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- Markets Plunge on New Tariff Plans | Crypto Alpha Week 14 of 2025
Markets Plunge on New Tariff Plans | Crypto Alpha Week 14 of 2025
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TL;DR
Grayscale Launches Two Bitcoin Income ETFs
Tether Boosts Bitcoin Holdings
Fidelity Offers BTC, ETH, LTC in New No-Fee Crypto IRA
Ethereum Targets May 7 for Pectra Upgrade
Pump.fun Livestreaming Resumes with Stricter Rules
Matcha Expands to Solana with Cross-Chain Support
Akash Launches MCP Server for AI-Driven Deployments
Nolus v2 Launches with Major DeFi Upgrades
Tixbase Tackles Scalping with Avalanche
$GUN Launches on Avalanche C-Chain
Markets Plunge on New Tariff Plans
Crypto Investors Lost $1.67B in Q1 Hacks
And much more!
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Bitcoin Highlights of the Week
Tether made headlines this week with a $735 million Bitcoin purchase, acquiring 8,888 BTC and pushing its total holdings to 100,521 BTC, valued at $8.29 billion. The acquisition, executed at the end of Q1 2025 and withdrawn from Bitfinex, signals Tether’s continued strategy of bolstering reserves with hard assets.
While some market participants view this as a strong vote of confidence in Bitcoin, others are calling for increased transparency around the transaction. Regardless, this move highlights growing institutional adoption and reaffirms Bitcoin’s role as a reserve asset in crypto’s evolving financial infrastructure.
Lawmakers in Alabama and Minnesota have introduced new bills aiming to allow their states to hold Bitcoin in their reserves, joining 24 other U.S. states in similar efforts. Minnesota’s Bitcoin Act proposes allowing state investments in Bitcoin, crypto in retirement accounts, tax exemptions on gains, and crypto-based tax payments.
Alabama’s twin bills, while not naming Bitcoin directly, restrict crypto holdings to assets with at least $750 billion in market value—currently only met by Bitcoin. Arizona remains the closest to enacting such legislation, while other states like Pennsylvania and Montana have already rejected similar proposals.
Grayscale has introduced two new Bitcoin ETFs designed to generate revenue from BTC’s volatility: the Bitcoin Covered Call ETF (BTCC) and the Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BPI). BTCC aims to capture premiums by writing near-the-money calls, complementing Bitcoin exposure with income. BPI targets out-of-the-money strikes on Bitcoin ETFs, blending potential upside with dividend-like returns.
Both funds promise monthly distributions and systematic options strategies, offering uncorrelated income streams. The move comes as Grayscale expands its ETF offerings, including recent filings for multi-asset and Avalanche-based ETFs, with several spot products awaiting regulatory approval.
First Trust Advisors has launched two Bitcoin strategy ETFs aimed at traditional investors seeking structured exposure to Bitcoin with risk mitigation. The FT Vest Bitcoin Strategy Floor15 ETF (BFAP) caps upside gains but limits losses to around 15%. Meanwhile, the FT Vest Bitcoin Strategy & Target Income ETF (DFII) targets higher-than-Treasury yields by selling call options on BTC, leveraging its volatility.
These ETFs join a growing wave of outcome-oriented Bitcoin products, reflecting rising institutional interest in crypto with built-in protections. The launch follows similar offerings from Grayscale and Bitwise, highlighting the sector's rapid financial innovation.
Japanese investment firm Metaplanet has ramped up its Bitcoin accumulation strategy, purchasing 160 BTC for $13.3 million just one day after acquiring 696 BTC. This brings its total holdings to 4,206 BTC, worth roughly $356.2 million at current market prices.
Since adopting its Bitcoin-focused strategy in April 2024, Metaplanet has become the largest corporate BTC holder in Asia and ranks ninth globally. The firm aims to hold 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025 and 21,000 by 2026. Despite the bullish move, Metaplanet’s stock fell 0.98% during Japan’s morning trading session.
