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What happened today?

Well if you’ve been near a computer today you’ve probably seen how red the market is, with AI leader Nvidia trading down 17% since Friday’s close at time of writing. News from Chinese AI company DeepSeek led to a massive correction across the market, and while it really has nothing to do with crypto, our industry is still tightly correlated to the stock market and thus we saw Bitcoin dip down below $100k. It has now returned above the 6 digit mark, however, maybe due to the market realizing this isn’t new news at all: while DeepSeek’s R1 model is new in the last few weeks, the Chinese developing models at significantly lower costs and even DeepSeek itself has been on the radar for months now.

I’m not an AI expert by any means so I won’t attempt a deep analysis here but I think this is another case of the market overreacting and simply using the DeepSeek news as an excuse to dump. We’re already seeing BTC recover pretty strongly to $102k, and I think we’ll likely see the rest of the market bounce back alongside it.

On a different note, despite claims on crypto twitter of “crime is legal,” it seems that is not quite the case yet: about an hour ago, headlines hit the tape that KuCoin has plead guilty to unlicensed money transmission. This case has been ongoing for a long time now, and not a necessarily surprising outcome as most crypto traders know how relaxed KuCoin’s KYC process used to be. The hope is that we soon get a regulatory framework for crypto where US traders can be allowed to legally access these exchanges and derivatives products, as it’s a massive barrier for US citizens currently.

Trading Talk

I’ve mentioned this once before but usually on days this red I avoid looking at looking at my portfolio, but as it’s part of my job now I am sifting through the blood. Bitcoin took a 10% hit at the bottom of the dump, but if that sounds like a lot it pales in comparison to how the alt-coin market got hit. For assets that already were lagging behind, today was definitely tough for alt-coin bulls with the total market cap of the alt-market now down almost 20% from its peak just 1.5 weeks ago.

It’s not easy to buy things when it looks like everyone is panicking, yet that’s exactly what we did with the Public Trading Wallet today: our first trade in a while was buying 2 ETH worth of $PLUME, the native token behind the upcoming RWA network Plume. We at Beluga have worked closely with their team for months now, and I believe they’re very well positioned to take advantage of the RWA narrative that is catching steam quickly. I also have huge respect for their management team and specifically founder Chris Yin, and I am excited to see how the ecosystem develops after mainnet launches in a few weeks (no set date yet). It’s also worth noting that $PLUME isn’t listed on Binance or Coinbase yet, and given the backing and team I think it’s probable we see those at some point.

Tweet of the Day

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 tumbles amid broader market jitters over Chinese AI app DeepSeek

Alt Coins and Stocks

• Tuttle Capital files for 10 leveraged crypto ETFs, including TRUMP and MELANIA memecoins

Regulatory

• Crypto exchange KuCoin pleads guilty to US charges and agrees to pay $300 million

• ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Roger Ver begs Trump for pardon — but DOGE chief Elon Musk says nope

New Launches

• Ethereum Layer-2 network Abstract launches, offering XP rewards for users

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