Newsletter

CCM Blockchain Newsletter (March 31, 2025)

Gold continued its impressive rally, reaching new highs, amid broader market woes.

Christian Lopez

31 Mar 2025 — 7 min read

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

CCM Digital Weekly Market Update (2025.03.28)

CCM Digital Weekly Market Update (2025.03.28).pdf

3 MB

Bitcoin Market Update and News

Bitcoin rallies with market then falls: Bitcoin nearly topped $90,000 last week, only to fall to ~$84,000 by market close on Friday. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading near $83,000.
Gamestop opens $1.3 billion convertible note offering with intent to purchase bitcoin: Retail video game giant GameStop – most recently known to investors as mainstreet’s diadem memestock that soared in value in 2021 during a retail investor-fueled short squeeze – intends to offer $1.3 billion in convertible senior notes with a 0% coupon due 2030. Taking its cue from Strategy (formerly Microstrategy), GameStop intends to use some – if not most – of the funds to purchase bitcoin. GameStop also holds $4.8 billion in cash and equivalents, a cash cushion it accumulated from stock offerings thanks to its stock price boost in 2021. GameStop does not share the prestige of a corporate titan like Walmart, Amazon, or Apple, but its proposed bitcoin strategy would make it the first mainstream multi-billion dollar company to copy the Strategy playbook. GameStop’s stock popped over $29 on the news – its highest level since August 2022 – but it quickly backslid to finish last week down 15% at $21.73.

Interesting Reads and Videos

Bitcoin Mining Market News and Trends

NYDIG to acquire Crueso’s bitcoin mining business: Bitcoin financial firm NYDIG entered into an agreement with Crusoe Energy to purchase the company’s oil-and-gas field bitcoin mines. The deal would add 270 MW of off-grid natural gas bitcoin mining capacity to NYDIG’s bitcoin mining operations, as well as 135 employees. Crusoe’s oil-and-gas bitcoin mining operations span 20 sites in Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Argentina. Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller said in a press release that the company plans to focus its efforts on its expanding AI business, which includes a 1.6 GW data center campus in partnership with Lancium for OpenAI, the first public project under the $500 billion Stargate Project to ramp up AI infrastructure in the U.S. Notably, NYDIG’s parent company, Stone Ridge Holdings, commands 10 GW of natural gas drilling sites, so the Crusoe acquisition may be a seminal step in deploying this strategy across Stone Ridge’s natural gas portfolio.
Galaxy Digital inks HPC deal with CoreWeave following IPO: Crypto financial services and bitcoin mining firm Galaxy Digital has entered into a 15 year agreement with CoreWeave for AI/HPC hosting valued at $4.5 billion over the course of the initial contract. Per the deal, Galaxy will deliver 133 MW of capacity to CoreWeave at its Helios facility, which currently has access to 200 MW with approval to expand to 800 MW and another 1.7 GW under review. The deal is the first major agreement for CoreWeave since it signed nearly 590 MW worth of hosting deals with CoreScientific throughout 2024 and into 2025.
- CoreWeave also debuted on U.S. markets last Friday via an IPO that netted the company $1.5 billion, the most for a tech stock since 2021. CoreWeave closed the week at $40 per share, smack dab on its IPO price.
Riot seeks to acquire Rhodium's Rockdale bitcoin miners for $185 million: Riot has entered into a non-binding deal with its hosting client Rhodium to acquire the company’s 125 MW bitcoin mining fleet hosted at Riot’s Rockdale facility. The acquisition would put to bed a multi-year legal dispute between the two companies that concerns the hosting agreement which Riot inherited when it purchased Whinstone – the subsidiary that legally operates the Rockdale facility – in 2021.
Argo offers $21.7 million stock deal to acquire GEM Mining: Yet more M&A news: Argo Blockchain has proposed an all-stock acquisition of GEM Mining, and it’s also seeking $10 million from GEM’s institutional investors in the process. The deal would include $21.7 million for GEM’s 2.4 EH/s bitcoin mining fleet and its hosting business, as well as a $7 million secured convertible note offering and $3 million equity investment from GEM investors.
MARA opens $2 billion stock offering: MARA is looking to raise $2 billion in an at-the-market offering, its second billion-dollar stock offering in two years. MARA previously opened an ATM in October 2023 and amended it in 2024, targeting a $1.5 billion raise. The company sold roughly $1.85 billion in equity in 2024, and also issued $2 billion worth of 0% convertible notes to buy bitcoin in Q4 of 2024.

