TL;DR

• Rate cut expectation fluctuates amid Trump-Powell power fight, Fed presidents stand for “modestly restrictive” monetary policy.
• This week’s upcoming economic data includes Fed comments, US durable goods orders and home sale data.
• The market saw a strong rebound last week, but the recovery in altcoins still lagged behind that of BTC.
• Solana’s spot ETF was officially listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange on the 16th, and Bitwise’s ETF is expected to be approved no later than October this year.
• The crypto market continues to lack endogenous momentum, with last week’s activity still primarily driven by meme speculation, while the medium-term narrative remains centered around stablecoins.
• Sui launches Nautilus architecture to bring verifiable Offchain Computation with TEEs.
• Galaxy introduces proposes: flexible voting model for SOL inflation amid community division.
• Everclear launches Mainnet to power Cross-chain Liquidity Hub With $125M monthly volume.
• Last week, the most funded projects were Infrastructure.

Macro Overview

Rate cut expectation fluctuates amid Trump-Powell power fight, Fed presidents stand for “modestly restrictive” monetary policy.

During his speech last week, Fed Chairman Powell stated that the impact of trade policy could potentially pull the Fed away from its dual mandate of full employment and price stability. While currently there is no conflict between these two goals, Powell noted that the Fed will not be ending its balance sheet reduction (QT) soon and will continue to focus on the 2% inflation target. The monetary policy framework may gradually return to a state more similar to what it was before 2020.

Several Fed presidents also shared their views. New York Fed President John Williams said he does not see a need to adjust the federal funds rate in the short term, emphasizing the importance of keeping inflation expectations anchored. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic emphasized that there is still a long way to go to reach the 2% inflation target. Cleveland Fed President Hammack supported the current “modestly restrictive” monetary policy stance, using the wait-and-see approach as high tariff uncertainty continues to cloud the economic outlook.

This week’s upcoming economic data includes Fed comments, US durable goods orders and home sale data for both new and existing home sales. Given recent market volatility and uncertainty regarding inflation and interest rates outlook, a heightened degree of sensitivity to the Fed’s comments could well be expected. After Powell’s speech last week, the bet on Fed’s 25 bps cut in June has decreased to below 50% and has been surpassed by the other option of no change.

The dollar index has seen a gradual scene in stabilizing from the turbulence over the past two months. Last week the dollar index resisted market impacts and has been trading at ~$99 level. However, greater uncertainties in macro outlook could lead to changes.

The total assets decreased for $300mn last week.The majority of reduced assets were US Treasury, and while the MBS held by the Fed has been reduced to the similar level of 5 years ago and hasn’t seen changes since March 26th, the main force of further assets cut will still be the US Treasury.

Gold price has been exceptionally strong last week, constantly achieving new ATHs throughout the week. The gold prices stood at $3,327.46 as last Thursday’s market closed, with an ATH of $3,357.67.

Crypto Markets Overview

1. Main Assets

Bitcoin and Ethereum were priced at around $87,500 and $1,650 as of Monday, reflecting an increase of roughly 3.6% and 1.5%, respectively, on a weekly basis. From the perspective of the charts, BTC has shown significantly greater resilience compared to altcoins. Its market dominance has reached 64%, continuously setting new highs for this cycle.

Last week’s market was mainly driven by meme coins on the Solana network, with the dominant narrative centered around stablecoins.

2. Total Market Cap

The total crypto market capitalization stood at $2.71 trillion as of Monday. Excluding BTC and ETH, the total market cap of altcoins priced at $778.0 billion, showing a respective increase by 2.6% and 2% weekly. Still, altcoins remain stagnant with no signs of near-term improvement.

3. Stablecoins

In terms of on-chain stablecoin volume, only the Arbitrum network is experiencing a decline, dropping from $5.4 billion in January to $4.9 billion currently. As for the proportion of active stablecoin transfer users, BSC has declined from 36% in March to 27%. During the same period, Solana has seen only a modest increase of 0.4%.

