Speaker 1: Hey, it's Alex with the Token Metrics daily Pulse for
Speaker 1: May fifth, twenty twenty six. Bitcoin's holding eighty one thousand
Speaker 1: after absorbing two hundred million in profit taking, Tawn just
Speaker 1: surged thirty six percent, and Indrees and Horowitz dropped two
Speaker 1: point two billion on crypto. A lot to get into,
Speaker 1: but first a quick word from our sponsor. Okay, So
Speaker 1: here's what's happening. Bitcoin is at eighty one thousand dollars
Speaker 1: right now. And the thing that makes this interesting isn't
Speaker 1: the price, it's how it got there. The market absorbed
Speaker 1: two hundred million dollars in profit taking at eighty thousand
Speaker 1: and kept climbing. Fear and greed jumped ten points in
Speaker 1: a single day, landing at fifty neutral territory. That's a
Speaker 1: fast sentiment swing, and fast moves like that can reverse
Speaker 1: just as quickly. And then there's Town up thirty six
Speaker 1: percent and twenty four hours after Telegram announced it's taking
Speaker 1: direct control of the network. We'll get into that in
Speaker 1: a minute. So where does the broader market stand. DeFi
Speaker 1: that's decentralized finance. Total value locked is around eighty six
Speaker 1: billion dollars. Stable coin supply is just over three hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty one billion, basically flat. That matters because it
Speaker 1: means there's still cash sitting on the sidelines, not yet deployed.
Speaker 1: Fear and greed at fifty sounds boring until you remember
Speaker 1: it was deep in fear territory not long ago. Bitcoin
Speaker 1: dominance is also quietly creeping higher, up over a point
Speaker 1: in twenty four hours. In plain English. Money is flowing
Speaker 1: into Bitcoin specifically, not spreading out to the rest of
Speaker 1: the market. Ethereum and Salana are holding, but they're not
Speaker 1: leading right now. This is a Bitcoin story. What's driving
Speaker 1: all this Two things stand out. First, Bitcoin's funding rate
Speaker 1: situation will go deep on that in a second. Second,
Speaker 1: the ton Telegram takeover, and underneath both of those acquire
Speaker 1: signal two major crypto funds Andresen Horowitz with two point
Speaker 1: two billion in HAWN ventures with one billion, both closed
Speaker 1: raises this week during a period when everyday investors were
Speaker 1: still cautious. That's big money making a long term bet.
Speaker 1: Bitcoin is the alpha spotlight this week, up about seven
Speaker 1: percent over the last seven days, trading right around eighty
Speaker 1: one thousand. The setup is labeled bullish, and the structure
Speaker 1: backs that up, but Here's the nuance. When a move
Speaker 1: gets this crowded, upside tends to come in shorter, shoppier
Speaker 1: bursts rather than a clean straight line. The chart is
Speaker 1: still constructive, just don't expect a smooth ride from here.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into the stories. Start with Tawn.
Speaker 1: Telegram announced it's becoming the largest validator. Think of that
Speaker 1: as the main vote counter and rule enforcer on the
Speaker 1: Tawn network and replacing the ton foundation. Price jumped thirty
Speaker 1: six percent in twenty four hours. Ten Telegram built a
Speaker 1: messaging app with nearly a billion users, A blockchain grew
Speaker 1: up around it, and now Telegram is taking back the wheel.
Speaker 1: The plan is to push Tawn as the chain for
Speaker 1: payments and mini apps inside Telegram. If that happens at scale,
Speaker 1: the user base alone is enormous. The risk a network
Speaker 1: run by a single company with a complicated history isn't
Speaker 1: exactly the decentralization story. Crypto usually tells watch on chain
Speaker 1: activity over the next week. If daily active addresses climb,
Speaker 1: this has legs. If volume fades after the pop, it
Speaker 1: was a narrative trade, not a real shift. Next, Bitcoin's
Speaker 1: sixty six day negative funding streak. Here's the part worth
Speaker 1: slowing down for. Normally, when price rallies, traders pile into
Speaker 1: long positions and funding rates flip positive, which means the
Speaker 1: rally is being fueled by borrowed money. This rally is
Speaker 1: the opposite. Shorts have been paying longs for over two
Speaker 1: months straight, which means the market has been betting against
Speaker 1: every move up. Glassnode data shows long term holders added
Speaker 1: around three hundred thirty thousand bitcoin recently. That's conviction buying
Speaker 1: Bitcoin ETFs pulled in over five hundred million as price
Speaker 1: reclaimed eighty thousand when price climbs against that kind of skepticism.