Market Overview

Stocks rally to start the week, only to decline by week’s end: Equities opened strong last week only to slip into the red by the end of it. The S&P 500 fell for the fifth week out of the last six.
- S&P 500: $5,580.94 (-1.5%)
- Dow: $41,583.90 (-1%)
- Nasdaq: $17,322.99 (-2.6%)
- Russell 2000: 2,023.27 (-1.6%)
Oil inches up:
- U.S. oil prices rose for the third week in a row last week. WTI closed last Friday at $69.53/barrel, a 2% rise. Oil may be rebounding in light of stubborn inflation or in response to Trump’s tariff policies, but it could also have as much to do with tightened inventories as producers curtail drilling given 2025’s rout in oil prices.
Gold continues its eye-popping rally, climbs to new high: Gold prices continue to soar, with the precious metal eclipsing $3,100/ounce last week for the first time ever. The increase marks the fourth positive week in a row for gold and is up 17% year-to-date. Geopolitical uncertainty steered by the Trump administration’s tariff policy and central bank buying – perhaps two sides of the same coin – continue to drive gold’s rally.
Gold imports, repatriation, main culprit for Q1’s negative GDP estimates: I mentioned in a prior letter that U.S. banks are repatriating their gold reserves from overseas at a rapid clip, and yet another letter touched on how the Atlanta Fed’s Q1 GDP Now model forecasts negative GDP for the quarter. It appears that the former is affecting the latter. In its most recent model, The Atlanta Fed controls for gold imports and exports, and when adjusted, GDP Now estimates 0.2% GDP growth in Q1, versus -1.8% when gold imports and exports are included. StoneX CEO Phillip Smith said the firm estimates that over 2,000 tonnes of gold (~$192 billion) were imported into the U.S. in the first 7 weeks of the year. In other GDP news, the latest estimate for the U.S.’s Q4 GDP came in at 2.4% annually, beating expectations but below Q3’s 3.1%.

U.S. trade deficit widens as producers brace for long trade war: The U.S. trade deficit continues to worsen as producers expedite imports to front run pending and potential tariffs and financial firms call in gold reserves. The U.S.’s goods trade deficit was $123 billion in December 2024 and $157 billion in January, some of the highest levels ever recorded. Gold imports are a major factor of the deficit, as are industrial supplies including steel, oil, and LNG.

Inflation stays sticky in latest PCE print: The Bureau of Economic Analysis’ latest Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index points yet again to stubbornly sticky inflation. Headline PCE rose 2.5% annually in February versus 2.4% in January, and rose 0.3% month-over-month. Core PCE rose 2.8% year-over-year in February versus 2.7% in January and 0.2% month-over-month. From February to January, goods increased 0.2%, energy dropped 2.3%, food rose 0.3%, and services edged up 0.4% largely thanks to housing and utilities costs.
Trump announces auto, retaliatory tariffs: The latest shot in the Trump administration’s trade war targets automakers and countries with active tariffs against the U.S. The administration wants to tax auto imports at 25% and levy reciprocal tariffs on any trading partner that taxes the importation of U.S. goods. Below is a breakdown of the administration’s active and potential tariffs:
- ACTIVE: 25% on all non-USMCA goods from Canada and Mexico
  - 10% on Canadian energy imports (i.e., electricity and oil)
- ACTIVE: 20% on all goods from China
- ACTIVE: 25% on all steel and aluminum products
- ACTIVE: 15% tariff on all solar panels (still active from 2018 presidency)
- PENDING: Reciprocal tariffs on all trading partners, to take effect April 2
- PENDING: 25% on auto imports, to take effect April 2
- PROPOSED: 200% on European alcohol
- PROPOSED: 100% tariff on goods from BRICS nations
- PROPOSED: $1.5 million fee for each Chinese ship entering U.S. ports
- PROPOSED: Varying tariffs on lumber and agricultural products, could take effect April 2

The week ahead in data:

Chicago PMI (Monday)
PMI Manufacturing Final (Tuesday)
ISM Manufacturing Index (Tuesday)
U.S. Census Bureau Construction Spending (Tuesday)
Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index (Tuesday)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (Tuesday)
U.S. Census Bureau construction spending report (Tuesday)
ADP National Employment Report (Wednesday)
St. Louis Fed Motor Vehicle Sales report (Wednesday)
U.S. Census Bureau factory orders report (Wednesday)
S&P Global PMI Composite Final (Thursday)
Institute for Supply Management nonmanufacturing index (Thursday)
U.S. Census Bureau International Trade in Goods report (Thursday)
U.S. Census Bureau trade balance report (Thursday)
U.S. Department of Labor jobs report (Thursday)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs and unemployment (Friday)

Notable corporate earnings this week: