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This Week’s Top Stories

“Trump Tax Bill clears the House in a Victory for Republicans, Advances to the Senate.” – Thursday, 22 May 2025 

• Remember a couple of months ago when the Trump administration talked about cutting deficits to 3 percent of GDP? Well, since Liberation Day, Trump and his team seem to have pivoted to “run it back.” Last week, Scott Bessent said that “there is the potential growth of the debt, but what’s more important is we grow the economy faster.” 
• Yesterday, the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed Trump’s bill that would enact his tax and spending priorities while adding trillions of dollars to the U.S. debt. While Republicans were euphoric about the passing of the bill, Wall Street, however, was not as enthusiastic about the tax cut package, as many are worried about weaker long-term fiscal health for the USA.

“The Texas Gouse paves way for a Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.” – Wednesday, 21 May 2025 

• On Wednesday, the Texas House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 21, pushing the proposal closer to becoming law and paving the way for the creation of the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a fund dedicated to investing in cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization of $500 billion or more, which would be managed by the state comptroller. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature. 
• An interesting perspective: if Texas were a country, it would be the 8th largest economy in the world, ahead of Russia, Canada, Italy, and many other countries.

“Big Banks Explore Venturing into Crypto with Joint Stablecoin.” – Thursday, 22 May 2025 

• On Thursday, some of the biggest U.S. banks began exploring a partnership to issue a joint stablecoin. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo are possibly teaming up to enter the crypto industry together with Early Warning Services, the operator of the Zelle payment system, and The Clearing House, a real-time payments network.

A Quick Crypto Overview: The Bitcoin Season Continues

This week, Bitcoin reached a new all-time high and is currently trading above $110'000 after briefly trading above $111'000 on Thursday, “Bitcoin Pizza Day.” Bitcoin dominance traded to the upside until yesterday but has since lost a little bit of steam. It is still up almost 3 percent since mid-last week. 

The total crypto market cap has yet to experience a new all-time high, as it is still trading roughly 10 percent below its December 2024 high. The total market cap excluding Bitcoin (Total2) is even further from its all-time high, currently still 30 percent below its ATH. 

Bitcoiners and fundamental altcoin investors are smiling, while the average altcoin bagholder is likely still down from their net worth highs. Some memecoins, however, have continued to perform well this week, with FARTCOIN, WIF, and PEPE up between 15 and 25 percent on the week. 

Fundamentally strong projects, either due to revenue, market share, or investment rounds, such as Hyperliquid, Worldcoin, or Aave have continued to perform well over the past week, with HYPE and WLD up more than 30 percent this week. Solana and Avalanche both received some fundamentally positive news this week as well and are trading to the upside, both up 6 percent this week. 

Chart of the Week: Altcoins are Lagging behind…

Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high, and the total crypto market cap is close to reaching a new ATH as well, while the altcoin market (total market cap excluding Bitcoin) still needs roughly a 30 percent increase to reach a new all-time high.

When looking at TradFi, U.S. equities traded mainly flat this week, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq slightly down. Gold is up almost 4 percent, with the U.S. Dollar Index down more than 1.3 percent this week.

What’s Happening On-Chain? Solana Mobile, FIFA x Avalanche & SOL on MetaMask 

This week, Solana Mobile announced its second-generation device, “Seeker,” which will be launched in August this year. Solana Mobile not only announced the new device, but also a new native token, “SKR,” which aims to transform the traditional mobile business by giving stakeholders actual ownership in the platform. 

MetaMask co-founder and CEO has confirmed that the long-anticipated native support for Solana will launch in May 2025, enabling users to access SOL assets and interact with Solana dApps directly via MetaMask. 

This week, FIFA announced that it is teaming up with Avalanche to build a dedicated Layer-1 blockchain with the goal of expanding its Web3 initiatives. The FIFA Blockchain will be an Avalanche L1, a customizable blockchain that uses Avalanche’s technology (also previously known as a subnet). 

