Digital assets suffered a major pullback this week, as traders reacted negatively to the escalation of the US-Iran war.

Digital assets weathered geopolitical volatility and uncertainty to end the week virtually unchanged. Whilst Bitcoin and Ether ETFs logged poor performance as traders hedged their bets, altcoin products saw an influx despite challenging market conditions as bids rotated rather than disappeared. The wider stablecoin complex saw a great deal of activity, including developments across multiple currencies, Nasdaq gained approval for Bitcoin index options as NYSE’s parent company partnered with crypto exchange OKX for perpetual oil futures, Japan, Korea, and the US all witnessed regulatory progress, and much more.

Digital assets pulled back after several weeks of consistent growth, fuelled by continued US-Iran uncertainty and higher-than-expected inflation figures. Nevertheless, adoption and development continued rolling out globally, from US megabanks like JP Morgan, to Japanese financial giants including SBI, Nomura, and Mizuho, to leading Korean TradFi firms, and widespread tokenisation efforts within Saudi Arabia. In the realms of regulation, the CLARITY market structure bill cleared a key hurdle; bringing it one step closer to potentially changing the landscape for digital assets globally.

Digital assets returned another week of positive performances, featuring activity from several major names within both DeFi and TradFi. BlackRock and Morgan Stanley extended their digital asset exposure and offerings, stablecoins continued to attract attention and growth, and the venture capital sphere saw significant increases in investment, with a singule new fund from a16z eclipsing all the new capital raised by VCs in Q4. 

Digital assets continued their recent bullishness, as both Bitcoin and Ether closed April with consecutive monthly gains, before Bitcoin posted its best performance since January in early trading today. Catalysts for this shift in investor sentiment included advances in the US-Iran peace process, Jerome Powell leaving his post as Fed chair, and potential progress on the long-awaited CLARITY crypto market structure bill. Adoption and advances continued globally, as BlackRock enhanced its onchain money market fund further, the DTCC targeted October for the launch of tokenised securities, Western Union officially launched their stablecoin, and much more. 

Digital assets continued their recent upward trajectory, with more strong performance across ETFs indicating continued investor enthusiasm, even after a major recent DeFi exploit potentially dampened institutional appetite for fully-decentralised protocols. Prediction markets and stablecoins continued their growth pattern, launching new products and services, whilst regulatory efforts progressed and a veteran VC kicked off its latest major raise across multiple funds.