Despite a period of price stabilization for Bitcoin (BTCUSD), new legislation concerning digital assets could serve as a significant trigger for the cryptocurrency’s next major movement. The anticipated stablecoin regulations, specifically the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, may pave the way for Bitcoin to reach a peak price exceeding $150,000, as suggested by Alice Li, an investment partner and head of the US division at Foresight Ventures, a crypto venture capital firm. At the same time, interest from venture capitalists has diminished, with May witnessing the lowest number of VC deals this year, totaling just 62 investment rounds that accumulated $909 million in funding. Patrick Heusser, head of lending at Sentora and a former investment banker, noted that a challenging macroeconomic environment, characterized by persistent high policy rates, uncertain bond markets, and new tariff discussions, has complicated the landscape for risk assets seeking mergers and acquisitions.
Bitcoin Reserve and Stablecoin Regulations: Potential Catalysts for Market Growth
Alice Li, from Foresight Ventures, indicated that enhanced regulatory clarity in the United States could propel Bitcoin beyond the $150,000 mark in the current market cycle. During an appearance on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction X Spaces show on June 3, she attributed the expected rally in 2025 to shifting policies in the U.S. government. Li noted that the approval of Bitcoin reserves and advancements in stablecoin regulations are likely to be significant factors driving Bitcoin’s price upward in 2025. She expressed a strong belief in the long-term potential of stablecoins as a major investment area, highlighting the positive regulatory developments underway in the U.S. Her remarks coincided with the industry’s anticipation of a full Senate vote on the GENIUS Act, which aims to establish clear guidelines for stablecoin collateralization and enforce compliance with Anti-Money Laundering regulations.
Ethereum’s Resurgence in Decentralized Finance
The Ethereum network is experiencing a revival in 2025, as growth in stablecoins and activity from automated trading bots draw attention back to its decentralized finance (DeFi) capabilities. On June 4, Cex.io, a crypto trading platform, reported that automated bots executed 4.84 million stablecoin transfers on Ethereum’s primary blockchain during May, totaling an impressive $480 billion—marking the highest volume recorded thus far. Illia Otychenko, Cex.io’s lead analyst, attributed this surge in activity to reduced transaction fees observed in the first quarter of 2025, which helped reverse a trend of liquidity and user migration towards competing blockchains and Ethereum’s layer-2 solutions. Consequently, the market capitalization of stablecoins on the mainnet increased by 11% in 2025, reclaiming market share from layer-2 networks, while the overall stablecoin market on these secondary solutions only saw a minor 1% decrease.
Binance Co-Founder Proposes Dark Pool DEX to Combat Market Manipulation
Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, co-founder of Binance, has suggested the creation of a dark pool perpetual swap decentralized exchange (DEX) to mitigate market manipulation risks. In a post on X dated June 1, Zhao expressed his confusion over the visibility of orders on existing DEX platforms. He noted that this issue is particularly pronounced on perpetual DEXs, where liquidations take place. Zhao emphasized that if a trader intends to buy a substantial amount of a cryptocurrency, they typically prefer to keep their order discreet until it is executed, in order to avoid front-running and attacks from maximum extractable value (MEV) bots, which can lead to higher costs and slippage. His remarks followed an incident where nearly $100 million in Bitcoin long positions on Hyperliquid were liquidated after Bitcoin’s price dipped below $105,000, sparking allegations on X that some users had conspired to target the liquidation of a trader known as James Wynn.
Real-World Asset Tokenization Market Sees Explosive Growth
The market for tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) has experienced remarkable growth in early 2025, driven by increased regulatory clarity that has encouraged broader adoption of blockchain-based financial products. RWA tokenization involves the process of creating digital representations of physical and financial assets on blockchain technology, enhancing accessibility and trading opportunities for these assets. According to a report from Binance Research, the RWA market surged over 260% in the first half of 2025, reaching a total valuation of more than $23 billion, up from $8.6 billion at the start of the year. Tokenized private credit led this market expansion, capturing about 58% of the market share, followed by tokenized U.S. Treasury debt at 34%. The report noted that as regulatory frameworks become clearer, the sector is set for continued growth and increased engagement from major industry participants. Although RWAs currently lack a dedicated regulatory framework and are classified as securities by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the sector still benefits from advancements in the wider crypto regulatory landscape.
BitoPro Confirms $11.5 Million Exploit, Assures Withdrawals Are Unaffected
BitoPro, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Taiwan, has acknowledged a security breach that resulted in the loss of over $11.5 million in digital assets from its hot wallets on May 8. The unauthorized transactions, which involved outflows from hot wallets across Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and Polygon, were later traced to decentralized exchanges (DEXs) where the assets were reportedly sold, as detailed by blockchain investigator ZachXBT. Despite the severity of the incident, BitoPro did not publicize the exploit on its social media channels for several weeks, as noted by ZachXBT in a June 2 post. Blockchain analysis indicated that the stolen assets were either funneled into the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash or converted to Bitcoin via THORChain, tactics commonly employed by hackers to obscure the origin of funds. On May 9, BitoPro announced a maintenance period for the exchange, which was resolved the same day, although many users subsequently reported difficulties withdrawing USDt (USDT). Following a three-week investigation, BitoPro confirmed the exploit occurred during a wallet system upgrade, wherein an attacker exploited an “old hot wallet” amid internal fund reallocations.
DeFi Market Overview
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView indicates that the majority of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization concluded the week on a downturn. The DeXe (DEXE) token experienced a substantial decline of over 30%, marking the steepest drop within the top 100, followed closely by the Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) token, which fell 24% on the weekly chart. Thank you for engaging with our recap of the week’s most significant DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for further updates, insights, and educational content regarding this rapidly evolving sector.
