CMC Market Pulse delivers actionable market insights, giving you all the key narratives and developments you need in under 5 minutes.
Market Overview 📉
Bitcoin (BTC) closed the week 10.65% up, while Ethereum (ETH) outperformed, closing the week up 12.12% up from the week prior. Total crypto market cap rose 10.1% from $2.762T to end the week at $3.041T.
The week’s liquidation data saw relatively little action due to the lowered volatility from the weeks prior, with total liquidations daily topping out at just over $200M. As expected, funding rates continued to fall on lowered risk appetites, with funding rates on most cryptocurrency majors falling into the low negative range.
📌 Michael Saylor’s Strategy has acquired 6,556 BTC at an average price of $84,785, bringing their total holdings to 538,200 BTC. - Link
📌 Cantor Fitzgerald enters a venture deal to set up a Bitcoin treasury company, with over $3B in BTC committed by Tether, Softbank and Bitfinex. - Link
📌 GSR leads a $100M private placement into Upexi, following their pivot towards a cryptocurrency treasury solution involving accumulation and staking of Solana tokens. - Link
Why does it matter?
Crypto markets surged higher on expectations of a potential resolution in the trade war situation with China, outperforming their traditional counterparts. The S&P 500 closed the week up 3.57%, while the Nasdaq ended the week up 4.53%.
Notable altcoin outperformers include Official Trump (TRUMP), Sui (SUI), Stacks (STX) and Bittensor (TAO).View CMC Gainers & Losers board
Narrative of the Week 📰
The global trade war situation continues to improve as the Trump administration continues to de-escalate the tariff stand-off.
📌 Trump and Bessent issue statements pointing to lowering China tariffs substantially, although the discussion could take years to complete. - Link
📌 The European Parliament is reportedly in “final stages” of their discussion with China to remove tariffs on its members, paving the way for smoother trade between the two.
Why does it matter?
The threat of a global trade war has weighed heavily on the market over the past month. With a possible de-escalation on the cards, market participants are hungry to go risk-on again at any sign of good news.
Major Project Updates 🗓️
📌 Ethereum founder, Vitalik Buterin, proposes the replacement of the EVM with RISC-V for Ethereum’s execution layer, prompting discussion amongst Ethereum supporters and critics. - Link
📌 Solana updates their validator requirements, aiming to reduce reliance on stake delegated from the Solana Foundation to maintain a more decentralized network. - Link
📌 Hyperliquid updates their validator set to include 21 permissionless nodes. The validator set is chosen based on stake size, with the top 21 validators by stake size selected to form the set. - Link
📌 High performance Ethereum L2, Fuel Network, kicks off buybacks of the FUEL token, with plans to acquire $250K weekly over the next four weeks. - Link
📌 Immutable and Ubisoft announces Might & Magic Fates, a free-to-play strategy card game on mobile which will be launching later this year. - Link
Why does it matter?
Ethereum has underperformed the market for most of this cycle. However, with Vitalik’s radical proposal to replace the EVM entirely, this could be the move required to turn Ethereum around.
DeFi Brief 🏦
📌 USDC issuer, Circle, introduces Circle Payment Network, a streamlined payment infrastructure to support global payments and 24/7 settlement for USDC and EURC. - Link
📌 Solana DEX, Orca, begins buybacks of the ORCA token using 20% of protocol fees generated from Orca’s Whirlpools. ORCA tokens will be used for staking rewards for xORCA holders. - Link
📌 Jupiter Exchange introduces AlphaScan, which aggregates new tokens from all launchpads and liquidity venues. - Link
Why does it matter?
Stablecoins continue to remain a core use case for crypto. With Circle stepping up to facilitate payments and settlements, the competition between payment providers only continues to intensify.
Meme Coins 🚀
📌 The top 220 holders of the TRUMP memecoin will be entitled to a private dinner with President Trump himself on May 22nd in Washington DC. - Link
Fundraises 💰
📌 Restaking protocol, Symbiotic, raises $29M in a Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital, with support from Coinbase Ventures and selected angel investors. - Link
📌 Liquidity layer, Analog, raises $15M in a strategic funding round from Bolts Capital, bringing their total raised amount to $36M, with the initial investors including Tribe Capital, OrangeDAO and more. - Link
📌 On-chain infrastructure protocol, Tally, raises $8M in a Series A funding round led by Blockchain Capital and AppWorks, with other investors including BitGo. - Link
📌 Bitcoin smart contract infrastructure protocol, Arch Network, raises $13M in a Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital with support from Multicoin Capital. - Link
Airdrops Abound 🎁
📌 Interoperability protocol, Hyperlane, opens claims for the HYPER token airdrop, with claims open until May 22nd. - Link
📌 Ethereum L2 social network, Zora, launches the ZORA token and their token airdrop, distributing $1B tokens to more than 2.4M eligible addresses. - Link
📌 Initia launches their public mainnet alongside their genesis airdrop, distributing 5% of the token supply to eligible users. - Link
Tweet of the Week 📝
Source: @samczsun
Maybe we shouldn’t, coin everything?
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