Tiger Brokers (Hong Kong) expands encryption business; LetsBonk.fun and Believe seize market share from Pump.fun | Gate Research Institute

Summary

1. BTC has been consolidating after the rebound on May 13, facing resistance at $105,000, with weak upward momentum but clear support.
2. ETH fluctuated after a surge, with ETF funds flowing out, and the rebound may be driven by technical factors.
3. The crypto insurance company Chainproof has launched a new insurance product for Ethereum stakers.
4. JPMorgan completes its first tokenized government bond public trade using Chainlink and Ondo.
5. Tiger Brokers (Hong Kong) launched cryptocurrency deposit token services.
6. Pump.fun's market share is being eroded by LetsBonk.fun and Believe, with a significant decrease in daily token launch share.

Market Interpretation

Market Commentary

• BTC Market —— BTC has rebounded from around $102,000 since May 13, and is currently fluctuating between $102,500 and $105,800. The price has repeatedly failed to effectively break through the upper limit of $105,000, indicating a weakening upward momentum; while it has found support multiple times around $102,000, showing some buying strength. On the technical side, if the price effectively breaks through (or falls below) the aforementioned two price lines, it may have a significant impact on the mid to short-term market.
• ETH Market —— In the past 7 days, the volatility of the ETH market has significantly increased. After reaching a high of around 2,600 USD on May 9, the price has shown a fluctuating trend and is currently oscillating between 2,425 USD and 2,700 USD. Although ETH experienced a substantial increase on May 8, and the ETH/BTC exchange rate rebounded, the overall trend of ETH spot ETF last week showed a capital outflow, indicating that this round of increase may not have been driven by ETF funds, with some viewpoints suggesting it could be a technical rebound.
• Altcoins —— In the past 7 days, the altcoin market has shown varied performance, with certain sectors like Meme, AI Agent, and Gate ETF demonstrating strong performance, among which tokens such as MOODENG (SOL) have seen significant gains. However, the overall market has also experienced a brief pullback. In terms of market sentiment, the Fear and Greed Index continues to remain in the Greed zone.
• Futures Market —— In the past 7 days, the buy-sell ratio of Bitcoin has been negative overall, indicating a bearish outlook on Bitcoin's price trend in the short term. With the results of the China-U.S. Geneva economic and trade talks being announced, risk assets experienced a rally due to favorable factors. However, as Bitcoin's previous rise has partially absorbed this good news, some profit-taking funds have chosen to cash out. The day after the above news was released, a large outflow of BTC ETFs was observed, reflecting institutional investors' concerns about the short-term pressure on Bitcoin.
• Macroeconomic Data —— On May 13, the United States released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April, which showed an unexpected cooling of inflation. The CPI for March decreased by 0.1% month-on-month, marking the lowest point in nearly five years, while the core CPI increased by 2.8% year-on-year, representing the smallest increase in four years. Although these data indicate that inflationary pressures faced by American consumers have eased, maintaining this positive momentum may be challenging, especially following the comprehensive tariff policies implemented by the Trump administration.
• Stablecoin —— The total market value of stablecoins increased by 0.13% to $24.254 billion, with additional funds flowing in from over-the-counter transactions.
• Gas Fee —— Recently, the activity on the Ethereum chain has decreased compared to the previous peak, showing a declining trend this week. As of May 15, the average Gas fee for the day was only 0.468 Gwei.

Popular Concepts

This week, the price of Bitcoin fluctuated widely between $105,000 and $102,000, with various altcoin sectors performing differently. According to Coingecko data, the Frog-Themed, Launchpad, and Layer 2 sectors achieved significant breakthroughs this week, with increases of about 57%, 44%, and 20% respectively over seven days. The commonality among these three sectors is that their technology or narrative development is highly popular, all belonging to recent hot tracks.

Frog-Themed With the explosive popularity of Pepe, various Frog-Themed frog coins have become iconic symbols in the Meme world, attracting a large following of fans. — In the past seven days, this sector has risen over 57%, with notable increases in FROC, SIZE, and BABYPURPE within 7 days, among which FROC's increase once exceeded 400%.

Launchpad As a bridge between emerging high-quality projects and investors, Launchpad has been widely favored by market funds for many years with its high investment success rate. As a result, Launchpad has evolved into one of the most important areas for the creation of hundredfold or even thousandfold potential cryptocurrency projects. ——THE SECTOR HAS RISEN SIGNIFICANTLY IN THE PAST SEVEN DAYS, WITH THE OVERALL SECTOR RISING BY MORE THAN 44%, AMONG WHICH LAUNCHCOIN, REVS, AND GOCHU HAVE RISEN PROMINENTLY.

