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What happened today?

Just as we mentioned in Monday’s edition, the market has largely shrugged off the damage that the DeepSeek news did to prices with Bitcoin now trading over $103,000. While today’s FOMC may not have been exciting as the Fed left rates unchanged, comments from the Chairman Jerome Powell towards the end definitely piqued the crypto market’s interest: Powell stated that given the proper risk management, there is no reason that existing banks should not be able to serve crypto customers.

The debanking of crypto investors and companies alike has become all too common in the US, with a number of my own friends having had their accounts shut down out of the blue, and so this is a great step in the right direction for our new administration. Clearly the crypto market liked this news as it surged a few percentage points despite what was viewed as a hawkish stance by the Fed, and most coins end today in the green.

Trading Talk

With the market bouncing we also saw the Beluga positions bounce, with the largest pop coming from our newest holding PLUME, which launched only a few days ago. We talked about it on Monday but to recap, PLUME is the native token behind upcoming RWA chain Plume, founded by industry veterans to being billions in Real World Assets (RWA) onchain. The launch of their mainnet is rapidly approaching and the high demand for their staking campaign already indicates we can expect attention on them to rise, so at a valuation of around $1B FDV it felt low. If you want to learn more about Plume, feel free to check out our Plume Ecosystem Page here.

Also expected to launch soon is the long-awaited Berachain, which could happen any day now at this point. For years Bera has built up a cult-like following as market participants joked about how it wasn’t real, but it seems like that’s finally changing. The top NFTs in the Bera ecosystem currently trade for a few hundred ETH (hundreds of thousands of dollars) all out of the expectation of a big BERA airdrop as well as drops from the ecosystem as it grows. The trading volume of these assets already is a great sign for the future valuation of the token, however it could also represent huge selling pressure once everything is live: usually big airdrops mean many users are getting tokens for free, but in this case it’s kind of the opposite. The biggest airdrops will go to those who hold the most assets, which at this point comes with quite the price tag. It’s a good way of ensuring the people holding your token are financially interested in your success, however it also means people will be looking to unlock some liquidity and take profits on their investments.

For this reason (and simply because it’s a new launch), I’d expect some pretty big volatility in the first few days that is probably not worth trading unless you’re experienced in those kinds of settings. I’ll be looking to see where things settle out before finding an entry, as I am quite bullish on Bera but not interested in gambling on these massive price swings. To stay up to date with all things Berachain, check out our page here.

Tweet of the Day

Really puts the whole “anyone can compete” idea down huh?

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

• Bitcoin spikes as Fed skips rate cut — no ‘hurry’ despite Trump demand

• China’s DeepSeek AI is good for Bitcoin, says Standard Chartered

Alt Coins and Stocks

• Cardano’s Plomin hard fork goes live, ushering in on-chain governance

• Sei Foundation launches $65 million DeSci venture fund ‘Sapien Capital’

Regulatory

• Bitcoin bull Howard Lutnick defends Tether in senate hearing — but supports stablecoin audits

New Launches

• Trump Media launches fintech brand with Bitcoin and Crypto focus

Free BONK Report from Fundstrat Research

Interested in learning how the institutions are looking at your favorite memecoins? Download a free report from Fundstrat Research on BONK and the memecoin landscape below!

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