There is no collaboration with the projects mentioned in this edition.
GM frens,
The market just got shaken — and yes, it’s Trump again.
A few hours before this drop, Donald Trump announced a 50% tariff on EU imports starting June 1st. That single headline was enough to rattle equities, slam the euro, and spark a sharp pullback across crypto. And yet… for all the panic chatter, the damage was controlled. Equities dipped, not dumped. Bitcoin dropped — but it didn’t break.
Before this tariff announcement, BTC printed a clean ATH just shy of $111.5K, and is now retesting that zone, hovering between $105K–$109K. The structure remains bullish. The pullback? Normal. Even healthy. We’re post-breakout, post-euphoria — and this is where strong hands reload. So far, it’s a retest, not a reversal.
Ethereum, on the other hand, is showing quiet strength. After a sharp wick to $2,300, it bounced and stabilized back near $2,400 — holding range, defending support, and absorbing flows. What’s remarkable is the institutional activity: ETH ETFs saw $110M+ in net inflows, even with the broader market under pressure. This is the highest weekly inflow since January. Retail remains sidelined, but institutions are clearly stepping in.
Altcoins? Still rotating. Virtual is holding high, Hype printed another ATH, and Solana is battling resistance with $8B+ in volume — proving, again, that even during market hesitation, pockets of strength persist.
Meanwhile, macro volatility is spiking. The 10Y yield is creeping back above 4.5%, signaling stress in bond markets and uncertainty about how the Fed will respond to sticky inflation + aggressive fiscal posturing.
Traditional markets had a rough week — red across the board. But crypto? Surprisingly resilient.
And while the macro noise takes center stage, new narratives are emerging and dying in a matter of days.
The most recent one is called Internet Capital Markets (ICM).
At its core, ICM is a new way for internet-native founders to bootstrap their startups, without VCs.
One of the protocol at the forefront of this Narrative is Launchcoin: a hyper-efficient system built on Solana. Tweets become tradable assets in seconds. Powered by Believe Protocol, the mechanism is brutally simple: one post on X triggers a smart contract mint, launches a token, and starts a full-on market cycle — complete with bonding curves, fees, and liquidity routing.
In less than a month, Launchcoin has facilitated 24,000+ token launches, pushed over $3.1B in volume, and onboarded 200,000+ daily active wallets at its peak. Capital formation at TikTok speed.
But here’s the twist: nearly 80% of the volume disappeared in under 10 days. The system works — maybe too well. Narratives now peak in 72 hours. If you’re not first, you’re exit liquidity.
Let’s break down how ICM works, why it exploded, and what happens when financial infrastructure moves faster than the narratives it supports.
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Deep Dive on Internet Capital Markets (ICM): When Tweets Become IPOs, and Liquidity Moves at TikTok Speed
Main News of the Week.
1/ 🧠 Deep Dive: Internet Capital Markets (ICM)
In today’s market, hype isn’t just short-lived—it’s accelerating into oblivion. New narratives can peak in 3–4 days. If you’re not early, you’re exit liquidity.
🤔 What’s ICM?
Internet Capital Markets (ICM) is one of the clearest expressions of where crypto is headed next: a world where attention becomes capital, instantly. A place where ideas get funded instantly.
It’s a Solana-native narrative built on the idea that any idea or lightweight product can be financialized—not in months, but in minutes. No venture round. No forms. No pitch decks. If it captures attention, it can raise liquidity.
In the bigger picture, ICM is the democratization of creating and managing capital markets on the Internet by using blockchains to cut out the middleman and go straight to the masses.
It kind of started with Pump.fun, where anyone could mint a token in seconds, but it was mostly memecoins. And ICM is not really about memecoins.
Now Believe Protocol. Believe is designed to allow founders of companies to release a coin associated with their startup idea, and earn trading fees off of it to both fund development and gauge interest in the product or service.
But with Believe, degens are buying tokens that represent both an idea and a founder — it's positioned more like backing an early-stage startup than just buying another memecoin.
Since then, the ICM meta has birthed a wave of tokens where traction is measured in retweets, not whitepapers.
If you can generate interest, you can generate flow 👉 That’s ICM.
Not just memecoins. Not just hype.
It’s an entirely new layer of permissionless, attention-driven capital formation—born on X.
Believe for example brought in 24,000+ tokens, $3.1B in volume.
