After crypto’s worst quarter since the FTX crisis, many investors are worried about the end of the bull market... 😱

👇 Welcome to the Weekly Crypto Market Update:

An industry panel including Messari CEO Eric Turner has confidently claimed that the crypto bull market hasn’t started yet: “I actually think the real question is, when does the bull market come? If you ask me, that’s going to be Q3, Q4 of this year.”

Raoul Pal of Real Vision shares similar optimism in an ‘Urgent’ video update on X (Twitter) where he points to global M2 spiking 💸

Ripple is set to acquire prime brokerage Hidden Road in a deal to become the first crypto company to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker capable of offering institutions a one-stop-shop of services.

Professor of Law at George Washington University has called Stablecoins “an existential threat to the banking industry, as well as to the financial system” 🤣

Binance ended Tether (USDT) trading in Europe last week to comply with new European Economic Area crypto asset regulations.

The real winner here is Circle, the issuer of USDC, who recently announced plans to go public on the NYSE in April through an initial public offering 📈

The First Digital US Dollar pegged Stablecoin (FDUSD), depegged last week following claims of insolvency from Tron network founder Justin Sun. First Digital responded to the claims by assuring users they are completely solvent 😳

A developer has put forward a proposal to protect Bitcoin from the future potential risks of Quantum computing - proposing a hard fork Bitcoin to enforce a network wide migration from legacy wallets to ones secured by post quantum cryptography 🤔

Bitcoin’s hashrate (measuring difficulty to mine) just set a new record high, but is diverging sharply from price and network activity - for miners to stay profitable and cover operational and capital costs, a strong bitcoin price, full blocks and high transaction fees are essential.

Michael Saylor’s (Micro) Strategy paused Bitcoin purchases last week as the Bitcoin price fell, disclosing a $5.91 billion unrealized loss in Q1, according to SEC filings.

👉 In other crypto news:

🔘 The SEC has acknowledged Fidelity's application for a spot Solana ETF to trade on Cboe BZX Exchange

🔘 Chainlink announced payment abstraction is now live, allowing users to pay for Chainlink Services in alternative assets

🔘 The SEC acknowledged Fidelity’s application for a spot Solana ETF, an incremental step that edges the product closer to approval

🔘 Investors who bid on the REAL token project that was promoted by former UFC champion Conor McGregor will receive a full refund after the project failed to raise above the $1 million minimum requirement

🔘 Jack Dorsey’s Block and Stripe make a push into banking in an effort to become more comprehensive financial services providers

🔘 Ethereum developers have postponed the Pectra upgrade to May 7, 2025

And that's a wrap... until next week! 😎