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Ethereum Highlights of the Week
Ethereum developers have scheduled May 7 as the mainnet deployment date for the long-awaited Pectra upgrade, following successful testing on the Hoodi testnet. This hard fork introduces 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) to enhance usability, staking, and scalability.
Key upgrades include EIP-7702 for wallet improvements, EIP-7251 to raise validator limits from 32 to 2,048 ETH, and EIP-7691 to increase the maximum blob count for better rollup support. While the date is now official, developers note it may shift pending final tests. The new timeline gives validators and infrastructure providers more room for coordination and implementation.
Ethereum regained its spot as the top blockchain for decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume in March, surpassing Solana for the first time since September. This shift occurred amid bearish market conditions, especially in the memecoin sector, which impacted Solana-based DEXes like Raydium.
Uniswap played a key role in Ethereum’s resurgence, recording over $30 billion in monthly trading volume. Despite this dominance, ETH declined 18% in March, driven by concerns over inflationary tokenomics and increased Layer 2 migration. Ethereum’s lead reflects shifting momentum in DEX activity back to the ecosystem’s original frontrunner.
Fidelity has introduced a no-fee crypto IRA that allows U.S. adults to invest directly in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. The assets are custodied by Fidelity Digital Assets and held in cold storage. Available through Roth, traditional, or rollover IRAs, the product caters to rising demand for tax-advantaged crypto exposure.
This move aligns with a trend among financial advisors—57% plan to increase crypto ETF allocations, with a strong focus on crypto equity ETFs. Fidelity continues expanding its digital asset offerings, recently filing for a Solana ETF, reinforcing its commitment to meeting evolving investor interests in the crypto space.
EigenLayer will activate slashing on April 17, marking the final step toward its feature-complete restaking model. This security mechanism penalizes misbehaving node operators while rewarding good performance, enabling a marketplace for verifiable services. Restakers and operators can opt in gradually.
Over 30 Actively Validated Services (AVSs), including EigenDA and ARPA Network, are already live. The move brings EigenLayer closer to supporting high-throughput DeFi and gaming apps, with long-term goals of expanding beyond Web3. Slashing introduces accountability to restaking and solidifies EigenLayer’s position as foundational infrastructure for the Verifiable Cloud.
Privacy Pools officially launched on Ethereum on March 31, offering onchain privacy with regulatory safeguards. Built by 0xbow.io and backed by Vitalik Buterin, the tool allows users to make private transactions while proving they're not linked to illicit activity.
Using dynamic “Association Sets,” it screens deposits and enables a “ragequit” function for disqualified funds. Initial deposits are capped at 1 ETH, with 69 deposits totaling 21 ETH so far. Inspired by a 2023 whitepaper co-authored by Buterin, the protocol aims to normalize compliant privacy in crypto and has passed audits by Audit Wizard.
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Solana Highlights of the Week
Matcha, the DEX aggregator by 0x, has launched support for Solana, becoming one of the first platforms to enable seamless cross-chain trading between Solana and 13 EVM chains. The move addresses fragmentation between ecosystems and brings enhanced usability by allowing simultaneous wallet connections.
Matcha also introduced new anti-scam tools to help users avoid malicious tokens and memecoin rug pulls, including liquidity scores, contract audits, and token risk metrics. As Solana adoption grows, Matcha expects most DEXs and aggregators to follow suit by year-end, reinforcing its vision of a safer and more unified Web3 trading experience.
Solana-based memecoin platform Pump.fun has reinstated livestreaming for 5% of users, introducing a strict moderation policy to prevent harmful content. The feature was disabled in November 2024 after users exploited it with abusive material to boost token value. New rules ban violence, harassment, sexual content, and youth endangerment.
While NSFW content isn't fully prohibited, Pump.fun reserves the right to moderate at its discretion. Users violating policies may face suspensions or bans, with an appeal process available. The update aims to balance creative freedom with community safety as Pump.fun reintroduces live social engagement into its memecoin ecosystem.
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