But here’s the kicker: 80% of the volume of the platform vanished in under 10 days.
🚀 The ICM Hype Machine: From Tweet to Tradable in Seconds
Believe made capital formation feel like posting a meme.
Here’s how it works with the exemple of Launchcoin:
That triggers a Solana-based mint with a linear bonding curve starting at 0.1 SOL.
Each trade incurs fees:
1% to the creator
0.1% to the first minter (the “scout”)
0.9% to $LAUNCHCOIN stakers
Once a token hits ~$100K market cap, it “graduates” to Meteora CLAMM pools, unlocking deeper liquidity and LP support.
Tokens are auto-listed on Jupiter, Phantom, and Birdeye, making this an instant distribution mechanism for attention-backed assets.
It’s viral mechanics + tradable liquidity + creator monetization baked into one flow.
🚨 Why This Narrative Hit So Hard
People want fast & fun money, but not just memecoins Funding founders, ideas, with real users outside of Crypto, but without VCs, and with fast investment, fast liquidity, connects the world of utility with the world of memecoins
Degens want control No VCs, no vesting, no roadmap—just supply and vibes
Vibe Coding With the Vibe Coding trend, anyone can launch an app, a product. And with Crypto, monetize it fast
Marketing
Solana Foundation was pushing the Narrative a bit, along with big names & KOLs
Easy to Use
Believe is easy to use. Good UI/UX made a real difference here. Same as Pumpfun.
Liquidity seeks momentum With altcoin volume fragmented, capital chased the fastest-moving meta—and that was ICM
⚡ The Short Narrative Era: Blink and You Miss It
But here’s what’s really wild: ICM exposed just how fast crypto eats its own hype.
📉 ICM Volume Collapse (May 14 → May 23)
May 14: $729.3M daily trading volume
May 23: $172.55M → That’s a 76.3% drop in just 9 days
📉 Token Launch Decline (Mar → May)
March 13: 4,977 tokens/day
May 20: 1,134 tokens/day → Down 77%
📉 Activation Rate: 5.3%
Out of ~23,000 tokens launched, only 1 in 20 even reached activation. Most never got traction. Never found buyers. Same as with Memecoins after all.
🧬 Actual ICM Projects
There are actually some projects under the ICM Narrative, some launched with Believe Protocol, that got some tractions, and are interesting:
$LAUNCHCOIN is the Believe Protocol Token, the hearbeat of ICM.
$DUPE helps people find the best price on furniture. It has 100k+ monthly active users.
$BUDDY is your personal AI marketing assistant. The point is to grow your account and engagement on X.
$FITCOIN offers an AI-enhanced virtual wardrobe. It had serious real-world traction (300K app downloads) & 4.1 rated app on the AppStore.
$NOODLE is a crypto-fueled clone of popular browser game Slither.io, where you can win and lose SOL by playing.
$JELLYJELLY already existed before, but is also part of the Narrative. Was a memecoin, now trying to build a product around it.
Usually these projects have in common Web2 Builders or Web2 ideas/projects launching a token.
Most of these tokens can be considered as memecoins as they don’t really have any utility.
Although they’re mostly down, some are recovering a bit, maybe giving hope for a recovery of the Narrative?
✅ Final Thoughts
ICM is the fastest testbed ever created for digital capital formation.
But currently the Narrative is actually very close to Memecoins & Pumpfun.
What actually defines an ICM token? A Web2 idea funded in seconds through Blockchain? An Internet Idea? A token launched through Believe? Memecoins?
Token launched via Believe don’t have clear utility, are they Memecoins then? Also, legally, can founders actually launch a token without it being considered a fundraising?
However, ICM could attract more founders to Crypto: By allowing instant access to capital at early stages, we will likely see a lot of mindshare migration to the crypto world.
And while the first wave has crashed, the idea could stay.
But the current state of the Narrative showed us that Attention & Liquidity move really fast.
I did not talk about ICM last week because I found the Narrative a bit confusing, and I was waiting to see if it had long term potential. Now, a week later, I’m still uncertain about this Narrative, but the mindshare is definitely 10 times lower than a week ago.
For now the attention is around AI Agents with Virtuals Ecosystem, and Hyperliquid. That’s where I allocate most of my liquidity, while keeping an eye to Narratives & Projects that look dead but could be revived very fast.
