Nunes and Trump speak at the 2024 RNC (Tom Williams/Getty Images)

Bitcoin first, America...

Trump Media’s Truth.fi files trademark for bitcoin “plus” ETF

That didn’t take long.

2/6/25 12:15PM

A week after Trump Media & Technology Group launched financial services and fintech brand Truth.Fi, it’s now applied for trademarks for a slew of “America First-themed” ETFs, including one for bitcoin, the Truth.Fi Bitcoin Plus ETF.

As Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted, this is the first time a US president has launched an ETF, let alone a bitcoin one. Bitcoin’s price, however, didn’t budge much post-announcement, and has dipped to roughly $96,700 as of 12:05 p.m. ET.

Trump is going to launch a Bitcoin Plus ETF. Safe to say first-ever POTUS ETF issuer. What a country.. pic.twitter.com/Oak9TyWtaV
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 6, 2025

In the press release, Trump Media Group CEO and Chairman Devin Nunes said:

“We aim to give investors a means to invest in American energy, manufacturing, and other firms that provide a competitive alternative to the woke funds and debanking problems that you find throughout the market. We’re exploring a range of ways to differentiate our products, including strategies related to bitcoin. We will continue to finetune our intended product suite to develop the optimal mix of offerings for investors who believe in America First principles.”

Alan Orwick, cofounder of Quai Network, told Sherwood News that while this marks a “significant step towards mainstream crypto adoption,” it also raises red flags around the integration of political influence in financial markets.

What’s more, he argued that this move might also dilute the excitement around the anticipated national bitcoin reserve, as it adds another competitor in the crypto investment space.

“Investors need to critically assess whether these products serve their financial interests or are merely an extension of political branding,” Orwick said.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy is a financial journalist who’s written for Dow Jones, The Financial Times Group, and Business Insider.

Sage D. Young3/20/26

Altcoin trading activity has lost its mojo

Non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies have seen their trading volume plummet in the past five months. The combined trading volume of ethereum, XRP, solana, dogecoin, SUI, and chainlink has decreased by 60% since crypto’s October 10 liquidation event, according to Thomas Probst, a research analyst at crypto markets data provider Kaiko.

Main Altcoins Trading Volume in USD — The trading volume of ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, SUI, and LINK.

For all altcoins, spot trading volume on Binance has declined between 80% and 85% to $7.7 billion, while altcoin volume on other exchanges has dropped to $18.8 billion, down from a range of $63 billion to $91 billion in October, a Friday report from Decrypt found, citing data from CryptoQuant.

“This trend may be explained by a contraction in market liquidity over the same period,” Probst told Sherwood News. “This phenomenon is also reflected in the average 1% market depth, which stood at approximately $2.6 million before the October 10 crash and is now closer to $1.7 million when aggregated across ETH, XRP, SOL, SUI, and LINK.”

Market depth is used by investors and traders to gauge the scale of liquidity in a market. 1% market depth refers to the amount of liquidity needed to move the market by 1%.

CoinGlass’s Altcoin Season Index, a measure to assess the performance of non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies, has been sitting above 50 this week, suggesting that the current market is neither in a bitcoin dominant phase nor an altcoin season.

“Triple witching” day may put further pressure on bitcoin’s price

This is not “a favorable environment for risk assets.”

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy3/20/26

Sage D. Young

3/19/26

Hyperliquid is the “1,000 pound gorilla in the room” leading year-to-date market gains amid conflict in the Middle East

While the crypto industry has shed $564.3 billion in 2026, Hyperliquid’s native token has bucked the downtrend and jumped 54.8% year to date.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

3/19/26

Bitcoin tumbles as oil and gas prices spike and the market’s mood turns risk-off

Bitcoin ETFs reverted to outflows and bitcoin suffered $192 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours.

Sage D. Young3/18/26

Payward, parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, puts plans for IPO on hold

Payward, crypto exchange Kraken’s parent company, has paused its plans for an initial public offering until market conditions improve, according to a report from CoinDesk that cited two people with knowledge of the matter.

Since the firm announced in November its preparation for an IPO of its common stock, the total market capitalization of the crypto industry has shed around $652.2 billion, from $3.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion as of Wednesday, data from CoinGecko shows.

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions.

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

Payward, parent of crypto exchange Kraken, has put its IPO plans on hold