Weekly Market Highlights - “Liberation Day” Tariffs Hit Markets

04 April 2025Macro/TradFiPresident Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement triggered a sharp crypto selloff, with BTC and ETH down 6% and 8% on the day, as investor anxiety mounts. The policy includes a 10% baseline tariff starting April 5, with reciprocal tariffs — some over 50% — set to follow on April 9.VanEck appears to be preparing for a potential BNB ETF launch, having registered a trust company in Delaware, according to the state’s official records.Fidelity Investments has launched a crypto-enabled individual retirement account (IRA) through its Web3 arm, Fidelity Digital Assets, allowing investment in Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin.Strategy has purchased 22,048 BTC for US$1.92B between March 24 and 30 at an average price of US$86,969 per Bitcoin, bringing its total holdings to 528,185 BTC, according to an SEC filing.GameStop has raised US$1.5B through a private convertible note offering, with plans to use the funds to purchase Bitcoin.Metaplanet has acquired 696 BTC for US$67.9M, followed by an additional 160 BTC for US$13.3M just a day later — bringing its total holdings to 4,206 BTC.In his annual letter, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink warned that unchecked U.S. debt could threaten the dollar’s reserve currency status, potentially ceding ground to digital assets like Bitcoin. He also highlighted tokenization as a transformative force for global investing.BlackRock has received approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to operate as a crypto asset firm, officially joining the FCA’s crypto asset register.Mastercard is building a blockchain network to bridge traditional finance and crypto, securing key partnerships and expanding its digital asset infrastructure.CryptoL1/L2:Ethereum developers have scheduled May 7, 2025, for the long-anticipated Pectra upgrade — the blockchain's most significant update since March 2024.DeFi:Bitcoin DeFi protocol Babylon will airdrop 600 million BABY tokens during its upcoming token generation event, with 6% of the supply allocated to early supporters like phase-1 stakers and GitHub contributors.Uniswap DAO has preliminarily approved a US$113M Treasury Delegation program to boost governance participation, potentially allocating 18 million UNI tokens to 12 selected delegates.Others:PayPal has expanded its U.S. crypto services to include Solana and Chainlink, now allowing users to buy, sell, hold, and transfer their native tokens for the first time.American Bitcoin, a Trump-backed mining firm, plans to go public to create two sister publicly traded entities under one vertically integrated company — merging infrastructure and crypto operations.Block CEO Jack Dorsey has confirmed that the company is actively working to enable BTC payments on its Square terminals.Latest Binance Research Publications Check out our latest publications:Navigating Crypto: Industry MapWhere Are Our Airdrops Going?The Future of Bitcoin #4: DeFiExplore our Binance Research website for more project and macro research.For more frequent market updates and insights, follow us on Twitter @BinanceResearch.That’s a wrap!Binance ResearchAbout Binance Research: Binance Research is the research arm of Binance, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange. 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