2/ Crypto & DeFi News
⚖️ Senators Push to Block Trump’s Crypto Profits in GENIUS Act Amendment
Just as the GENIUS Act—a long-awaited stablecoin regulation bill—gains traction in the U.S. Senate, high-ranking Democrats are now moving to amend it to block Donald Trump and his family from profiting off stablecoins like USD1.
Senators Schumer, Warren, and Merkley are backing a provision that would prevent U.S. presidents from financially benefiting from crypto legislation, citing concerns around Trump’s involvement with World Liberty Financial, the platform behind the USD1 stablecoin. The move follows reports that WLFI is tied to a $2B investment deal via Binance, potentially lining Trump’s pockets with transaction fees.
At the same time, Trump is under fire for hosting a private dinner for top buyers of his personal memecoin, raising even more red flags around influence peddling and crypto-fueled access to political power.
Thoughts
This is way more than just another crypto bill amendment—it’s a direct shot at Trump’s entire crypto empire. Democrats aren’t just worried about stablecoin risks—they’re targeting what they see as institutionalized grift, disguised as innovation.
Trump’s triple play in crypto—USD1 stablecoin, TrumpCoin memecoin, and DeFi platform WLFI—has made him omnipresent in the space. And while he touts U.S. dominance in crypto, it’s worth noting the U.S. has always led the industry. Miners, institutions, protocols—they were already American before Trump’s met his first blockchain advisor.
Still, the GENIUS Act is expected to pass—though, yes, painfully. Markets are already pricing in regulatory optimism, especially for stablecoins, as Bitcoin’s recent pump partially reflects. But here’s the catch: this amendment could stall or complicate things if it becomes a political litmus test. Some senators want Trump and his family out of crypto—not for optics, but to prevent what they see as open-air insider trading.
If that amendment sticks? GENIUS might be genius. If not? We could be looking at a Trump-branded dollar running unchecked in U.S. financial infrastructure. Wild times.
🧊 Sui Validators Freeze $162M After Cetus DEX Suffers $220M Hack
Cetus, a decentralized exchange on the Sui blockchain, was hit with a massive exploit on May 22, losing over $220 million in what’s being called a smart contract attack.
But the damage control was surprisingly swift—Sui validators froze $162M of the stolen funds by blacklisting the attacker’s wallet addresses. According to both Cetus and the Sui Foundation, they’re working with ecosystem stakeholders to recover the remaining assets and return funds to users. Still, $63M was already bridged to Ethereum, and over 20,000 ETH ($53M) was laundered through one wallet alone.
Community response has been mixed: some applaud the quick action, while others are very uneasy about how fast validators could censor wallet activity on a supposedly decentralized network.
Thoughts
Let’s be real—hacks happen, even to top-tier protocols. The Sui exploit is a major hit, but not a death sentence. If you’re on Sui, the smart move is to stay calm: most funds were frozen, and recovery efforts are clearly coordinated and proactive. Remember, even Ethereum and Solana have had their moments. Only Bitcoin has truly never been hit this way.
But here’s where it gets murky: if Sui validators can “freeze” wallets with a few clicks, what does that say about decentralization? It’s a lifesaver in this case, sure. But it also opens the door to censorship risk and governance-by-committee. It’s a fine line between protecting users and rewriting the rules on the fly.
The takeaway isn’t “Sui bad,” it’s “Web3 still has major security gaps.” Projects that respond quickly and transparently can survive these storms. Sui passed that test this week. Now it needs to prove it can decentralize without compromising safety.
📉 Bitcoin Slips Below $111K as Futures Open Interest Hits Record $80B
Bitcoin just tapped a new all-time high at $112K before dipping below $111K, but under the surface, the real story is leverage: open interest (OI) on BTC futures hit a record $80B this week.
OI has jumped 30% in May alone, signaling traders are heavily leveraged in hopes of new highs. The options market is also loaded, with over $2.7B in contracts expiring this week and massive positioning at the $110K–$130K range. The current put/call ratio of 1.2 shows more traders hedging than hoping.
Despite this, spot Bitcoin ETFs are still absorbing inflows—$2.5B just this week—acting as a counterweight to overleveraged derivatives. Still, if price dips too hard, liquidations could cascade into major sell pressure.