Layer 2 Layer 2 includes various proposed solutions to address blockchain scalability challenges, with notable examples like Bitcoin's "Lightning Network" and Ethereum's "Plasma", which serve as different "fast lanes" for their respective networks. Although the implementation methods differ, the goal is the same: to enable the blockchain to process more transactions per second. — In the past seven days, this sector has risen over 20%, with KRO, GEL, and ERN showing significant increases.

This Week's Focus

The crypto insurance company Chainproof launches a new insurance product for Ethereum stakers.

The crypto insurance company Chainproof has partnered with the insurance brokerage IMA Financial Group to launch an innovative insurance product for Ethereum stakers. This product aims to address the risk of penalties and ensures that stakers receive at least the annual yield of the Comprehensive Ethereum Staking Rate (CESR). In the event that penalties result in yields falling below the CESR, Chainproof will cover the shortfall.

The launch of this insurance product marks an important step in the blockchain insurance field in reducing Ethereum staking risks and enhancing the predictability of returns, particularly attractive to institutional investors. It is expected to attract more funds into the Ethereum staking ecosystem, enhance network security, and foreshadows a future where the blockchain insurance sector will develop in a more specialized and institutionalized direction, potentially leading to the emergence of more innovative insurance products targeting specific crypto assets and risk scenarios.

JPMorgan completes its first public trade of tokenized government bonds with Chainlink and Ondo

JPMorgan announced that its blockchain division Kinexys has successfully completed its first transaction settlement on a public chain with the help of Chainlink and Ondo Finance. The transaction involved the purchase of tokenized government bonds deployed on the Ondo public ledger through a private chain account, and utilized the Chainlink protocol to trigger cross-chain payments. This marks JPMorgan's first construction of a transaction structure directly interfacing with a public blockchain.

As a traditional financial giant, JPMorgan's move undoubtedly sets a benchmark for institutions embracing DeFi and blockchain technology, signaling that the integration of traditional financial institutions with decentralized financial infrastructure will accelerate in the future. Its use of tokenized treasury bonds as trading targets further highlights the enormous potential of real-world assets (RWA) being brought on-chain, which is expected to attract more traditional assets into the blockchain ecosystem and unleash new liquidity. In addition, the key role played by Chainlink in this transaction validates its value as a cross-chain interoperability protocol, promoting the efficient flow of value and information between different blockchain networks, laying the foundation for a more open and interconnected financial system. JPMorgan emphasizes that this move is not a short-term response, but rather a long-term strategic layout, hinting at the profound trends of future financial infrastructure reform.

Tiger Brokers (Hong Kong) has launched a cryptocurrency deposit coin service.

Tiger Brokers (Hong Kong) announced the launch of a cryptocurrency deposit and withdrawal service, allowing users to deposit, trade, and withdraw mainstream cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) in their Tiger Trade accounts. The platform has obtained a virtual asset trading service license issued by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.

Tiger Brokers (Hong Kong), as a licensed brokerage, has launched a cryptocurrency deposit service that supports mainstream currencies such as BTC and ETH, marking an important step for traditional financial institutions in embracing the field of crypto assets. This move not only provides Hong Kong investors with a more convenient and compliant channel for cryptocurrency trading but also further promotes the integration of crypto assets with traditional financial markets. Tiger Brokers' entry is expected to attract more traditional investors to participate in digital asset trading, expanding market participation and liquidity.

Sky Q1 lost 5 million USD, a significant decline compared to the profit of 31 million USD in the previous quarter.

DeFi savings protocol Sky lost $5 million in the first quarter of 2025, largely due to a massive 102% increase in interest payments on USDS in an effort to entice DAI holders to switch to its new stablecoin, USDS. Although the USDS interest rate has fallen from 12.5% at the beginning of the year to 4.5% in February, interest expense pressures remain. In the first quarter, the total supply of USDS and DAI grew by 57%, with more than $450 million in funding coming from the Ethena protocol, which deposits funds into Sky to stake USDS and distributes the proceeds to holders of its stablecoin, USDe.

Although the DeFi savings protocol Sky is facing profit losses in the short term, its strategy to actively attract users through high interest rates and challenge the market position of the DAI stablecoin demonstrates a strong willingness for market expansion. The deep cooperation with the Ethena protocol has already brought in over $450 million in capital inflow, indicating that USDS has attractiveness and use cases in other important DeFi protocols, and is expected to continue driving capital and user growth. However, investors need to closely monitor Sky's ongoing losses and the impact of interest expenses on its profitability; whether it can effectively control costs while maintaining user growth will be key to its future development.

Highlight Data

Believe the total market value of the ecological token has exceeded 450 million USD, with a cumulative trading volume of over 1.4 billion USD.

