Optimism Resurfaces: Markets Bounce
Markets entered the week with their strongest dose of optimism in recent times. Over the weekend, we saw rebounds across the board with Bitcoin rising to $85,000, and Ethereum rallying to $1,600. The total crypto market cap jumped 11.8%, adding $265 billion since last week. Much of this move came as a relief rally following Trump's announcement of a 90-day pause on new tariffs, excluding China which gave slight clarity and eased tensions in the ongoing trade war.
Adding to the positive sentiment was fresh inflation data out of the US. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key measure of inflation tracking the cost of goods and services, fell by 0.1% in March. That puts the annual inflation rate at 2.4%, down from 2.8% in February, a better than expected result that’s boosted investor confidence and strengthened the case for Fed rate cuts in 2025, which will arguably be risk on assets biggest catalyst this year.
Weekly Price Update
Sector Performance - Trending Narratives
As we can see, DePIN, AI, and memecoins are all making a strong resurgence. DePIN, in particular, has led the charge with an impressive 30% gain over the past week, highlighting renewed interest in decentralised physical infrastructure networks like Render which showed significant strength.
The memecoin space seems to be coming back to life. Tokens like Pepe, Fartcoin, and Popcat have shown incredible performance, reaffirming that community-driven narratives will remain dominant in the bullish phases of this market cycle.To emphasise this shift in narrative, yesterday PumpFun and PumpSwap reached new all-time high with $551.29 million in combined 24H volume.
On the flip side, the Real World Assets (RWA) sector was hit hard, plunging 43%. This sharp decline was primarily driven by the Matra crash on Monday, which erased over $6 billion in market cap from the token.
Mantra Crashes 90%
Layer 1 RWA project Mantra ($OM) just experienced one of the most brutal crashes in recent memory,dropping -90% from over $6 to $0.37 in a matter of hours and wiping out $6B in market cap. Serious questions are flying around token control, transparency, and who was really behind the moves.
Speculation suggests the team may have controlled up to 90% of the supply (unconfirmed), and that market makers were given discounted tokens to prop up price. We saw OM's price soar in Jan/Feb, however it felt very artificial. Now, it’s speculated those same players went underwater during the crash and dumped their supply, accelerating the collapse.
We do know that over $36M in OM was sent to an OKX wallet and other centralised exchanges just before the crash. People were clearly anticipating the drop, on-chain data doesn’t lie there. A quantitative red flag was there with a FDV to TVL discrepancy, $9B FDV vs. $13M TVL (lacking ecosystem growth). The team responded today with a vague statement, blaming a “massive forced liquidation” on an unnamed exchange. No hard details yet, but a promise of a report “coming soon.”
All this comes after a disastrous March airdrop, where over 50% of users were blacklisted, and earlier backlash when the max token supply was doubled ahead of the October mainnet. In crypto, when theres smoke theres usually fire, and this is a great case of that.
Red Flags You Should Consider For all Tokens
Tariff Tension Subsides
President Trump's recent tariff decisions have sent shockwaves through global markets, stirring both excitement and opportunism among investors. The administration initially rolled out a minimum 10% tariff on all imports, with plans to impose even steeper rates on select countries.
But after 100 countries reached out to negotiate, Trump made a dramatic pivot, agreeing to apply a flat 10% tariff across the board for all nations, except one. China, now singled out, faces a staggering 145% import tariff.
This selective approach has intensified the U.S.-China trade war, but instead of triggering fear, it’s ignited a wave of risk-on sentiment. Investors are piling back into the market with confidence. Fuelling the rally, President Trump tweeted that it's a "very good time to buy," further boosting market optimism.
Trump also stated he believes he will “make a very good deal” with China, following his offer to meet President Xi Jinping in person to discuss the tariffs. The market’s reaction was immediate and explosive: U.S. stocks skyrocketed, adding roughly $5.1 trillion in value by the end of the day. Cryptocurrencies followed, with Bitcoin jumping 8.5% from $75,000 to $83,500, and Ethereum surging 13.5% from $1,400 to $1,663.
Asset Performance Comparison
New Token Listing - $PROMPT
Wayfinder $PROMPT is a highly anticipated AI powered platform that simplifies crypto use. We’ve covered PROMPT in the past, and now it's just had it's official token launch. Instead of navigating complex tools, users can simply type what they want to do like swapping tokens, bridging between blockchains, or launching smart contracts and Wayfinder’s AI agents will handle it for them. The native token, PROMPT, powers these actions, covers fees, and plays a role in platform governance. It’s built to make crypto more accessible for both beginners and experienced users alike.
A large community airdrop also helped build awareness, with 40% of the token supply given to early users. As excitement around AI in crypto grows, Wayfinder is standing out for its user friendly approach, and trading volume even hit over $500 million in one day. With a current market cap of just $66 million, we can see Prompt being a AI leader this bull run.
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