4. Top 30 Crypto Assets Performance

Last week, altcoins saw overall gains, though the average increase was smaller than that of BTC. Hyperliquid rose by 15.1%, while APT and Solana each gained 6.6%. Notably, Solana’s spot ETF was officially listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange on the 16th. Looking ahead, the approval of a U.S. spot ETF is not expected to face significant resistance, with a decision on Bitwise’s application anticipated by October this year. In addition, Polymarket sees 77% Chance for U.S. Solana ETF Approval.

The Key Crypto Highlights

1.Sui launches Nautilus architecture to bring verifiable Offchain Computation with TEEs

Sui Network has launched Nautilus on testnet, a new confidential computing framework that enables verifiable offchain computation using Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) such as AWS Nitro Enclaves. Designed for hybrid Web3 applications, Nautilus lets developers run private or resource-intensive logic offchain while anchoring trust onchain through cryptographic attestations verified by Move smart contracts. This model achieves low-cost computation with high verifiability, marking a shift toward more scalable and privacy-preserving dApp architectures. Use cases include tamper-proof oracles, secure AI inference, private identity checks, and fair-play game mechanics. By combining Nautilus with Sui’s Seal encryption protocol, developers can process and encrypt data privately, then decrypt it under programmable conditions. Nautilus is part of Sui’s broader “trust-by-design” architecture, which includes zkLogin, passkey-based auth, native zk-SNARKs, and an object-centric data model. A developer toolkit with Move modules, reproducible TEE templates, and a full demo app is now available, making it easier to build hybrid apps that preserve privacy while maintaining onchain integrity.

2. Galaxy introduces proposes: flexible voting model for SOL inflation amid community division

Galaxy Research has introduced a new governance proposal called MESA (Multiple Election Stake-Weight Aggregation) to improve how Solana community members vote on token emissions. The proposal offers a market-driven alternative to binary voting by allowing validators to select from a range of deflation rate preferences, with final outcomes determined by the weighted average of submitted votes. This approach aims to reduce polarization, as seen in the recent failure of SIMD-228, a proposal to introduce a dynamic, deflationary issuance model, which failed despite record voter turnout due to a split vote. MESA retains Solana’s existing disinflationary framework but enhances voter expressiveness by capturing degrees of preference rather than forcing binary outcomes. While some, including Anza’s Max Resnick, support the general idea of broader choice, concerns remain over strategic voting, where participants may vote for extremes to skew results. Resnick continues to advocate for dynamic issuance based on staking activity, citing its resilience across market cycles. Meanwhile, Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko proposed using a median stake-weighted result instead of a weighted average to mitigate gaming risks. As SOL’s inflation currently sits at 4.6%, with 64.7% of supply staked, the community is seeking improved governance tools to balance security costs and token issuance efficiently.

3. Everclear launches Mainnet to power Cross-chain Liquidity Hub With $125M monthly volume

Everclear, rebranded from Connext, has officially launched its mainnet, introducing a new cross-chain settlement layer designed to simplify and accelerate transactions across blockchains. Built on an Arbitrum Orbit-based rollup, Everclear serves as a backend clearing hub that matches transaction “intents,” enabling seamless swaps and automated actions between chains with sub-10s latency. The launch includes advanced features like intent protocols and intent-based bridges, allowing users to automate multi-chain operations without direct interaction with individual blockchains. Previously supported by an Ethereum Foundation grant, Everclear is backing by Pantera, Polychain, Consensys, and Hashed. The protocol has reached $125M in monthly volume and secured over $1B in TVL through integrations such as restaking support with Renzo. By abstracting complexity and offering fast, low-cost settlement across diverse chains and assets, Everclear positions itself as a foundational infrastructure layer for cross-chain DeFi, aiming to streamline interoperability and unlock broader adoption of decentralized applications.

