Weekly Recap: Markets Bounce Back on Trump Tariff Pause

Happy weekend Defiers!

After a rough start to the week, global markets rallied sharply after President Trump announced a 90-day pause on ‘reciprocal’ tariffs but increased levies on Chinese imports.

Bitcoin rallied above $83K after briefly trading below $75K earlier in the week, pushing crypto markets higher as most altcoins gained between 10% and 30%. Asset managers Grayscale and Bitwise believe that Trump’s tariffs could prove to be a tailwind for BTC amid a weakening dollar.

Plus, Berachain suffers huge outflows, Vitalik outlines Ethereum privacy roadmap, a traders loses $10M on a CryptoPunk, and XRP gets its first U.S. ETF product.

Also, don’t forget to check out our podcasts with Jason Zhao, cofounder and Chief Protocol Officer at Story Protocol, and Brandon Goh, the cofounder and CEO of Treehouse.

Enjoy!

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PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

Bringing Intellectual Property Onchain with Story Protocol | Jason Zhao

Explore the future of intellectual property on the blockchain in this insightful interview with Jason Zhao. Discover how Story Protocol is revolutionizing the way creators protect, share, and license their work. By bringing IP and copyright onchain, the protocol streamlines the process, ensures compliance with state and national laws, and secures rights in an innovative, transparent manner.

Treehouse Protocol: Building DeFi’s Fixed Income Layer | Brandon Goh, Co-Founder & CEO

Brandon Goh is the Co-Founder and CEO of Treehouse, an infrastructure dedicated to establishing the fixed income layer in DeFi. In this interview, Brandon explains how Treehouse is establishing decentralized benchmark rates to bring transparency, efficiency, and standardization to onchain finance.

Friday

Tokenized Real-World Assets Cross $20 Billion in Onchain Value Led by BlackRock, the RWA sector experienced record growth as institutions explored the benefits of tokenization.
Vitalik Buterin Unveils Roadmap for Improving Privacy on Ethereum Ethereum’s co-founder reveals nine steps he’d take to make Ethereum better at protecting user privacy.
Abstract DEX Trading Volumes Hit Highest Level Since Launch The creator-focused Layer 2 blockchain is witnessing a surge in trading activity due to Bigcoin, an onchain game.
Crypto Markets Gain as U.S. Dollar Drops, Wholesale Inflation Cools BTC, ETH and SOL climbed as the Dollar Index dipped under 100 for the first time since July 2023.
Libra Investigation Moves Forward in Argentina as Celebrity Memecoins Continue to Decline LIBRA turned out to be one of the most high-profile crypto scams of late.
WalletConnect to Launch Token on April 15 The onchain connectivity solution is set to launch its native token through partnerships with various exchanges.
Trader Loses $10 Million on Rare CryptoPunk NFT The seller of the Alien Punk took a 500 ETH loss, but the loss was magnified by ETH’s poor price performance.

Thursday

Crypto Markets Consolidate as CPI Cools and Trump Pauses Tariffs Bitcoin is trading around $80K as broader markets record minor gains after softer inflation data.
Trade Tensions Could Fuel Bitcoin Adoption: Grayscale A new report from the asset manager highlights that Bitcoin has held steady amid recent market volatility.
Bitcoin Lagged Equities and Gold in Q1: Kaiko President Trump’s tariffs triggered the largest spike in volatility in over a year, according to the report.
M0 Launches Programmable Stablecoin Infrastructure on Solana The protocol will debut with the KAST neobank’s digital dollar in a move to “become the next generation backend for fintech.”
Top Perps DEX GMX Proposes Expansion to Bitcoin L2 Botanix The move would see the legacy decentralized exchange make its first move towards Bitcoin DeFi.
Bitwise CIO Says Trump’s Tariff Plan Could Supercharge Bitcoin Since 2020, Bitcoin has repeatedly gained ground whenever the dollar has weakened.
Trading Volumes Plunge Across Crypto Exchanges in March Macro uncertainty and ongoing tariff tensions drove declining volumes across centralized and DeFi exchanges.
Berachain Suffers $300 Million in Net Outflows Capital is leaving the ecosystem, driving the $BERA token price down 40% and active users down 50%.