Open Range | April 20th, 2025 | ECB Cuts, Gold Surges, BTC Steady

This week, the market continued to navigate the complexities of the Trump administration's tariff policies. Bitcoin ended the week roughly flat, but demonstrated resilience versus the broader market, maintaining a price around $84,234 amidst broader market volatility. Despite the flat performance, nation state, corporate, and individual adoption continues to increase.

Bitcoin & Macro Update

Bitcoin's closed the week roughly flat, around $84,234. In traditional markets, the S&P 500 declined by 1.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite decreased by 2.6% during the shortened trading week as growth concerns rose amid unresolved tariff uncertainty.

After a very poor week last week, the 10-year Treasury yield decreased from 4.48% on April 11 to 4.34%.​ Meanwhile, gold prices continued a very impressive rally, up 2.8% over the past week.

Powell spoke recently acknowledging concerns of higher inflation due to tariffs and slower growth, but noted a strong and relatively stable labor market. Accordingly, he stated that the Federal Reserve is well positioned to "wait for greater clarity" before making changes to its policy stance.

While the rate of unemployment remains relatively unchanged, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Fransisco put out a letter Assessing the Recent Rise in Unemployment, where they highlighted a decline in the share of unemployed workers finding employment.

The ECB cut interest rates for the seventh time in a year, to 2.25% which was due to a significantly weaker economy than in the US, and the uncertainty about the impact of tariffs on their economy.

Institutional Update

Binance confirmed reports of other companies building their own bitcoin reserves. “We have actually received quite a number of approaches by a few governments and sovereign wealth funds on the establishment of their own crypto reserves.” - Richard Teng, CEO of Binance.

Galaxy shared a report on the state of the digital asset lending market, highlighting that at the end of 4Q24, the total digital asset lending market issued by counterparties was down 68% from, its all time high, but up 78% from the bear market trough. 

U.S.-based Bitcoin mining chip designer Auradine has raised $153 million in a Series C funding round, to expand into next-generation mining chips and AI infrastructure, bringing its total capital raised to over $300 million since its founding in 2022. Key funding partners include StepStone Group, Maverick Silicon, and MARA. 

Meanwhile, a bitcoin denominated life insurance company, announced the completion of their $40m Series A raise.

Bitwise reported an 18% uptick in public companies holding bitcoin in Q1, with 95,431 bitcoin purchased by corporates.

Between April 7 and April 13, 2025, MicroStrategy acquired an additional 3,459 BTC for approximately $285.8 million at an average price of $82,618 per Bitcoin. This purchase was funded through the public sale of 959,712 common shares during the same period.

​Semler Scientific has announced plans to raise $500 million through a securities offering to expand its Bitcoin holdings. 

Brazilian Fintech Meliuz proposes expending bitcoin reserves strategy, with a shareholder proposal meeting scheduled for May 6th. The public company currently has a market cap of ~$330m.

Behind the scenes, more and more companies continue to explore incorporating bitcoin into their corporate treasuries and into their fund operations.

Voltage launched their enterprise tool, allowing businesses faster ways to incorporate lightning payments in bitcoin or stablecoins. The solution offers lines of credit for their business solutions, and announced a partnership with Bitgo as their leading partner.

Firefish, a bitcoin-collateralized lending marketplace raised a $1.8m seed round, from Braiins and Milson-C. 

Elsewhere, Bitcoin's dominance hit new all time highs again this week. Bitcoin's hash rate exceeded 900 EH/s, despite bitcoin's continued choppy price action although tariff concerns on Chinese manufactured mining rigs are cause for concern.

Regulatory Update

Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the U.S. is preparing to relax certain cryptocurrency and banking regulations, and is looking for clearer legal framework. 

Reports have emerged that President Trump is considering Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor, as a potential replacement for Powell. Trump voiced his frustration with the current Federal Reserve Chair for consistently being late to adjust policy, and has explored the ability to fire the chairman. 

In a surprising move, Oklahoma's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Vill Fails to Advance in State Senate by a 6-5 vote, despite a a 77-15 vote in the state’s House of Representatives.

Early Riders Media

The New Ponzi Stack? Solana Treasuries, Stablecoins, and Crypto Exit Games

In the latest episode of Final Settlement, the Early Riders crew—Brian Cubellis, Liam Nelson, and Michael Tanguma—delivered another high-signal, no-fluff breakdown of the intersection between Bitcoin and global capital markets. The trio kicked things off with a nod to the recent spike in macro and market noise, from fake news headlines to real-world volatility, and immediately dove into the latest developments that matter for serious Bitcoin investors.

The hosts unpacked the implications of CZ’s meetings with the Treasury Department and discussed what it could mean for the evolving regulatory climate. Rather than writing this off as crypto noise, the hosts framed it as a signal: the U.S. may be warming to offshore exchanges and crypto infrastructure—especially under the Trump family’s increasing involvement.

The crew pivoted to a deeper discussion on stablecoins, highlighting Visa’s participation in the Paxos-led consortium aiming to rival Tether and Circle. Tanguma broke down why the digitization of capital flows could fundamentally alter the structure of global banking, with major firms like Stripe processing just a sliver of global B2B volume today. What emerges is a vision of thousands of distributed, brand-native stables—and how it all ladders back to Bitcoin as the foundational monetary protocol.

A fascinating and slightly absurd detour featured Janover, a little-known company that saw its stock skyrocket after announcing a Solana treasury strategy—a clear echo of the 2021 “blockchain iced tea” days. The hosts dissected the incentives driving these announcements, pointing to opportunistic insiders and the easy VC money still chasing empty narratives. The takeaway: crypto is still playing the short-term hype game, but Bitcoin remains the long-term settlement layer.

The episode then transitioned into a thoughtful review of Trammell Venture Partners’ 2024 Bitcoin VC report. While the broader crypto space saw declining capital, Bitcoin-specific pre-seed deal count increased 50%, driven largely by Bitcoin-native angel investors. But capital remains scarce relative to the opportunity set—a challenge the Early Riders team is actively working to address. The hosts emphasized that building commercially viable, revenue-generating businesses in Bitcoin is a different beast than chasing speculative yield in crypto.

The episode closed with shoutouts to Meanwhile’s $40M Series A raise for its Bitcoin-denominated life insurance and annuities platform, and a broader reflection on where idle capital sits today. Brian, Michael, and Liam discussed how Bitcoin can be infused into long-dated financial products—from funeral homes to corporate treasuries—and how this unlocks both financial sovereignty and capital efficiency.

If you're in the Bitcoin space as a founder, investor, allocator, or just trying to cut through the noise, Final Settlement continues to deliver top-tier insight. Whether it’s analyzing stablecoin mechanics, the madness of altcoin-fueled balance sheets, or the next big Bitcoin-native product, the crew brings context, curiosity, and conviction. Don’t miss it.