Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin Eyes New High as MetaPlanet Mania Builds

It was a tough week for cryptocurrency prices, as both BTC and ETH experienced declines. The CoinDesk 20 index, which covers 80% of the market, dropped 7% since the beginning of the week.

Despite the bearish trend in speculative assets, stablecoins saw significant volume this week. The U.S. House introduced a stablecoin bill, following a Senate version that was approved by committee the previous week. Wyoming, also known as “The Blockchain State,” is exploring the creation of its own stablecoin and is currently testing the concept on Avalanche, Solana, and Ethereum.

In other news, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a financial protocol backed by Donald Trump and his family, announced the launch of its stablecoin (USD1) this week. Additionally, Fidelity Investments, a pioneer in traditional finance innovation in the crypto space, is in the final stages of launching its own stablecoin as part of a strategy to enter the tokenized bond market.

Circle, the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin (USDC), obtained a license to operate in Japan in partnership with local heavyweight SBI Holdings.

In Europe, Sam Altman’s World Network is in talks with Visa to link on-chain card features to a self-custody crypto wallet.

A senior staff member, Sam Hill, at Zodia Custody, has left the company and is returning to a role in traditional finance. Additionally, there has been a wave of senior staff departures at crypto prime broker FalconX.

The SEC continued its enforcement actions against crypto companies, with Immutable being the latest target. Meanwhile, the investigation involving Unicoin remains open, much to the CEO’s frustration.

The week also saw updates on MicroStrategy’s investment in bitcoin, with the company muscling up about $33 billion in bitcoin through various stock offerings. The SEC’s continued scrutiny of the industry was highlighted, and the surprise announcement of Trump Media launching its ETFs and ETPs with Crypto.com added an element of unpredictability to the week.

Tokens linked to artificial intelligence (AI) performed poorly compared to major cryptocurrencies in the last 24 hours. This relative weakness coincided with unusual activity in put options related to Nvidia (NVDA) shares, the chipmaker that recently announced plans to manufacture its AI supercomputers in the U.S.

Bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, saw a 0.6% increase in value to $85,500 over the past day. Meanwhile, TAO, the token associated with Bittensor’s blockchain-based machine learning network, traded 3.6% lower at $239, and Render Network’s RNDR token was down 1.7% at $3.93, according to data from Coingecko. Other tokens like FET, SEI, and GRT also experienced a 2% decline.

Data from Convex Value showed increased activity in Nvidia short-dated put options on Monday, particularly in the $100 strike puts expiring on April 17, April 25, and May 2. There was also interest in the $60 put expiring on April 17, as well as the $50 and $85 strike puts expiring on May 16.

Convex Value described the trading in out-of-the-money put options below Nvidia’s current spot price of $110 as unusual, suggesting that these could be protective plays. According to an analyst at the platform, buying put options is a way for traders to hedge against potential market declines or profit from bearish scenarios.

Merlin Capital, a Substack-based analytics service, hinted at insider knowledge with a post on X saying, “Someone knows something.” This suggests that there may be information influencing the recent options activity surrounding Nvidia’s stock.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially started the review process for the WisdomTree XRP Trust, a proposed spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) that aims to give investors exposure to XRP. This application, filed by the Cboe BZX Exchange, represents the first formal SEC review of a U.S.-based spot XRP ETF. If approved, it would be the inaugural spot XRP ETF in the U.S., potentially paving the way for similar products involving other cryptocurrencies.

The ETF would mirror XRP’s market price using the CME CF Ripple-Dollar Reference Rate, enabling investors to access XRP through traditional brokerage accounts without the need for private keys or self-custody.

Under Release No. 34-103124, the SEC has announced a comprehensive evaluation of the application, with a maximum of 240 days to make a decision. During this period, the agency is seeking public input on whether the ETF adequately addresses concerns regarding market manipulation and investor protection.

Meanwhile, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, submitted a letter to the SEC’s crypto taskforce emphasizing that XRP should not be classified as a security. Alderoty stressed the importance of clear rules for all market participants to prevent unintentional classification as securities exchanges, brokers, dealers, or issuers. Vague terms like “fully functional” or “decentralized,” according to Alderoty, create more regulatory ambiguity than clarity.