TL;DR

• Weak demand drives down oil prices and service inflation, and this could offset tariff-related imported inflation pressure.
• April CPI came below expectations, mainly driven by weaker service prices, but some goods also saw signs of price increases.
• Pi dropped 50% last week despite the announcement of a $100M ecosystem fund.
• MapleStory drew strong market attention, reaching a $2B FDV within a week, with hopes of reviving GameFi’s mainstream appeal.
• Weak market performance last week led to a decline in the number of newly launched tokens.
• Tether Launches QVAC Platform to enhance Cloud-Based AI Agents Ecosystem.
• Avalanche sees ecosystem growth with Gaming surge and institutional DeFi adoption.
• Solana’s founder proposes Meta Blockchain to optimize Data Availability across chains.
• Last week, the most funded projects were Data sector.

Macro Overview

Weak demand drives down oil prices and service inflation, and this could offset tariff related imported inflation pressure.

Recently the global crude oil prices have declined sharply, driven by both concerns over weakening global demand and supply-side pressure arising from expectations of increased production by OPEC. If oil prices continue to fall significantly, this could provide further relief to global inflation. In addition, weakened demand for services has led to lower prices in categories such as airfare and hotels, contributing to a broader decline in overall inflation.

Another development worth noting is the change in pharmaceutical pricing. On May 12, 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order implementing a “Most Favored Nation” policy, which mandates that U.S. prescription drug prices be reduced to the lowest levels globally. Trump claimed that this move would cut drug prices in the U.S. by 50% to 90%. While this policy may exert downward pressure on healthcare-related inflation, the actual impact remains to be seen.

While the latest April U.S. CPI inflation data came in below market expectations, this was mainly driven by weaker service prices, particularly airfare. However, some goods have already shown signs of price increases. Additionally, many companies front-loaded imports in anticipation of tariffs, resulting in temporary inventory buffers that may delay the full inflationary impact. Therefore, the prices of imported goods could further rise during summer.

The dollar index dropped last week as weak inflation data strengthened the Fed rate cut bets for 2 cuts, which suggested that the inflationary pressure is cooling.

The total assets increased for $2.4bn last week, and the majority of the added assets are US treasuries. As during the last FOMC meeting the asset rip-off cap was not changed, the overall asset level is expected to maintain at this similar level for a longer period of time.

Gold prices had some further turbulence last week, as the price dropped below $3,200 in the later half of the week. The cooling trade tensions contributed to that.

Crypto Markets Overview

1. Main Assets

As of this Monday, BTC and ETH were priced at $100,000 and $2,400, respectively, down 1% and 5% from the previous week. Both cryptocurrencies remain highly volatile, with price movements driven by a wide range of often shifting narratives. Given the recent elevated volatility, we continue to recommend fundamental-driven bets on individual tokens, rather than broad exposure to the multi-token market.

2. Total Market Cap

Last week, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $3.18 trillion. Excluding BTC and ETH, the altcoin market cap was $858.6 billion, representing a week-over-week surge of 4.7% and 7.3%, respectively. Since the macro environment does not support large-scale liquidity easing, a broad-based rally in altcoins is unlikely to occur in the short to medium term.

3. Top 30 Crypto Assets Performance

Last week, BTC and ETH decreased by 2.5% and 6.5%. PI fell by as much as 50% last week. There is currently no news-driven explanation for the sharp drop, although PI did announce a $100 million ecosystem incentive program last week.

4. New Token Launched

Few new tokens were launched last week, with the main ones being MapleStory and Privasea.

MapleStory’s token, $NXPC, was listed on Binance and Bybit last week. It’s been dubbed the “Web3 version of MapleStory” and is rumored to be associated with Nexon (unconfirmed). The game has some playability and market attention. The market cap stands at $337M, with an FDV of $2B, which seems excessive.

Privasea was listed on Gate and Bitget, focusing on the privacy sector. It previously received funding from YZi Labs, yet it hasn’t gotten listed on Binance Spot. Its market cap is $16M with an FDV of $80M, leaving some room for token maneuvering.

The Key Crypto Highlights

1. Tether Launches QVAC Platform to enhance Cloud-Based AI Agents Ecosystem

Tether has announced QVAC (QuantumVerse Automatic Computer), a bold new development platform designed to power decentralized, privacy-first AI by enabling autonomous agents to run entirely on users’ local devices. Unlike traditional AI systems that depend on centralized cloud infrastructure, QVAC allows applications to operate securely and independently on smartphones, embedded systems, laptops, or even brain-computer interfaces, without compromising user data. By leveraging peer-to-peer networking, modular software architecture, and on-device inference, QVAC aims to scale to trillions of collaborative AI agents. Integrated payments via WDK (Tether’s embedded wallet kit) also enable agents to transact natively in Bitcoin and USDT, laying the groundwork for decentralized, economically self-sustaining AI ecosystems. Early applications include QVAC/Translate for offline translation and QVAC/Health for private wellness tracking, both operating without cloud connectivity. Tether plans to release a full SDK to empower developers to build secure, composable AI agents at scale.

