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What happened today?

The last 24 hours have been a rollercoaster to say the least: spurred on by news of Cardano, XRP, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana being included in the plan for a US strategic reserve, we saw one of the largest single-day gains in crypto history. Today however, we fully retraced the gain across the board likely due to further tariffs and rising recession fears in addition to a very fearful sentiment among traders which resulted in over $800M in liquidations. As long as the macro environment continues to worsen, we can probably expect to see any major pumps sold off just like this. The question from here is, when does it get better?

Political beliefs aside, if I were a betting man (which I am), I would bet that Trump does not want a major market downturn on his hands and will do whatever he has to to get things back on track again. One of the prevailing theories is that he is letting things die down in the short term in order to force the Fed into action, and then grow the pie from there. If this holds true, we should expect more volatility for the next few months before a huge influx in capital towards the end of the year.

Trading Talk

Well, unless you were the anonymous (insider?) degen on Hyperliquid longing millions on 50x leverage, you probably lost if you were trading in the last 24 hours. The market excluding Bitcoin gained and lost almost $200 billion in market cap in the span of only a few hours, wiping positions on either side of the market. Usually balancing things out like this is a good sign for the market, however with sentiment as scared as it is I’m not sold on that idea. Since intra-day trading is basically impossible these days, we should instead be focusing on deeper narrative plays to accumulate through the poor price action.

One such narrative which I become more convinced on as the days go on is the idea of tokenizing Real World Assets, or RWA’s. This is an area not as concerned with the price action of crypto as it is with furthering the boundaries of existing financial systems using blockchain technology. To me the most obvious opportunities here lie in bringing yield bearing assets onchain, which has already found product-market fit via tokenized treasury bills which accrue yield to holders of stablecoins. In other words, you can beat your bank savings rate while keeping money in dollars without ever having to off ramp it. We have really only scratched the surface of this sector but it’s clear there is something here between the raw dollar demand for it and the massive institutions like Blackrock stepping in.

Tweet of the Day

Taiki is not happy with Eric.

Biggest Headlines

The Beluga intern has been hard at work gathering all the most important crypto news stories so you have them in one place!

The Majors

• One trader made millions betting $200M on BTC just before Trump’s crypto reserve news

• Ethereum Foundation backs advanced cryptography startup ZKNox, eyeing post-quantum future

Alt Coins and Stocks

• XRP and Solana soar then falter as Trump announces plans for multi-asset crypto reserve

• Aave deploys lending markets on Sonic in its first Layer 1 expansion of the year

Regulatory

• SEC’s crypto task force to hold its first roundtable later this month

• Kraken is latest crypto firm to say SEC agrees to drop lawsuit

Miscellaneous

• Ronaldinho launches STAR10 memecoin, developers remove ability to burn everyone’s tokens

Recent Beluga Content

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. While Beluga strives to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of information, there may be discrepancies when comparing our data to that of financial institutions, service providers, or specific product websites. Always consult with a professional before making any financial decisions.

Will McKinnon is the Head of Content for Beluga and has spent every day for many years trading coins. For that reason there are too many to name, however his largest holdings by a significant margin are Ethereum and Bitcoin. NFA DYOR