Thoughts
This isn’t real FOMO—yet. Bitcoin may have touched ATHs, but we haven’t seen the signature insane green days (+15% or +25%) that mark euphoric top-chasing. Right now, it’s structured speculation more than mass mania. But will we see this kind of candles on BTC anymore? Maybe not.
Yes, derivatives are maxed out, and yes, it’s getting fragile. But the next leg likely depends on one thing: global liquidity (M2). And that catalyst? Still cooking. Analysts expect the next wave of M2-driven market fuel around September.
Europe (ultra-low rates) and China (cutting) are currently feeding the system, but the U.S. hasn't even turned on the firehose yet. When they do—either via rate cuts, stimulus, or good ol' monetary sprawl—the impact could be monstrous. That’s when true risk-asset melt-ups happen.
So yeah, BTC is flirting with price discovery. But the real face-melting move? Still loading.
⚽ FIFA Migrates NFT Marketplace to Avalanche-Powered Blockchain for 5B Fans
FIFA is going all-in on Avalanche, launching a dedicated layer-1 blockchain to host its NFT marketplace, FIFA Collect, and future digital fan experiences.
The move will see FIFA drop its old Algorand setup and migrate entirely to AvaCloud, Avalanche’s enterprise-grade infrastructure that’s EVM-compatible and optimized for speed and scalability. Fans will soon access collectibles and in-game assets through MetaMask and other WalletConnect-supported wallets—say goodbye to Pera and Defly.
FIFA says the decision followed a “rigorous analysis” of blockchain performance, fees, security, and customization—Avalanche came out on top. Modex CEO Francesco Abbate confirmed that more business use cases are in the pipeline but haven’t yet been revealed.
Thoughts
FIFA doesn’t do small deals—this is major validation for Avalanche as a serious layer-1 with enterprise chops. The migration of FIFA Collect means millions of users will be onboarded into Web3 through the world’s most popular sport.
It’s also a quiet flex: Avalanche is proving it’s not just about DeFi or gaming—it can handle mass-market entertainment and sports at scale. With FIFA’s five billion–strong fanbase, even a small adoption slice would be monumental for both Avalanche and Web3 mainstreaming.
The bigger narrative? Legacy institutions are no longer experimenting—they’re committing. We’ve moved from “NFT trial campaigns” to full-on blockchain infrastructure builds. FIFA’s switch from Algorand to Avalanche also tells you everything about who’s winning the L1 adoption war in 2025.
Keep an eye out. If FIFA’s “future plans” include ticketing, gaming, or digital stadiums, Avalanche might just become the official chain of global football.
💥 Whale YOLOs $1.1B BTC Long at 40x Leverage on Hyperliquid – Up $36M So Far
In what might be the craziest trade of the year, a crypto whale just leveraged into a $1.1 billion long on Bitcoin at 40x on the DEX Hyperliquid—and it's already up $36 million.
The trader, who goes by “James Wynn” on X, built the position with just $28.4M in margin, averaging in at $108,065 per BTC. After briefly being down $16M, the position roared back to life as BTC surged past $110K toward its new ATH. Wynn’s liquidation price? A hair-raising $103,790.
This is the first-ever $1B+ position on Hyperliquid, a rising perp DEX on its own L1. And Wynn isn’t new to degenerate bets—he’s longed everything from XRP to Trump Token to Fartcoin. Yes, really.
As things go really fast in Crypto, this huge long that got everyone talking on CT has been closed. And it seems like he’s now shorting BTC.
Thoughts
This isn’t just a flex—it’s next-level leverage. A 40x bet of this size isn’t just rare, it’s absurdly risky. One bad tick, one nasty wick, and poof—$1.1B vapes into thin air. That it’s up $36M already? Chef’s kiss, but this is the kind of trade that writes legends or ruins careers.
Also: this is peak decentralized derivatives energy. Hyperliquid’s rise as a serious perp player is real, and this trade puts it on the map in the most degenerate way possible.
But let’s be honest—this isn’t sustainable. Leveraged punts like this will eventually end in carnage. Until then? James Wynn is the main character of the week. The man longed Bitcoin, maxed out leverage, and is dancing in the $36M green—mad lad or market genius, you decide.
That’s it for today frens!
Thank you for sticking around, your future self will thank you. You can follow me on X @CryptoShiro_.