According to data from Believe Screener, the total market capitalization of Believe ecological tokens exceeded $450 million, and the number of tokens created on the platform reached 11,231, with a cumulative trading volume of $1.406 billion. LAUNCHCOIN EXTENDED ITS RALLY, WITH A MARKET CAPITALIZATION BREAKOUT OF $360 MILLION AT ONE POINT AND A $120 MILLION 24-HOUR TRADING VOLUME. AT THE TIME OF WRITING, LAUNCHCOIN HAS FALLEN BACK TO AROUND $270 MILLION IN MARKET CAPITALIZATION, UP MORE THAN 200 TIMES SINCE THE END OF APRIL.

PASTERNAK is the celebrity coin of Ben Pasternak, the founder of Clout. Clout is a SocialFi platform that allows celebrities and creators to issue tokens named after themselves to attract fans and investors, thus achieving the financialization of personal brands. On April 28, Clout announced its brand as Believe; on April 29, PASTERNAK was renamed to Launch Coin on Believe (LAUNCHCOIN), with the token name consistent with Believe.

The rapid rebound of the Believe platform indicates that the market's interest in "influence financialization" and "early project investment" remains strong. However, high volatility and emotional driving are evident, making it suitable for short-term high-frequency traders. Currently, LAUNCHCOIN has a strong consensus foundation and popularity, but lacks a stable mechanism, with varying quality in project selection and a relatively short token lifecycle. One must be cautious of sudden liquidity drops and selling pressure risks. Future observation points include: new project quality, the timeline for the platform governance mechanism launch, the linkage path with mainstream exchanges like Gate, and whether it can build a moat to fend off impacts from new competitors.

The contract positions for XRP and DOGE have increased, but the price momentum is weakening, suggesting a cautious outlook for the market.

According to data from Glassnode, despite the spot price showing signs of fatigue, speculative positions in the XRP and DOGE contract markets continue to accumulate, indicating a growing preference in the market for volatility and downside risk. The data shows:

• The open interest in DOGE contracts surged by 63.9% within a week (from $989 million to $1.62 billion), while the spot price increased by 40% to $0.23 during the same period;
• XRP open interest increased by 41.6% in one week (an increase of over 1 billion dollars), while the spot price rose moderately from 2.14 to 2.6 dollars.

The divergence between the weakening price momentum and the surge in open interest suggests that speculative positions in the market continue to accumulate, which is a situation worth being cautious about. Open interest serves as a barometer for speculative activity, and when it diverges from stagnant prices, it often indicates that the growth of leverage has surpassed actual confidence. This pattern has triggered flash crashes multiple times in the past.

Pump.fun's market share is being eroded by LetsBonk.fun and Believe, with daily token launch shares significantly declining.

According to Dune, Pump.fun's dominance is being challenged by new platforms such as LetsBonk.fun, Believe, and LaunchLab. Pump.fun has dropped to 57.5% of the daily launch tokens in the market from 98%+ previously, while Letsbonk.fun accounts for 17.9%, Believe accounts for 12.9%, and LaunchLab accounts for 5%. Recently, the most popular meme coins such as LAUNCHCOIN, GOONC, DUPE, Hosico, etc. have been released on LetsBonk.fun or Believe, Punp.fun few projects have performed well recently.

The rapid rise of LetsBonk.fun and Believe has filled the market gap left by Pump.fun, demonstrating differentiated competitiveness in product forms, community mobilization, and token economic models. For example, LetsBonk.fun clearly emphasizes topicality and viral传播机制, putting more effort into attracting new users and creators; while Believe enhances project retention and discussion through community participation mechanisms, aesthetic design, and traffic linkage, collaborating with multiple KOLs to issue tokens.

In the field of meme coins, the launch platform is essentially a traffic distributor, and once it loses the carrying capacity of a hot project, the attention of users and creators will quickly spill over. Pump.fun The deeper problem lies in the "weakness" of the mechanism, whose model has become highly homogeneous and lacks freshness, resulting in aesthetic fatigue in the user experience. Previously, it was rumored in the market that Pump.fun may launch a platform token, perhaps this move can re-cultivate user stickiness. Otherwise, Pump.fun will be reduced from the former Solana chain unicorn meme launch platform to a "historical stage tool" on the chain.

Market Opportunities

Gate Initial Coin Offering

The new project to focus on this week is: Puffverse (PFVS). PuffVerse is a metaverse gaming platform built on the Ronin chain, featuring a "casual gaming + social + play-to-earn (P2E)" model. Puffverse is a Web3 gaming ecosystem created by the original game development team from Xiaomi, integrating strong Web2 development experience with cutting-edge Web3 technology concepts. With deep technical accumulation and product refinement capabilities, Puffverse received strategic investments from top Web3 investment institutions like Animoca Brands in 2024, showcasing its excellent project potential and long-term development prospects. In the same year, Puffverse fully migrated to the Ronin Network, a platform that previously supported phenomenon-level games like Axie Infinity, providing high-performance on-chain infrastructure and comprehensive ecological support. In the future, Puffverse will also build a cloud gaming platform, expand the IP business ecosystem that combines virtual and real elements, and continuously increase its influence in both Web2 and Web3 fields, aiming to create a benchmark project for the next generation of Web3 games and virtual worlds. The participation methods are as follows:

