the way for more American banks to enter crypto markets without needing extra approvals.
The SEC’s new crypto head, Paul Atkins, officially took office. He’s known for supporting crypto, and everyone’s watching closely ahead of his speech at the upcoming Crypto Roundtable.
Meanwhile, big names like Chiliz and Ondo Finance had meetings with the SEC. Chiliz discussed re-entering the US market after being out since 2022, while Ondo Finance talked about issuing tokenized US securities.
Over in Europe, the European Parliament is close to final talks with China to remove mutual sanctions — a positive step for global trade, at least on paper.
But US-China relations are still very tense.
The Chinese embassy said there are no current negotiations with the US on tariffs and called for Washington to “stop causing chaos.” Meanwhile, China is considering dropping tariffs on some American goods like chemicals and injecting liquidity into markets to soften the blow from any future tariff escalations.
On the American side, Trump gave strong statements:
- He didn’t cut the 145% tariffs on China.
- He warned that if no deal happens, new tariffs will hit.
- He suggested tariffs on Canadian goods could rise too.
- He criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell again for keeping interest rates too high but said he hasn’t called him… yet.
Gold, Stablecoins, and Tokenization Booming
Gold had its own historic week.
The price of traditional gold hit $3,500 per ounce for the first time ever. Although it later dropped to around $3,318 after Trump softened his stance toward Powell, gold is still up 29% this year.
At the same time, Tokenized Gold on Ethereum crossed 100 million USDT in trading volume across decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Traditional finance and DeFi are starting to mix more than ever.
In the world of stablecoins:
- Circle launched a new payment network called CPN, allowing 24/7 transfers using USDC and EURC.
- PayPal offered a 3.7% annual reward for users holding PYUSD, though it still lags far behind USDC and USDT in size.
Also, Tether announced it minted another 1 billion USDT, keeping up with growing demand.
Institutional and Corporate Moves
Banks and crypto companies were making moves behind the scenes:
- Crypto firms like Circle, BitGo, Coinbase, and Paxos are considering applying for full banking licenses in the US
- Polygon Labs partnered with Pyse to tokenize electric delivery bikes in Dubai.
- Canary Capital filed to launch a Staked SEI ETF.
- Trump Media announced a crypto ETF partnership with Crypto.com.
Meanwhile, Galaxy Digital swapped 105 million USDT-worth of Ethereum into Solana, suggesting a possible shift in institutional preferences toward faster, cheaper chains.
Final Thoughts: Markets at a Crossroads
This week showed one clear theme: institutions and governments are moving fast, while retail interest is still low. Even Google search trends for “crypto” hit record lows. But behind the scenes, liquidity is building, assets are tokenizing, and massive strategic moves are happening.
At the same time, tensions between major economies are rising, gold is surging, and Bitcoin keeps gaining strength.
It feels like a quiet before a potential storm across both crypto and global markets.As always, this article is for informational purposes only and not financial advice. For secure crypto trading, visit Millionero’s blog or check out Millionero Spot and Millionero Perpetuals.