Weekly Recap: Bitcoin Drops to $85K after Trump Unveils Reserve Plans

Happy weekend Defiers!

Market volatility persisted this week as President Trump signed an executive order to create a U.S. crypto reserve, but stopped short of committing to any new buying. The proposed reserve will consist of digital assets seized by the government.

Community members of Aave, the largest lending platform in DeFi by TVL, are proposing to overhaul the protocol token’s economic model. Aave also floated a new savings product this week.

Plus, Pumpfun token launches drop 80%, Ondo TVL crosses $1B, and Avalanche active addresses spike.

Also, don’t forget to check out our interviews with Juan Benet, Founder of Protocol Labs, Sami Start, Co-Founder and CEO of Transak, and Yaniv Tal, Founder of The Graph.

Enjoy!

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PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

Protocol Labs Founder Juan Benet on Decentralizing the Internet with IPFS & Filecoin

Juan Benet, Founder of Protocol Labs, discusses the importance of a decentralized internet and how Protocol Labs is working to achieve this through various open-source projects, most notably IPFS and Filecoin. He emphasizes the role of these technologies in creating a more secure, censorship-resistant, and efficient internet experience.

Sami Start on How Transak Simplifies Global Crypto Onramps | ETH Denver 2025

We spoke with Sami Start, Co-Founder and CEO of Transak, the gateway to Web3 that streamlines onboarding for hundreds of networks and dApps across the crypto landscape. Active in more than 160 countries, Transak offers straightforward fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat solutions, enhancing the real-world utility of digital assets.

The Graph's Yaniv Tal on GRC 20 and the Future of Web3 | ETH Denver 2025

Yaniv Tal, Founder of The Graph, joins us at ETH Denver 2025 to discuss the evolution of Web3 and the importance of composability for building a truly decentralized internet. He explains how The Graph's new Knowledge Graph standard, GRC 20, will enable developers to better organize and share information.

Friday

Cryptocurrency Market Slips as Inflation Fears Resurface Ahead of Crypto Summit BTC, ETH, and SOL dropped by 1%, while XRP plunged 4%.
Netherlands Ranks as the Most Crypto-Obsessed Country in the World A new study reveals that European countries have the highest crypto search interest.
DeFi Community Debates Onchain Equities as Coinbase Mulls Tokenizing $COIN The buzz around tokenized equities is growing.
PumpFun Token Launches Drop 80% The Solana token launchpad just had its slowest day in six months amid a cratering memecoin market.
NFT Volume Plummets to 2025 Lows After OpenSea Pauses Incentives Trading volumes are down 73% since OpenSea removed incentivized listing and bidding.
Base Makes Strategic Bet on Privacy With Iron Fish Acqui-Hire Iron Fish blockchain will continue on its own while the development team moves to the Base blockchain.
Polymarket Stalls on BTC Reserve Market Despite Trump’s Executive Order As traders wait for the outcome, there is currently $10.5 million in limbo.
Should THORChain Have Processed Bybit Hack Funds? Industry is Split The decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol faced fierce criticism for not pausing swaps when it became clear that THORChain was the hackers’ go-to laundering platform.

Thursday

Aave Proposes Savings Product Built on Its GHO Stablecoin sGHO would be a low-risk asset with an aggressive yield to differentiate it from other yield-bearing stablecoins.
Bitcoin Drops Ahead of Trump’s White House Crypto Summit Market volatility persists as Bitcoin and other major cryptos swing between gains and losses.
Ondo Finance TVL Surpasses $1 Billion Becoming Largest RWA Platform The recent growth within the Ondo Finance ecosystem is likely due to the launch of Ondo Nexus.
New York Bill Seeks to Crack Down on Crypto Fraud The proposed bill A06515 aims to criminalize rug pulls, private key fraud, and fraudulent failure to disclose information.
White House Crypto Summit Attendees: Who Has the Industry's Hottest Ticket? The Crypto Summit will bring as many as 25 industry bigwigs to the White House.
RedStone Token Debuts on Ethereum at $900 Million Valuation The RED launch aims to enhance oracle provider RedStone’s decentralization and security.
Is a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Actually Good for Crypto? Prominent members of the crypto community are questioning the move.
Uniswap Foundation Proposes $45 Million Incentive Program to Boost V4 and Unichain The proposal is set to move forward to an onchain governance vote after successfully passing a Snapshot vote.
Sui Partners with Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial in Blockchain Expansion The collaboration aims to develop next-generation blockchain applications.
Bitwise Makes First Institutional DeFi Allocation via Maple Finance The asset management firm is participating in Maple’s onchain credit fund.

Wednesday

Bitcoin Extends Gains After Trump Softens Tariffs BTC, ETH and SOL gained between 2% and 3%, pushing the total crypto market capitalization back above $3 trillion.
Is Wall Street Behind the Bitcoin Bloodbath? Master Ventures co-founder Kyle Chassé says hedge fund arbitrage strategies that kept Bitcoin stable on the way up are exacerbating volatility as they exit.
Avalanche Active Addresses Spike 140% Active addresses are surging as memecoin presales and token airdrops on Avalanche draw increased attention.
Will Base's Flashblocks Update Beat Solana? Base builders have claimed that the flashblocks update makes it 2x faster than Solana.
Binance Research Explores the Future of Decentralized AI Incumbents like ChatGPT are the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, but could blockchain-based decentralized AI be its Web3 future?

Tuesday

DeFi Lender Aave Weighs Changing Tokenomics to "Fee Switch on Steroids" Aave Chan Initiative founder Marc Zeller called Aavenomics "the most important proposal in our history."
Crypto Markets Bounce as Trump’s Tariffs Take Effect Bitcoin traded as low as $81,400 on Tuesday morning before surging to $88,000.
Solana DEXs Dominate Despite Memecoin Meltdown Apps like Raydium, Meteora, and Orca ensured the network maintained its streak for the fifth month.
XRP Defies Trump Slump as Major Cryptocurrencies Erase Post-Election Gains The ongoing Bitcoin-led bloodbath has seen ETH, BNB and SOL give up their post-election gains.
Bitcoin ETFs End 8-Day Losing Streak with $95 Million of Inflows U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs suffered outflows of $3.65 billion in February.

Monday

Trump’s Crypto Reserve Plans Split the Industry and Whipsawed the Market The U.S. President confirmed long-awaited plans to launch a crypto reserve, but surprised many by including ADA, XRP, and SOL.
SEC To Drop Lawsuit Against Kraken As War on Crypto Collapses The SEC is walking away from cases against major crypto players including Kraken, Coinbase and Robinhood.
Bitcoin Just Had its Best Quarter Ever, Messari Says The report shows Bitcoin made significant progress in areas including circulating market cap and DeFi TVL.
Zora Announces Token Airdrop 'For Fun' The Ethereum Layer 2 will launch its official token this spring with 10% of its supply allocated to an airdrop.
MetaMask Airdrop Speculation Rises after LogX Launches Pre-Market Trading However, a Consensys team member has reiterated that “there is currently no MetaMask token”