Key Ventures Deals

1.A16z and Coinbase Ventures co-led in $4M round of Glider’s automated DeFi investment solution

Glider, a New York-based startup building an AI-driven crypto portfolio platform, has raised $4M in a round led by a16z, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Uniswap Ventures, and GSR. The project is also part of a16z’s Crypto Startup Accelerator this spring. Glider offers automated, non-custodial portfolio management, enabling users to configure, rebalance, and maintain diversified crypto strategies without giving up asset control. Its system uses smart contracts and session keys to allow users to set preferences such as holding trending tokens or mimicking ETF-like allocations while adapting portfolios to market changes in real time. Supporting multiple blockchain networks, Glider eliminates the need for manual switching across chains and provides analytics tools to help identify optimal entry and exit points. Unlike traditional asset managers such as Bitwise or Grayscale, Glider operates fully on-chain, preserving self-custody. The platform plans to generate revenue through management fees based on assets under management and is currently in testing, with public launch expected in the coming months.

2. Resolv Labs secures $10M amid scale in demand for Delta-Neutral Yield Stablecoin

Resolv Labs has secured $10M in a seed round led by Cyber.Fund and Maven11, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Arrington Capital, Animoca Ventures, and others, to grow its delta-neutral stablecoin protocol Resolv. The platform’s USR stablecoin offers yield through crypto-native structured finance mechanisms, enabling holders to earn stable returns while remaining insulated from market volatility. Resolv’s model divides risk into senior and junior tranches, with USR holders receiving predictable yield and RLP token holders absorbing more volatility in exchange for higher potential returns. With over $450M in TVL, the protocol has gained momentum following its 2024 launch by capitalizing on post-election market rallies and DeFi yield opportunities. Resolv joins a growing trend of stablecoin projects like Ethena’s USDe that use synthetic dollar strategies to capture funding rate yields from perpetual futures markets. The new funding will be used to expand yield sources, including BTC-based strategies, and integrate more closely with institutional asset managers while broadening cross-chain adoption.

3. ORO raises $6M to build platform for private AI data contribution

ORO AI has raised $6M in seed funding led by a16z crypto’s CSX and Delphi Ventures, with participation from Ocular, Orange DAO, NEAR Protocol, and 0G Labs. The company is building a decentralized intelligence platform that enables individuals to contribute high-value private data for AI model training-securely and with full privacy. Founded by Stanford AI Lab veterans and former builders at Salesforce and Replit, ORO is designed to bridge the gap between data creators and AI developers. As traditional public data sources are increasingly exhausted, ORO addresses the bottleneck in AI development by unlocking access to real-world human data such as health, social, and financial signals. Users can connect accounts or complete “data quests” via ORO’s app to generate fresh, granular inputs for frontier AI, all while maintaining ownership and earning rewards. The system leverages zkTLS and trusted execution environments (TEEs) to ensure that raw data remains sealed and private, enabling AI to learn without ever directly accessing user data.

The number of deals closed in the previous week was 21, with Infra having 9 deals, representing 43% for each sector of the total number of deals. Meanwhile, Social had 1 (5%), Data had 4 (19%), DeFi had 7 (33%) deals

The total amount of disclosed funding raised in the previous week was $358M, 24% deals (5/21) in previous week didn’t public the raised amount. The top funding came from Infra sector with $281M. Most funded deals: Auradine $153M, LayerZero $55M

Total weekly fundraising rose to $358M for the 3rd week of Apr-2025, an increase of +71% compared to the week prior. Weekly fundraising in the previous week was up +72% year over year for the same period.

About Gate Ventures

Gate Ventures, the venture capital arm of Gate.io, is focused on investments in decentralized infrastructure, middleware, and applications that will reshape the world in the Web 3.0 age. Working with industry leaders across the globe, Gate Ventures helps promising teams and startups that possess the ideas and capabilities needed to redefine social and financial interactions.

Website: https://ventures.gate.io/
Twitter: https://x.com/gate_ventures
Medium: https://medium.com/@gate_ventures