Crypto Markets Roar in Week 21: Bulls Charge as Traders Shrug Off Traditional Finance Woes

Bitcoin smashes through resistance levels while Wall Street scrambles to keep up—proof that decentralized finance isn’t waiting for permission.

Altcoins join the party with double-digit gains, leaving legacy assets in the dust. Meanwhile, bankers still can’t decide if crypto is a ’risk-on asset’ or the apocalypse.

Another week, another ATH for DeFi protocols. The revolution will not be collateralized (by your 9-to-5 salary).

Robinhood plans to offer Real-World Assets

Real-World Assets (RWAs) refer to physical or intangible assets such as real estate, commodities, or corporate shares that can be tokenized and utilized in the decentralized blockchain economy. Similar to stablecoins, RWAs are backed by real-world values and reflect them on the blockchain. Robinhood, one of the world’s leading stock brokers, plans to quickly offer this concept to its customers. The company has submitted a regulatory proposal to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to advance the launch of the Robinhood RWA Exchange (RRE) – a platform based on the Solana and Base blockchains. Other financial giants in the US are also increasingly turning to tokenization. Since March 2024, BlackRock has been offering a tokenized money market fund on the ethereum blockchain, which now manages 3 billion USD. Additionally, the investment bank JPMorgan tested its first RWA transaction on a public blockchain in the week before last.

Kraken overtakes from the right

Not only traditional financial institutions want to offer tokenized assets to their customers. While Robinhood is waiting for approval in the US, the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced the launch of blockchain-based stock trading. Initially, US investors will be excluded from the offer. The Swiss startup Backed Finance acts as the infrastructure provider, enabling the conversion of stocks into fiat currency. The tokenized assets can be traded on the exchange around the clock – even on weekends and in real-time, without central clearinghouses. The “xStocks” provide international users with easy access to US stocks, particularly in countries without direct stock exchange connections. This could allow Kraken to attract a new target audience for digital financial products.

15th anniversary of Pizza Day

This week, the Bitcoin community celebrated a humorous yet significant milestone. “Bitcoin Pizza Day” marked the moment when the theoretical concept of Bitcoin (BTC) was first used as a practical means of payment. On May 22, 2010, a member of the Bitcointalk forum paid 10,000 Bitcoin for two pizzas – an amount that, at the current all-time high, equates to over 1.1 billion USD. When Laszlo Hanyecz made this transaction, he demonstrated that Bitcoin could be used as a real currency, which is a fundamental characteristic of any currency. Although Bitcoin was an exciting system at the time, the cryptocurrency was not really used as a medium of exchange. “And if no one uses it, it doesn’t matter how many Bitcoin I have,” the pioneer added.

Cardano community in turmoil

In addition: NFT artist Masato Alexander recently caused a stir. He claimed in a post that Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson moved more than 300 million unused ADA tokens into the network reserves in 2021. These tokens came from the 2017 ICO and had not been redeemed by their original owners. Alexander accused Hoskinson’s company IOHK of misusing their Genesis keys to rewrite the Cardano blockchain. In response to an inquiry from CVJ.CH, IOHK stated that these were careful off-chain processes. The company had hired the law firm McDermott Will & Emery and the auditing firm BDO to independently review the ADA withdrawals and create a public report on the matter.