Newsletter

CCM Blockchain Newsletter (April 22, 2025)

Stocks had mixed returns last week, while bitcoin has reclaimed $90,000.

Christian Lopez

22 Apr 2025 — 6 min read

Happy Tuesday everyone, and welcome back to this week’s market newsletter. Please see below this week’s market data.

CCM Digital Weekly Market Update (2025.04.18)

CCM Digital Weekly Market Update (2025.04.18).pdf

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Bitcoin Market Update and News

Bitcoin price pops above $85,000: Bitcoin recovered to $85,000 last week and jumped to $87,000 in the late hours of Sunday. At the time of writing, bitcoin is hovering above $90,000, up 2.6% in 24 hours and 6.4% week-over-week.
Charles Schwab could offer spot bitcoin trading next year: During the company’s Spring update call, Charles Schwab CEO Rick Wurster said that the financial services giant may offer spot bitcoin trading by April 2026. The CEO said that the new, friendlier regulatory climate has aided the prospect: “Our expectation is that with the changing regulatory environment, we are hopeful and likely to be able to launch direct spot crypto.”
Kraken lays off “hundreds” in anticipation of IPO: One of the U.S.’s leading crypto exchanges, Kraken, has fired “hundreds” of employees since October of last year, according to sources close to the matter who spoke to CoinDesk. Kraken’s first round of layoffs axed some 400 staff or 15% of the workforce at the time following Arjun Sethi and David Ripley replacing Jesse Powell to become co-CEOs. Since the CEO change, “hundreds more have gone,” one source told CoinDesk. Kraken is reportedly eying an IPO for 2025.

Interesting Reads and Videos

Bitcoin Mining Market News and Trends

Auradine raises $153 million in series C: Newcomer ASIC miner manufacturing firm Auradine has closed a $153 million series C led by StepStone group. It will use the funds to expand its Teraflux ASIC miner line as well as form AuraLink, the company’s AI arm that will focus on data center cooling solutions. Founded in 2022, Auradine has raised $300 million, including from public miner MARA which has deployed its Teraflux models.
Tether now owns a quarter of Bitdeer after most recent purchase: The issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, Tether, is doubling down on public miner Bitdeer. The company now owns 24% of Bitdeer, which has operations in Bhutan, Norway, and Texas, among other jurisdictions. Tether started increasing its stake in the mining company in February and made multiple purchases throughout March and April.
Bitcoin difficulty sets record high as hashrate jumps above 900 EHs: Bitcoin’s difficulty hit a record of 123 trillion on Saturday, putting pressure on hashprice and pushing it below $45/PH/day. Bitcoin’s hashrate hit an all-time high of 926 EH/s on the 7-day moving average on April 8.

Source: Hashrate Index

Market Overview

Stocks end week with mixed returns: U.S. markets served investors a salad bowl of returns last week, with some major industries ending in the green while others fell into the red. Tech stocks in particular suffered, while small cap equities outperformed large caps.
- S&P 500: $5,282.70 (+1.5%)
- Dow: $39,142.23 (-2.7%)
- Nasdaq: $16,286.45 (-2.6%)
- Russell 2000: 1,880.62 (+2.9%)
Oil surges after touching lowest point in four years: U.S. oil prices rose substantially last week, bouncing from their lowest levels since Q1 2021 when they dipped below $60/barrel two weeks prior. WTI Crude finished the week +7.8% at $64.45/barrel.
Retail sales came in stronger than expected in March: The U.S. Census Bureau’s retail sales report for March revealed strong growth, with the all-goods index increasing 1.4% versus the expected 1.3%. Retail and food services sales hit $734.9 billion, up 1.4% from February and 4.6% from March 2024. Motor vehicle sales led the increase with an 8.8% and 5.3% year-over-year and month-over-month increases. E-commerce sales increased 4.8% year-over-year, while gasoline sales dropped 2.5% given low oil prices.
Asia trading hours provide glimpse into Treasury rout, gold’s rise: Investing trends from Asia lend credence to the theories that Asian investors are leading both the selloff of U.S. Treasury Bonds and the bid-up of gold. As detailed by VanEck Head of Digital Asset Research Matthew Sigel, the sum of hourly returns for EURUSD trading in Asian markets substantively exceed activity in Europe or the Americas for the week of April 7, and the average 30-minute return for gold over the past four weeks (as of April 16) was greater during Asian trading hours than all other hours. Asian investors appear to be cycling out of Treasuries in favor of other investments. "Recent record Shanghai premiums, record Chinese bullion ETF inflows, and increased import quotas for Chinese banks and insurance companies all support this take,” VanEck’s Gold Portfolio Manager Imaru Casanova said.

Source: Matthew Sigel

Source: Matthew Sigel

Ocean freight bookings between the U.S. and China plummet: As reported by CNBC, Ocean freights from China are experiencing an increase in cancellations in response to the heavy tariffs from the Trump administration on China. Freight firm HLS Group has noted 80 canceled bookings, a.k.a blank bookings (for reference, the largest number of blank bookings in 2020 was 51 in May). Per data from Vizion cited by CNBC, total bookings for U.S. imports and exports were down 64% and 30% from the week of March 24 to the week of April 1. Over the same period, imports and exports to or from China were down 64% and 36%.

Import prices rise year-over-year; month-over-month imports and exports marginally down and flat in March: The U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Import and Export Prices Index for March showed an increase in import prices annually, while monthly changes to import prices declined by a sliver and export prices remained flat. Overall import prices rose 0.9% year-over-year, versus the expected 1.4%, but they dropped 0.1% from February largely thanks to decreases in fuel costs. Export prices were flat from February to March.
Fed forecasts higher inflation for 2025, but expects it to moderate in years to come: In its March meeting, the Federal Reserve indicated that it expects inflation to remain hot in 2025, with headline PCE inflation at 2.7% and core PCE inflation at 2.8%. The Fed is forecasting 2.2% and 2% core and headline PCE for 2026 and 2027 respectively.

Source: Edward Jones

Gold reclaims inflation-adjusted all-time high: On a real basis, gold has finally transcended the high it set in 1980. Gold hit another nominal record last week, peaking over $3,350 on April 17.