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What happened today?

After the rollercoaster price action that kickstarted the week which saw the total altcoin market cap gain over $900B before losing $775B within a matter of hours, the market has calmed down as it contends with the worsening macro condition. Or at least what we perceive to be a worsening macro condition, as I think it’s likely too early to call what the rest of the year looks like based on Trump’s first month in office.

BTC has started to now mount a recovery, regaining the $90k line at time of writing, due at least in part to an announced delay on the Mexico and Canada auto part tariffs. The new administration has now demonstrated twice their willingness to put off tariffs in order to renegotiate, which is why I think the conditions of the last few weeks are likely not indicative of what to expect in the medium to long term — put simply, the tariffs seem to be the means rather than the end.

Trading Talk

One of the biggest variables for the market this year lies on the regulatory side and whether or not the Trump administration will be able to push through the positive framework we’re all hoping for. I believe one of the biggest barriers to getting this done prior to now, aside from a few personal vendettas embedded amongst the previous regulators, is that the people making the rules often didn’t understand the first thing about crypto. And after all, why should we expect them to: this is a new industry on the cutting edge of financial technology, and at the end of the day the vast majority of politicians are just politicians. This paradigm is certainly shifting however, and the current administration seems to be doing what it can to bridge the knowledge gap by inviting leaders of the crypto industry in for advice and consultation.

The latest of these efforts is the Digital Assets Summit this Friday at the White House, the guest list for which includes Co-Founder of Paradigm Matt Huang, CEO of Coinbase Brian Armstrong, and many other crypto executives. I firmly believe a positive regulatory framework is what this space needs to level up to the next echelon of financial markets, and the value extractive occurrences such as Javier Milei’s memecoin are constant reminders of this. Those included on the confirmed list for the Summit I believe to be great representatives of our interests as an industry (certainly better than our former representative Sam Bankman-Fried), and I’m excited to see what comes of the conversation.

Tweet of the Day

An incredible time to be an exchange in the crypto market.

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 pops 6% after a top Trump official hints the administration is about to reveal its crypto reserve strategy

Alt Coins and Stocks

• Bitwise files S-1 registration for an Aptos ETF as number of potential altcoin-based funds swells

• Aave community pushes GHO stablecoin growth with governance votes, including proposal for yield-bearing ‘savings’ token

Regulatory

• Coinbase eyes tokenized securities as crypto regulations shift under Trump administration

Miscellaneous

• Ripple gives $50 million grant to new crypto nonprofit

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