Digital Asset Fund Flows: Digital Asset Inflows Fully Recover February-March Outflows 

Last week, digital asset investment products saw $785 million in net inflows, marking the fifth consecutive positive week for digital asset investment products worldwide. Last week’s flows brought year-to-date inflows to $7.5 billion, surpassing the previous peak from early February. 

Interestingly, Ethereum saw an increase in net inflows last week, accounting for $205 million, with Bitcoin continuing to lead the pack with $557 million in net inflows. 

This week continues to be very strong for the Bitcoin spot ETFs, with yesterday almost breaking the $1 billion daily inflow level, as $934 million flowed into the U.S.-listed products in a single day. So far this week, the Bitcoin spot ETFs have seen $2.5 billion in net inflows, almost 5x more than the week before. 

The legendary anti-Bitcoin JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said this week that the bank will allow its clients to buy Bitcoin, even though he still has a negative view on it. JPMorgan Chase will not offer custody services but will give its clients access to purchase Bitcoin. He also highlighted that the bank has been using blockchain technology for a long time but once more stated that its use is being overhyped, as the world has been talking about blockchain for over 12 years, but not much has happened since, at least according to Dimon. 

Market Sentiment: Extreme Greed in Crypto 

The crypto fear and greed index is showing levels of extreme greed (78) after spending quite some time in greed territory. Funding rates for the major cryptocurrencies are still not elevated, indicating that there is not yet too much leverage in the markets and there might be some room to the upside left. 

When looking at the fear and greed index of Coinmarketcap, the index is still in greed levels. When we look at the previous two runs to a new all-time high (March 2024 and November 2024), one can observe that there was still some room left for price growth after the market sentiment first reached extreme greed levels. 

In March 2024, we reached extreme greed levels with a BTC price of $57’000 and then topped three weeks later around $74’000. In November, the index reached extreme greed with BTC at $80’000, and we topped out weeks later just below $110’000 in January 2025.

Other Relevant News 

Vivek Ramaswamy's Strive plans to establish a Bitcoin reserve by acquiring 75’000 BTC (valued at approximately $8 billion) from claims related to the Mt. Gox bankruptcy. – Link 

Blackstone’s Alternative Multi-Strategy Fund disclosed holding 23’094 shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as of March 31. – Link 

Strategy has acquired 7’390 BTC for $764.9 million at $103’498 per BTC. – Link 

Strategy prospectus supplement filed on May 22, 2025, shows that the company plans to issue up to $2.1 billion of 10 percent Series A perpetual preferred stock to continue to execute its Bitcoin strategy. – Link 

Looking Ahead: New BTC All-Time High, what now? 

Bitcoin is trading above $110’000, and all eyes are now on Bitcoin dominance and major altcoins such as Ethereum and Solana for signs that the broader altcoin market may start catching up with the leader that is Bitcoin. Market participants should not forget that the market has been on an uptrend for more than a month now but considering the muted reaction to the new all-time high from mainstream media, there are some voices calling for higher prices for Bitcoin and the broader market in the coming weeks. 

With the deadline for the 90-day pause coming up in July, there are not many catalysts ahead that could turn out to be negative for the overall market. Eyes should be on the inflation data in the U.S., but this release is not due until mid-June. While Trump certainly is unpredictable, the crypto market still looks positive, and the new BTC high has sparked hopes for altcoin holders. 

While it might not be the time to take on more risk, as the market is up significantly from the lows, market participants seem to agree on the premise of holding on to their coins for a little while longer to see whether altcoins catch up and whether the market cap excluding Bitcoin can reach a new high as well over the coming weeks. Only time will tell! 

Below, you can find some of the key data releases and events to watch out for next week. 

Monday, 26 May 2025 

USA – Memorial Day 

Switzerland – Employment Level 

Tuesday, 27 May 2025 

Switzerland – SNB Vice Chairman Schlegel speaks 

Thursday, 29 May 2025 

Switzerland – Ascension Day 

USA – GDP, Initial Jobless Claims, Core PCE Prices 

Japan – Unemployment Rate 

Friday, 30 May 2025 

USA – PCE Price Index, Core PCE Price Index