Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Form, rising 80.99%.
- Strategy plans to sell $500 million of dollar-denominated perpetual preferred stock, reports Bloomberg. The enterprise software company intends to use proceeds for general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of Bitcoin and for working capital.
- Hidden Road, a prime brokerage that focuses on cryptocurrencies and FX, is weighing options including a sale or capital raise that could value the company at more than $1 billion. Hidden Road and competitors including FalconX and Coinbase Prime are expected to benefit from a shift in sentiment toward crypto in the U.S., according to Bloomberg.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was PI, down 28.96%.
- OKX suspended its DEX aggregator service after regulators scrutinized its use by hackers to launder $100 million from a $1.5 billion heist on Bybit last year. OKX claims the service was used for “price discovery,” Bloomberg explains, and that any trading orders were executed on other exchanges.
- U.S. Bitcoin ETFs recorded their longest run of weekly net outflows since listing in January last year as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs drove a wider retreat from riskier assets. Investors pulled $5.5 billion in total from the group of 12 ETFs over the past five weeks, Bloomberg reports.
Opportunities
- Kraken is acquiring NinjaTrader, a retail futures trading platform for $1.5 billion allowing Kraken to offer crypto futures and derivatives in the U.S. for the first time. The acquisition accelerates Kraken’s plans for equities trading and payments, and NinjaTrader will continue to operate as a standalone business, according to Bloomberg.
- President Trump rehashed the crypto-supportive actions taken by his administration since he returned to the U.S. presidency and reiterated support for stablecoin legislation, saying it will help expand the dollar’s dominance. Last week the Senate Banking Committee advanced landmark stablecoin legislation in a major victory for the cryptocurrency, according to Bloomberg.
- Akshay Naheta, a former SoftBank Group executive, has joined Bakkt Holdings as co-CEO to help revitalize the struggling U.S. crypto trading and custody platform. Naheta will collaborate with current CEO Any Main and also serve on the company’s board.
Threats
- Bitcoin was initially marketed as digital gold, a hedge against inflation and fiat devaluation. However, in practice, it has acted more like a speculative tech asset. Unlike gold, which is influenced by central bank purchases and safe-haven demand, Bitcoin primarily trades based on sentiment and momentum—factors closely linked to the performance of the Nasdaq.
- Carl Rinsch, director of the 2013 Keanu Reeves film “47 Ronin,” was arrested and indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges for allegedly spending nearly $11 million meant for a television project on cryptocurrency and luxury cars, among other personal purchases, writes Bloomberg.
- Bitcoin futures are rolling into the April contract with the spread compressing with March futures, which is a negative signal. The actual price for the longer duration is higher than for March, but it looks as though more traders are taking advantage of the premium to establish fresh shorts, reports Bloomberg.
