Hola DDians! Tension is in the air. With the U.S. moving B-2 bombers to Guam, the probability of the country joining the Iran-Israel war has increased significantly. Crypto markets have maintained their downtrend. But while the numbers have dipped, it’s not the worst-case scenario. Let’s take a closer look at the situation to gain insights to guide our actions during these turbulent times.
Here’s what we have in this issue for you –
- Dollar’s not almighty anymore
- New love for ETH?
- Trump firm sneaking out of WLFI
Are The Dollar’s Days Over? Seems So💱
After Iranian missiles struck Microsoft’s tech park in Israel, the latter responded with strikes in kind.
Crude Oil Futures shot through the roof. If you played your bets well, you would now be sitting on a tall pile of cash.
Speaking of cash, the U.S. Dollar sank to multi-level lows and doesn’t seem to be in the mood to get back up anytime soon. It’s as if the “Dollar’s Downhill Doom” was already scripted before President Trump assumed his place as the White House boss in January this year.
And while the Dollar is having a massive breakdown, 10Y yields are rising across the board, driven not by growth, but fear.
The “Dollar and Bond Safe-Haven” narrative is eroding. The cash and treasury bill-led traditional wealth protection move is becoming redundant. The Japanese Yen, the Swiss Franc, and the Euro are now outperforming U.S. bonds and have taken over the safe-haven title from the USD. But how did this happen?
Because TAMA (read There Are Many Alternatives).
Bitcoin, for example, has become a dumping ground for institutional money. But wait a minute?
Middle-East tensions (or geopolitical tensions in general), the Dollar Dive, and bond yield rallies should be bullish for BTC, right? Shouldn’t BTC’s scarce, apolitical, global nature be working in its favor right now?
But the market isn’t playing out that way.
Why?
- The Fed staying on hold longer delays the next major tailwind for BTC.
- Liquidity is retreating. Stablecoin outflows are climbing. Net taker volume is heavily negative.
- Retail sentiment for Bitcoin just hit its most bearish level since April, with only 1.03 bullish comments per bearish one (see chart below).
The BTCUSDT pair lost some strength post its dip below the $105,000 price level, but has held strongly above the EMA (Exponential Moving Average) on the weekly chart.
So there’s hope. All’s not doom and gloom.
For more perspective, here’s what the whales are doing:
- On-chain data shows that large BTC holders accumulated 30,784 BTC (~$3.3B) at the recent $110K retest.
- Their average entry? $64K. They’re not panic-selling. They don’t plan to.
- The divergence between BTC price and Binance’s Open Interest shows that futures participants are sitting this out—a situation that’s historically been followed by violent squeezes.
The narrative has changed. Markets are undergoing a paradigm shift.
We’re moving from a USD-dominated world to one where Bitcoin, gold, and the yen are competing as risk-adjusted alternatives.
Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Of course, there is. But for the moment, we have to collectively exercise caution and patience until we get to the light at the end of the tunnel. And, hopefully, it’s not too long before that happens.
Ever Been To An ETH Whale Backyard?🤩
That’s what an ETH Whale Backyard looks like. SharpLink Gaming (NASDAQ: SBET) is the latest entrant in the “Ether Big Boys Club.”
According to new data, roughly 1,167,712 ETH is now held in strategic reserves — meaning ETH has been explicitly designated as a long-term holding by funds, foundations, and listed companies. At current prices, that’s nearly $3 billion, or 0.97% of Ethereum’s circulating supply.
But the real story isn’t just the total. It’s the concentration.
Over 72% of this strategic ETH is held by just five entities.
ETH Treasury Different From BTC Treasury
Let’s be honest. Corporate Bitcoin accumulation was a carefully calculated move to boost the stock prices of “original business model bye-bye, we are now Bitcoin Treasury companies.”
However, with ETH, it’s a quieter, more infrastructure-driven narrative.
- SharpLink recently acquired $463 million in ETH in a private placement led by Consensys and Galaxy Digital.
- Coinbase is continuing to add ETH to its balance sheet amid rising L2 revenues.
- The Ethereum Foundation still holds a quarter million ETH as it stewards protocol development.
- Projects like PulseChain and Golem are using ETH reserves to back ecosystem expansion.
So What’s The Play Here?
There’s not one but many.
ETH is gaining confidence as programmable capital, not just an asset to flip, but a piece of digital infrastructure.
And it is catching up to Bitcoin in terms of institutional legitimacy.
Ethereum’s native token is powering RWA development and deployment, and Layer 2 scaling, and with surging momentum in aforementioned avenues, the list of strategic ETH holders is likely to grow and consolidate further.
Strategic ETH holdings are approaching 1% of the total supply. Once that number crosses the threshold, it becomes undeniable — Ethereum’s institutional era isn’t coming. It’s already here.
Time to fill your ETH bags, if they aren’t full already😉
Trump Firm Getting Cold Feet Over WLFI?🤨
DT Marks DeFi, a President Trump-linked entity, owned a 75% stake in World Liberty Financial (WLFI, read Trump’s crypto flagship).
Now it’s down to just 40%.
In March 2025, it had dropped to 60%.
From 60% to 40%, it’s a 20% equity offload, unannounced, untracked, and potentially unnoticed… until now.
What is World Liberty Financial?
- Governed by its token (WLFI).
- Features a USD-backed stablecoin (USD1), which just helped close a $2B investment from Abu Dhabi’s MGX
- Does airdrops to insiders.
- Boasts of political proximity that no other project can touch.
And yet, as scrutiny grows, Trump’s team is backing off quietly. But why?
- It could be preemptive distancing as regulation looms.
- Strategic repositioning before WLFI seeks exchange listings?
- Or maybe just too much heat from crypto dinners and memecoin megadonors.
Add in WLFI’s public listing of the Trump family as “related persons,” and you’ve got a web of entanglements that looks more like a Senate investigation than a startup cap table.
What is at stake?
- DT Marks DeFi still owns 40% of WLFI.
- USD1 supply stands at 2.2 billion tokens.
- The WLFI airdrop just happened.
- USD1 was used to settle Binance’s $2B deal.
- And yes, Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Zach Folkman are still listed as insiders.
Bottom Line
Trump’s crypto tentacles are real — but they may be retreating. The WLFI exit maneuver isn’t just a footnote. It’s a chess move — one that hints at internal worries, mounting legal risk, or perhaps a strategic shakeup in crypto’s most controversial presidential power play.
And with that, we wrap up this week’s DD issue. Play safe as the weather changes in crypto land.
