Weekly Recap: Crypto Markets Get Whipsawed by DeepSeek and Fed

Happy weekend Defiers!

Crypto markets faced a rollercoaster week, beginning with a sharp plunge as the advent of China’s DeepSeek AI model upended major technology stocks. Crypto assets bounced later in the week after the Fed left rates unchanged at its latest policy meeting.

President Trump is following through with some of his pro-crypto promises as his World Liberty Financial project continues to accumulate ETH and DeFi tokens. Meanwhile on the regulation front, the SEC has created a new crypto task force.

Plus, Abstract mainnet goes live, Uniswap launches V4, Hyperliquid fees flip Ethereum, and Arthur Hayes predicts that Bitcoin will crash to 70K.

Also, don’t forget to check out our interview with Alon Muroch, founder of SSV Labs, and podcast with Preston Van Loon, an Ethereum core developer.

Enjoy!

DEFI ALPHA

We’ve revamped Alpha to help you fully embrace your inner degen and maximize your crypto gains!

New features include an exclusive Telegram group where our resident degens share real-time intelligence from the trenches, a biweekly Alpha call where you can chat directly with the DeFi Alpha newsletter authors, and additional content to help you stay on top of hot trends.

Just recently, we caught:

• COLLAT at 400K (ATH 33M - 80x)
• JANUSPRO7B at 20K (ATH 3M - 150x)

Previous wins:

• TRUMP at 700M (ATH 70B - 100x)
• ALCH at 4M (ATH 200M - 50x)
• ARMY on Ripple at 2M (ATH 100M - 50x)
• PNUT at 5M (ATH 2.2B - 440x)
• ZEREBRO at 600K (ATH 600M - 1000x)

What are you waiting for? Subscribe now and join the Telegram group!

THANKING OUR NEWSLETTER SPONSORS

| NEWSLETTER CONTINUES BELOW |

TheStandard Protocol launches zero-interest DeFi lending where your collateral generates yield through Uniswap V3 pools. Borrow against ETH, WBTC & more while earning returns. Smart Vaults (NFTs) enable trading of entire loan positions. Backed by Cyfrin audit.

PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

Expanding Ethereum Staking: Alon Muroch on SSV Network and Validator Innovation

Alon Muroch, founder of SSV Labs, explains SSV Network’s approach to Ethereum staking. He describes how SSV uses Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) to structure staking operations, decentralize validator responsibilities, and manage over 2 million ETH.

Murdoch also outlines SSV 2.0, which expands validator functions beyond staking to securing other protocols, and discusses ongoing conversations about Ethereum’s governance.

Court Overturns Tornado Cash Sanctions: What’s Next for Privacy? Preston Van Loon, Ethereum Core Dev

Preston Van Loon, an Ethereum core developer, joins The Defiant Podcast this week to discuss his role as a plaintiff in the high-profile Tornado Cash lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

He described how the sanctions imposed on Tornado Cash impacted legitimate users seeking privacy on Ethereum and underscored the significance of a recent appellate court ruling questioning whether smart contracts qualify as “property” under U.S. sanctions law.

Friday

• Securitize Partners with TradFi Giant Apollo to Tokenize Private Credit The ACRED fund will deliver tokenized private credit to institutional and accredited investors on multiple chains.
• Pump.fun Slammed With Lawsuit For Violating US Securities Laws One of the app’s users sued the platform after suffering losses from investing in three memecoins it promoted.
• Crypto Markets Eke Out Weekly Gain Following Fed’s Rate Decision Bitcoin dipped to $103,000 while Ethereum briefly rallied above $3400.
• Uniswap Labs Launches V4, Bringing Major Upgrades to Its DEX The long-awaited update introduces customizable swaps and improved efficiency.
• Bitwise CIO Says Trump’s Executive Order Could End Crypto’s Four-Year Cycles Matt Hougan says the crypto bull run may continue into 2026.

Thursday

• Crypto Market Extends Gains After Fed Holds Rates Steady Bitcoin is up 2% to $105,000, while Ethereum and Solana surged 5%.
• Crypto Hacks Total $74M in January and CeFi Accounts for 93% of Losses Despite a 45% drop from last year, security threats persist across the crypto sector.
• Hyperliquid Flips Ethereum in Fees and Revenue as Token Rallies Activity on Hyperliquid is ramping up compared to Ethereum, the leading Layer 1 by TVL.
• Venmo Co-Founder Releases Fair-Launch Token for New Platform, JellyJelly The token was created as a fair launch on Pump.Fun and surged to a $250 million valuation in hours.
• SEC Edges Closer to Decision on Canary Capital’s Litecoin ETF The agency has called for the public’s comments on the proposed ETF before it approves or denies it.
• MarginFi Introduces Staked Collateral Feature MarginFi now allows users to borrow SOL using their staked SOL as collateral.
• Paradigm Says Ethereum’s Future Is at Risk Due To Slow Updates The venture capital and research firm said deliberately slowing change to protect decentralization prevents Ethereum from staying competitive.

