Market Snapshot
The crypto market has continued to edge higher as investors shrugged off the regular newsflow from the White House over resolving the Iran conflict.
Macro Summary
On the geopolitical front, the macro landscape will continue to be shaped by the delicate ceasefire in the war in the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump is set to travel to Beijing for his postponed meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, while his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent will visit Tokyo.
On the macro data side, the week will be shaped by the euro area's GDP and unemployment prints, US inflation figures and monetary data from Japan and China.
Recap
- Binance co-founder CZ suggested in a surprise appearance at Consensus Miami that the US may "revitalize" Binance’s US operations.
- Deals were also on the menu at Consensus. Exchange operator Bullish agreed to acquire Equiniti in a $4.2bn push for tokenized securities. Polygon told Sandmark it’s pursuing acquisitions in Latin America and Europe.
- Payward also continued an acquisition spree, agreeing to buy Reap for $600mn. The parent of cryptocurrency exchange operator Kraken applied for a national trust bank charter – a move that would give it certain bank-style obligations and facilities.
- Michael Saylor’s corporate treasury Strategy Inc. said it’s considering selling Bitcoin after it posted losses for the first quarter. Coinbase, an exchange operator, also reported an unexpected Q1 loss on 7 May before it suffered an outage lasting more than two hours, allegedly caused by a thermal event at an Amazon Web Services data centre in Northern Virginia.
- US lawmakers resolved a key dispute holding up the CLARITY Act, clearing a major obstacle to advancing the bill in the Senate. Shares of stablecoin-issuer Circle (CRCL) jumped more than 19% on 4 May.
- Meanwhile, Ondo Finance's native token (ONDO) rose as much as 8% on 8 May, after a successful cross-border transaction outside standard banking hours, showcasing how tokenized Treasuries can be redeemed in seconds.
- Trusted Volumes joined the growing list of DeFi protocols hacked this year. Meanwhile, in the latest development related to the earlier Kelp exploit, Aave said it completed the liquidation of the attacker's restaked ETH positions across Ethereum and Arbitrum. Arbitrum governance voted to unfreeze the approximately $71mn in ETH at the centre of a separate US court dispute.
- Andreessen Horowitz's crypto arm, a16z crypto, said it raised a $2.2bn fund to invest in blockchain startups.
Top Gainers
- TON (Toncoin) +79%
- VVV (Venice Token) +56%
- SIREN (siren) +53%
Top Losers
- SKYAI (SKYAI) -6.1%
- SKY (Sky) -2.4%
- LEO (UNUS SED LEO) -2.3%
Market Metrics
- Total Market Cap: $2.73tn (+4.6% vs last week)
- BTC Dominance: 60.1% (vs 60.4% last week)
- Fear and Greed Index: 50/100 (vs 48 last week)
- Alt Season Index: 50/100 (vs 44 last week)
ETF Flows
- BTC (Bitcoin): +$631.6mn (vs +$162.8mn previous week)
- ETH (Ether): +$70.3mn (vs -$82.5mn previous week)
Futures (CME)
- BTC (Bitcoin): $80,385 (+2.77%) (as at Friday close)
- ETH (Ether): $2,323.5 (+1.22%) (as at Friday close)
This week, we'll be monitoring (all times UTC):
Monday 11 May
Economic data
China Total Social Financing, M2 money supply, new loans: China publishes state financing statistics for April, capturing overall credit and liquidity conditions. Changes in this release signal shifts in China’s growth momentum, policy stance, and broader global risk sentiment. Total social financing may be ¥1,550bn ($170bn) in April, down from ¥5,230bn ($769bn) in March, according to economists polled by Reuters.
Central banks
Scott Bessent will meet Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, and Central Bank governor, Kazuo Ueda during his visit to Tokyo.
Tuesday 12 May
Economic data
13:30 US CPI: April inflation figures are published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As one of the Fed's two mandates (the other being employment), inflation figures guide decisions on interest rates and broader monetary policy. Economists polled by Reuters expect inflation to be 0.6% in April from the month earlier.
Central banks
00:50 Bank of Japan: The BoJ releases a summary of opinions from board members from its latest policy meeting, where it voted to keep rates on hold.
Wednesday 13 May
Economic data
10:00 euro area GDP, employment: Eurostat publishes GDP figures, along with employment numbers for Q1. Economists polled by Reuters expect output growth to be 0.8% on a yearly basis; that would be similar to Q4.
Thursday 14 May
Economic data
23:50 Japan broad money, M2 money supply statistics for April: Japan’s M2 is a proxy for global liquidity because yen funding conditions affect cross-border capital flows into global markets. Changes in M2 therefore signal shifts in global liquidity and risk appetite.
13:30 US retail sales: the US Census Bureau publishes figures for April. Retail sales are one of the key indicators as they reflect consumer spending, one of the largest components of the US economy. Changes in retail sales signal shifts in economic momentum, inflation pressure, and the outlook for monetary policy. Economists polled by Reuters expect retail sales to have grown by 0.5% in April, compared with a 1.7% growth in March.
Government
US President Donald Trump is set to travel to Beijing for his postponed meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
