Appold Market Watch - Week ending 23 May 2025
Market Update & Industry News - Week ending 23 May 2025
🔷 The price of Bitcoin surpassed $111,700 to reach a new all-time high. Bitcoin’s current momentum is a marked shift from last month, when the price slumped to around $76,000 amidst investor fears over global tariffs.
Appold view: High investor interest and optimism for a favourable regulatory environment in the U.S. are likely key driving forces behind Bitcoin’s recent rally.
🔷 The Texas House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 21 to establish a state-managed Bitcoin reserve. The legislation permits the state comptroller to invest in digital assets with a market capitalisation exceeding $500 billion over the past year, with only Bitcoin currently meeting the requirement. The bill now awaits Texas Governor Greg Abbott to sign into law or veto.
Appold view: Although this is a state-level initiative, Texas's economy is estimated to be around $2.7 trillion, so this move marks potentially the most significant step thus far towards the adoption of digital assets by governments.
🔷 Kraken Digital Asset Exchange announced it will offer tokenised versions of popular U.S. ETFs and listed stocks, such as Apple, Tesla and Nvidia, to clients in select jurisdictions, including Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. Each tokenised ‘xStock’ is 1:1 backed by real shares issued via the Solana blockchain and will allow for 24/7 trading.
Appold view: Kraken’s offering aimed at non-US investors should ease some of the limitations in accessing traditional U.S. equities in terms of limited market hours, T+1 settlement times and higher brokerage fees. However, liquidity is a key factor and they need to ensure that market makers maintain sufficient on-exchange liquidity for this to be successful.
🔷 U.S. President Donald Trump hosted a dinner for the 220 largest holders of the Official Trump token, which was launched in January. Tron CEO H.E. Justin Sun, Magic Eden CEO Jack Lu and BitMart CEO Sheldon X. were among those known to have attended.
Appold view: In recent weeks, Trump’s business ties to the digital asset sector have come under intense scrutiny, and this behind-closed-doors event for his highly contentious memecoin is likely to exacerbate those concerns further.
#Marketwatch #Blockchain #Investments