Speaker 1: It's a different kind of rally than one built on leverage.
Speaker 1: Andresen Horowitz closed a two point two billion dollar crypto
Speaker 1: fund their fifth Their argument crypto fundamentals like developer activity
Speaker 1: and stable coin adoption are stronger than ever even while
Speaker 1: prices were down. They also promoted their tech lead to
Speaker 1: general partner. The read there is that AI and crypto
Speaker 1: are converging, and andreasen Horowitz wants to own that intersection
Speaker 1: watch where they deploy first over the next thirty days.
Speaker 1: That'll tell you more than any press release. Standard Chartered
Speaker 1: took a stake in crypto market maker GSR at around
Speaker 1: a one billion dollar valuation. A market maker is basically
Speaker 1: the middleman that keeps trading flowing between buyer and sellers.
Speaker 1: Standard Chartered already has crypto trading and safekeeping services. Adding
Speaker 1: GSR means they're buying more of the behind the scenes
Speaker 1: machinery that makes institutional crypto trading work. A one billion
Speaker 1: dollar price tag says they expect that flow to keep growing,
Speaker 1: and Coinbase cut fourteen percent of its staff while Bitcoin
Speaker 1: is at eighty one thousand. CEO Brian Armstrong was explicit
Speaker 1: this is AI replacing headcount, not a survival cut. Coinbase
Speaker 1: is the first major crypto company to say that publicly
Speaker 1: at this scale. The implication if the largest US crypto
Speaker 1: exchange can run leaner because of AI tools, every other
Speaker 1: company in the space is doing the same math right now,
Speaker 1: watch their next earnings. If margins improve without revenue growth,
Speaker 1: the efficiency story is real. If margins stay flat, the
Speaker 1: cuts were about cost control dressed up as something bigger.
Speaker 1: Two quick hits the world Liberty financial token unlock vote
Speaker 1: passed with nearly unanimous approval. Early supporter and founder tokens
Speaker 1: are almost certain to hit the market soon, so watch
Speaker 1: for selling pressure there. And Ripple is sharing North Korean
Speaker 1: threat intelligence with the broader crypto industry. North Korea has
Speaker 1: a documented pattern of targeting exchanges for theft. Worth knowing
Speaker 1: that's being taken seriously. All right, before we get into
Speaker 1: the risks, quick word from our sponsor. Okay, we're back.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about what to watch for. A few things
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on. Sentiment recovering this fast should
Speaker 1: give you pause. Ten points in a single day looks
Speaker 1: healthy on the surface, but neutral is not the same
Speaker 1: as stable, especially with geopolitical risk still in the background. Second,
Speaker 1: bitcoin dominance is climbing, while alt coins lag. Money Concentrating
Speaker 1: into one asset isn't a broad rally. Narrow rallies tend
Speaker 1: to correct harder when they do correct. If Ethereum and
Speaker 1: Solana don't start participating soon, this move is thinner than
Speaker 1: it looks. And Ton's thirty six percent single day jump
Speaker 1: almost always comes with a pullback. If telegrams roll out, slips,
Speaker 1: or regulators start asking hard questions about a single company
Speaker 1: running a so called decentralized network, the unwind could be fast.
Speaker 1: Looking ahead. Two things on my radar Tomorrow. Wednesday, May sixth,
Speaker 1: the World Liberty Financial Token Unlock vote officially closes. Supply
Speaker 1: is likely hitting a market watch for selling pressure, and
Speaker 1: the FOMC meeting is this week. The thirty year treasury
Speaker 1: yield is above five percent. Any signal from the FED
Speaker 1: that rates are staying higher for longer could cap Bitcoin's rally.
Speaker 1: Right at these levels, crypto is still a risk asset.
Speaker 1: The FED still matters. That's the pulse from May fifth.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for deeper insights, token metrics Alpha gets
Speaker 1: you weekly Alpha reports, a monthly playbook with full technical
Speaker 1: analysis plus everything in signal. Check it out at tokenmetrics
Speaker 1: dot com. This is educational content, not investment advice. Always
Speaker 1: do your own research. I'm Alex, See you next time.