Preparation (Before Subscription Starts)

• Gate account: Register and complete user authentication;
• Top-up assets: Ensure that there is enough USDT in the account, this Launchpad only supports USDT subscription;

Subscription Phase

• Time Window: May 13, 2025, 11:00 to May 16, 2025, 20:00 (UTC+8)
• Steps to follow: First, log in to Gate and go to the 【Launchpad】 page; second, select the Puffverse project and click 【Participate Now】; finally, enter the subscription amount and confirm to lock in the funds.

Subscription Details

• Subscription Price: 1 PFVS = 0.07 USDT
• Total Subscription Amount: 10,000,000 PFVS
• Personal Quota Formula: The system will fairly distribute tokens based on the proportion of the user's investment amount. The number of tokens a user receives = (individual investment amount / total investment amount of all users) * total subscription amount. The maximum number of tokens a single person can receive is 10,000 PFVS.
• Distribution Time: Distributed on the day of TGE
• Spot trading time: End of May
• Unlocking Method: 100% Unlock

Financing Weekly Report

This week, multiple projects successfully completed financing, involving a wide range of applications in infrastructure, developer platforms, and more. According to RootData statistics, from May 9 to May 15, a total of 9 projects announced financing, totaling $75.6 million. Here are excerpts from popular projects:

Openverse Network On May 12, completed a $11 million strategic round of financing, with participation from Castrum Capital and others. Openverse Global is a Layer0 hub network based on blockchain technology, proposing the concept of "fully open protocol cross-chain" on the existing blockchain technology foundation, which will make the transmission of value (Token/NFT/message) between different blockchains, the metaverse, and the traditional internet as simple as sending an email. Openverse proposed the "Bitcoin VRC10 protocol," "private key VRC11 protocol," and "public key issuance mechanism, PCIM," among other protocol systems. The new funds are intended to accelerate its ecosystem development globally, including ecosystem construction, encouraging more developers and partners to join, and collectively building a more open and interconnected value network.

Nirvana Labs Completed a $6 million expansion seed round financing on May 13. Nirvana Labs is developing a Web3 infrastructure solution for building, managing, and supporting any blockchain application, allowing developers to create their own API gateways and connect to its low-latency global network nodes located in over 30 data center regions. Its low-latency nodes (distributed across more than 30 data centers) and high-throughput design reduce costs by up to 85% compared to traditional cloud services (such as AWS), addressing the urgent demand for high-performance computing in Web3 applications. The financing will be used to expand global data centers and optimize products such as Kubernetes management services.

KYD Labs On May 14, a $7 million seed round financing was completed, led by a16z Crypto, marking a breakthrough for the Web3 ticketing platform in the live event sector. KYD Labs is a Web3-based ticketing solution platform for live events that leverages blockchain technology (including smart contracts and possible NFTs) to provide ticketing services, aiming to enhance fan engagement and create more revenue opportunities for event organizers. KYD has processed over $4 million in ticket sales, partnering with venues like Le Poisson Rouge to achieve a 30% sales increase, demonstrating its commercial potential.

Focus Next Week

token unlock

According to data from Token Unlocks, there will be significant token unlock events in the market next week (2025.5.19-5.25). The total value unlocked will exceed 560 million dollars.

The situation before unlocking the top 3 next week is as follows:

• PYTH will unlock tokens worth approximately $374 million on May 19th (02:00 UTC+0), accounting for 58.62% of the circulating supply, which is currently at 36.2%, with a total token supply of approximately 10 billion.
• MURA will unlock tokens worth approximately $4.09 million on May 23 at 12:00 UTC+0, accounting for 1.00% of the circulating supply, which is currently 88.0%, with a total circulating amount of about 1 billion tokens.
• VENOM will unlock tokens worth approximately $6.7 million on May 25th (8:00 UTC+0), accounting for 2.86% of the circulating supply, which is currently 29.4%, with a circulation of 2 billion tokens.
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• Cnyes, https://news.cnyes.com/news/id/5978994
• CoinDesk, https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/05/13/defi-savings-protocol-sky-slumps-to-5m-loss-as-usds-interest-payments-wipe-out-profit
• X, https://x.com/glassnode/status/1922638034656239968
• NEAR, https://pages.near.org/blog/blink-and-its-final-near-launches-600ms-blocks-and-1-2s-finality/
• Gate, https://www.gate.io/zh/launchpad
• Rootdata, https://cn.rootdata.com/Fundraising
• Token Unlocks, https://tokenomist.ai/unlocks
• Investing, https://cn.investing.com/economic-calendar/

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