2. Avalanche sees ecosystem growth with Gaming surge and institutional DeFi adoption

The Avalanche ecosystem is experiencing significant growth, marked by an all-time high of 1.95M active addresses in May, driven in part by the launch of the blockchain game MapleStory Universe. This surge in user activity coincides with a major institutional milestone: the first DeFi protocol integration of BlackRock’s $3B tokenized Treasury fund (BUIDL) on the Avalanche-based Euler protocol. Through this integration, users can now utilize sBUIDL, a composable ERC-20 representation of BUIDL, as collateral to borrow assets such as USDC or AUSD while earning both Avalanche-native incentives (AVAX rewards) and the underlying U.S. Treasury yield. The integration, powered by the sToken framework developed by Securitize and deployed by Re7 Labs, enhances the composability and onchain utility of BUIDL without sacrificing redeemability. This marks a strategic expansion of Avalanche into institutional-grade real-world asset (RWA) protocols, signaling its growing appeal as both a DeFi infrastructure layer and a home for large-scale consumer applications.

3. Solana’s founder proposes Meta Blockchain to optimize Data Availability across chains

Solana co-founder has introduced the concept of a Meta Blockchain, a unifying framework that posts transactions across multiple chains like Ethereum, Celestia, and Solana, then merges them into a single, deterministic sequence using shared block references and ordering rules. The idea allows developers to leverage the cheapest and fastest available data availability (DA) layer in real time, creating a flexible system where users can select optimal finality and cost trade-offs. Toly suggests that MetaTXs (Meta Transactions) could include the latest observed block headers from each DA chain, enabling consistent ordering regardless of origin. The proposed model echoes efforts by projects like Dymension, which is building a universal settlement layer for rollups across any L1. While some critics argue the complexity of multi-DA validation may outweigh its benefits, Toly contends that cheap DA unlocks broad efficiency, making the case for bandwidth as the system’s core constraint.

Key Ventures Deals

1. Dragonfly leads $9.25M round for Perpl to launch Fully On-Chain Perpetuals DEX on Monad

Perpl, a fully on-chain perpetual futures exchange built on the high-performance Monad blockchain, has raised $9.25M in a funding round led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Ergonia, Mirana, BHD, Hashkey, L1D, CMS, and Breed. Targeting the inefficiencies of centralized financial systems, Perpl is constructing a decentralized, verifiable, and composable trading platform without relying on off-chain infrastructure. Its architecture leverages Monad’s scalability to deliver a performant central limit order book (CLOB), low-slippage trading, and full asset custody for users. This eliminates the typical tradeoff between performance and decentralization seen in other perps protocols that launch proprietary L1s. With perpetual futures now driving the majority of crypto trading volume, Perpl aims to combine institutional-grade infrastructure with a seamless UX to close the gap between CEX and DEX offerings. The funding will be used to expand the core team, finalize the trading engine, develop the interface, and prepare for the upcoming mainnet launch.

2. Squads unveils Altitude_stablecoin account with Strategic backing from Haun Ventures

Solana-based multisig protocol Squads has announced a strategic investment from Haun Ventures, with the exact amount undisclosed, marking a key milestone as the project expands beyond access control into financial infrastructure. This follows previous funding rounds from Multicoin Capital, Electric Capital, Coinbase Ventures,… bringing Squads’ total capital raised to $22.2M. Alongside the announcement, Squads introduced Altitude, a stablecoin-native USD account product designed for crypto-native businesses to hold and manage dollars without relying on traditional banks or U.S. entities. Operating entirely on decentralized infrastructure, Altitude offers programmability, transparency, and direct asset control. While the timing aligns with increased attention on stablecoins, Altitude reflects a long-term vision for replacing fragmented treasury infrastructure with blockchain-native solutions.

3. Hedra raises $32M in Series A to scale AI-Generated lifelike video Characters and Brand storytelling

AI video generation startup Hedra has raised $32M in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Infrastructure fund, bringing its total funding to $43M and valuing the company at $200M. The round also included participation from a16z speedrun, Abstract, and Index Ventures. Founded in 2021, Hedra specializes in creating lifelike digital characters through its Character-3 foundation model, which integrates text, image, and audio to produce realistic spokespersons or brand mascots for marketing teams. While competitors like OpenAI’s Sora and Runway’s Gen-2 dominate headlines, Hedra aims to overcome the “uncanny valley” challenge and make scalable, emotionally convincing AI characters mainstream. The startup’s mission is to push the boundaries of performance realism in AI video. The new capital will be used to scale its infrastructure and marketing reach in the booming generative media landscape.

The number of deals closed in the previous week was 18, with Data having 6 deals, representing 33% for each sector of the total number of deals. Meanwhile, Infra had 5 (28%), Social had 2 (11%), Gamefi had 1 (6%) and DeFi had 4 (22%) deals

The total amount of disclosed funding raised in the previous week was $90M, 33% deals (6/18) in previous week didn’t public the raised amount. The top funding came from Data sector with $67M. Most funded deals: Hedra $32M; Perpl $9.25M

Total weekly fundraising fell to $90M for the 3nd week of May-2025, a decrease of -15% compared to the week prior. Weekly fundraising in the previous week was down -51% 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.

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