Wednesday

• Crypto Market Rallies After Federal Reserve Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged BTC, ETH, and SOL surged 3% after Fed Chair Powell’s press conference.
• Arbitrum, Polygon and Optimism Show How To Start an X Feud in Four Easy Steps The fight began, humorously enough, with a post about the need for Layer 2 blockchains to work together.
• Gemini Survey Reveals Growing Gender Gap in Crypto Ownership Despite fewer women owning crypto, those who do are just as likely to hold assets long-term.
• Cardano’s Plomin Hard Fork Heralds Transition to Full Decentralized Governance Cardano’s latest upgrade enables ADA holders to delegate voting power.
• Faraway's RIFT Airdrop Leaves NFT Holders Furious Crypto gaming company Faraway acquired Yuga Labs games Legend of the Mara and HV-MTL- but did not distribute tokens to its top holders.
• Robinhood CEO Says SEC Should Revise Rules To Foster Tokenization In a Washington Post op-ed post, Vlad Tenev argued that the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the world in the coming investing revolution.
• ETF Race Heats Up As Bitwise Files for Dogecoin Fund After previous rejections, applicants will hope for a positive verdict under the new SEC leadership.
• Memecoin App Vector Adopts TNSR as Native Token The token adoption entitles the Tensor community to 50% of the memecoin-social application’s total revenue.
• Trump Media Launches TruthFi Fintech Venture With Eye on Crypto TMTG to allocate up to $250 million into Bitcoin, ETFs, and other financial assets.
• Arthur Hayes Forecasts Bitcoin Collapsing to $70,000 The former BitMEX CEO’s bullishness has evaporated due to macro factors and the TRUMP memecoin.
• Metaplanet to Raise $745 Million in Bid to Reach 10,000 BTC Goal This is the largest capital raise for Bitcoin purchases in the history of Asian equity markets.
• OpenSea OS2 XP Rewards Program Fuels Airdrop Rumors The NFT trading platform has caught flak for limiting beta testing to Gemesis NFT holders.

Tuesday

• Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Opposes Bitcoin-Only U.S. Digital Asset Reserve Garlinghouse argues that a diverse reserve would better reflect the crypto ecosystem.
• BlackRock Buys $1 Billion in Bitcoin, Now Holds 2.7% of Total Supply BlackRock increases its Bitcoin holdings, surpassing government reserves.
• Bitcoin's Ordinals Plummet to Lowest Levels Since February 2024 The top Ordinals collections are struggling as volume dives.
• Scammers Get Scammed as DogWifTools Gets Exploited for $10 Million The token bundling tool drained users' hot wallets, hardware wallets, and centralized exchange accounts.
• Uniswap’s Hayden Adams Pitches Ethereum Buying Out Layer 2s and DeFi The proposal would require a huge ETH mint, causing substantial inflation in Ether.
• Sonic TVL is Soaring More Than Any Other Layer 1 Growth of total-value locked for Sonic, formerly Fantom, is driven by Avalon Labs’s Bitcoin-backed stablecoin.
• Cryptocurrency Market Rebounds After Monday's DeepSeek-Induced Drop Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other top digital assets posted modest gains as liquidations decreased sharply from Monday's spike.
• NFT Liquidations Rise Amid Azuki and Pudgy Penguin Volatility Two of the NFT market’s leading collections have suffered sharp price drops over the last week.
• Arizona Advances Legislation to Create Strategic Bitcoin Reserve The proposed bill could make Arizona the first U.S. state to adopt Bitcoin as part of its financial reserves.
• Crypto Funds Attracted Nearly $2 Billion Following Trump Executive Order CoinShares weekly digital asset fund flow report noted broad-based inflows.
• Erik Voorhees’ Venice AI Launches VVV Token VVV is trading at a $1.6 billion valuation after securing a Coinbase listing on launch day.

Monday

• DeepSeek AI Debut Sparks Crypto Market Sell-Off Amid Rising Tech Competition Bitcoin and Ethereum fall as investors react to China joining the AI race.
• Trump’s Crypto Regulatory Changes Kick Off With SEC Task Force Here’s a look at the major crypto regulatory initiatives coming under the new administration
• Solana-Based Social-Fi Protocol Tribe.Run Takes Off The FriendTech-inspired social-fi protocol allows users to buy and sell access to token-gated chats on Solana.
• Why Real Estate Tokenization Isn't Working Yet The industry needs a standardised framework to connect blockchain platforms to land registries.
• Jupiter Token Spikes as DEX Aggregator Plans to Spend Half its Fees On Buybacks Solana-based Jupiter has also acquired a majority stake in memecoin launchpad Moonshot.
• Solana Widens Lead Over Ethereum in Transaction Fees However, Tron is far out ahead of both.
• Abstract Consumer-focused Blockchain Launches Mainnet The blockchain is developed by the company behind the Pudgy Penguins NFT collection.
• Cryptocurrency Market Tumbles 7% Following Release of Chinese AI Rival to ChatGPT Nearly $1 billion in liquidations occurred as the global crypto market reacted to the debut of DeepSeek.

TRENDING

• Securitize Partners with TradFi Giant Apollo to Tokenize Private Credit
• Uniswap Labs Launches V4, Bringing Major Upgrades to Its DEX
• Crypto Hacks Total $74M in January and CeFi Accounts for 93% of Losses
• Hyperliquid Flips Ethereum in Fees and Revenue as Token Rallies
• Venmo Co-Founder Releases Fair-Launch Token for New Platform, JellyJelly
• SEC Edges Closer to Decision on Canary Capital’s Litecoin ETF