Despite recent major developments in the crypto industry, the market has just posted its weakest Q1 performance in years — but a crypto analyst is pointing to several catalysts that could make Q2 more promising.

“Frustrating. That’s the best word to describe the past quarter,” Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan said in a recent market report, calling Q1 the “best worst quarter in crypto’s history.”

Bitcoin and Ether took an unusual hit in Q1

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, saw price declines of 11.82% and 45.41%, respectively, over Q1 2025 — a quarter that has historically seen strong results for both assets. Since 2013, Q1 has been Bitcoin’s second-strongest quarter on average (51.2%) and historically the best for Ether (77.4%), according to CoinGlass data.

Hougan pointed to a few key catalysts that could help crypto deliver more upside to Q2. 

He noted the rise in global money supply, which “after years of tightening, central banks across the globe are signaling a shift toward monetary easing and M2 expansion.”

“Historically, these conditions have been favorable for risk assets, particularly for digital assets,” Hougan said. Echoing a similar sentiment, Pav Hundal, the lead analyst at Australian crypto exchange Swyftx, told Cointelegraph in February that “in normal times, global loosening measures are a pretty reliable lead indicator for crypto.”

More recently, on April 14, analyst Colin Talks Crypto said, “Global M2 has remained at an ATH for 3 days in a row.” Bitcoin moves in the direction of global M2 83% of the time, economist Lyn Alden wrote in a September research report.

Hougan also said the “clean sweep of pro-regulations” in the US may be another bullish factor for the crypto market. “This is the long tail of regulatory clarity that no one is talking about, and it’s just getting started,” Hougan said.

The rise in stablecoin assets under management may also be a positive indicator that more upside is to come this year in the crypto market. Hougan said during the first quarter, stablecoin assets under management surged to “an all-time high of over $218 million.”

“Growing stablecoin adoption will benefit adjacent sectors, including DeFi and other crypto applications,” he said. 

Related: Bitcoin rally to $86K shows investor confidence, but it’s too early to confirm a trend reversal

The firm also said that the “geopolitical chaos” seen in the global economy during Q1 2025, mainly after US President Donald Trump’s inauguration through his tariffs, “are pushing global investors to reassess their portfolios.”

It comes only days after Hougan recently reiterated his prediction that Bitcoin may surge approximately 138% from its current price of $84,080 by the end of the year.

“In December, Bitwise predicted that Bitcoin would end the year at $200,000. I still think that’s in play,” Hougan said.

Meanwhile, crypto exchange Coinbase recently said, “When the sentiment finally resets, it’s likely to happen rather quickly, and we remain constructive for the second half of 2025.”

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This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Over the past 30 days, crypto market participants have bridged more than $120 million in liquidity to Solana (SOL) from other blockchains, signaling renewed confidence in the network. Traders transferred the highest amount from Ethereum (ETH) at $41.5 million, followed by a $37.3 million influx from Arbitrum, according to data from Debridge.

Meanwhile, users on Base, BNB Chain and Sonic moved $16 million, $14 million and $6.6 million, respectively.

The return of liquidity to Solana paints a stark contrast to the network's recent challenges. Following Argentina’s LIBRA memecoin scandal, which ensnared President Javier Milei, Solana saw investors move $485 million to other blockchains like Ethereum and BNB Chain.

The current liquidity influx to Solana coincides with the return of double-digit price rallies from memecoins as POPCAT, FARTCOIN, BONK and WIF rose 79%, 51%, 25% and 21%, respectively, over the past seven days.

However, further analysis shows the total generated fees for March coming in just under $46 million. For context, Solana’s fees peaked at over $400 million in January 2025. Currently, the total fees generated for the month of April are roughly $22 million.

Related: Spot Solana ETFs to launch in Canada this week

Solana price has a tough uphill climb ahead

From a technical perspective, Solana remains in a bearish trend on the 1-day chart. SOL must exhibit a bullish break of structure by closing a daily candle above $147 for a bullish trend shift.

Solana remains under the $140 level, with the 50-day exponential moving average (blue line) acting as a strong resistance. A bullish close above the 50-EMA would have increased the likelihood of a positive trend reversal, but SOL prices have stalled at current levels.

On a lower time frame (LTF) chart, Solana exhibited a bearish divergence between the price and relative strength index (RSI) indicator. Historically, a bearish divergence setup has signaled a correction period for Solana in 2025. SOL has experienced four bearish divergences since January, each following a price decline.

There is a strong similarity between its previous and current bearish divergence. Both setups took place after the price moved temporarily above the 50-day and 100-day EMA (blue and green line) on the 4-hour chart, eventually leading to a price drop.

Thus, it is possible that Solana could follow a similar path in the next few days. The 1-day demand zone is the immediate area of interest for a bounce between $115 and $108.

Meanwhile, in a recent X post, Glassnode reported a significant shift in Solana’s realized price distribution, with over 32 million SOL bought at the $130 level over the past few days. That is 5% of the total supply, which means the $130 level could be a strong support level in the future. The analysis added,

“Below $129, we see 18M $SOL (3%) at $117.99, while above, 27M $SOL(4.76%) sit at $144.54. In the short term, $144 could act as resistance and $117 as the lower bound of the price range, with $129 serving as the key pivot zone.”

Related: Bitcoin price recovery could be capped at $90K — Here’s why

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Michael Novogratz’s Galaxy Ventures Fund I LP is expected to raise around $175 million to $180 million by the end of June to build a portfolio of 30 crypto and blockchain startups.

According to an April 17 Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter, the fund —  which has had a focus on payments and stablecoins — has surpassed its goal of raising $150 million.

The fund closing above target comes at a time when crypto venture capital is thin on the ground despite an industry-friendly administration in the United States. 

Earlier this year, Novogratz’s firm reported that 2024 was also a tough year for crypto VC despite potential market drivers such as Bitcoin ETFs, the memecoin craze, and AI agents, which it said were “not particularly suited to venture capital.” 

Venture capitalists invested $11.5 billion into crypto and blockchain-focused startups across 2,153 deals in 2024, it reported. This was slightly higher than the $10 billion invested in 2023 but way down from over $30 billion invested in 2022. 

Crypto VC investments in America have also decreased by 22% to around $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2025, according to Pitchbook. It also reported that there has been a pivot to AI, with the sector taking 58% of global venture dollars in the first quarter.

Global crypto VC funding reached $4.8 billion in Q1, the highest since Q3 2022, reported CryptoRank earlier this month. However, the $2 billion investment in Binance from Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX was almost half of that. 

Related: Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital gets SEC nod for Nasdaq listing

The initial close for the Galaxy Ventures Fund I was in June 2024, when it raised $113 million. At the time, the fund’s portfolio included synthetic dollar issuer Ethena; M^Zero, a stablecoin liquidity DeFi protocol; layer-1 blockchain Monad; layer-2 tokenized asset chain Plume; and Renzo, a protocol supporting derivatives on assets locked in EigenLayer and Ethereum. 

Crypto doing what its supposed to do

Galaxy CEO Mike Novogratz remains confident in crypto and Bitcoin (BTC), stating on X on April 16 that it is “doing what it’s supposed to,” and “acting as a report card on financial stewardship.”

“In times of uncertainty, it reflects both the flight to safety and a long-term bet on a new financial system. But as a young asset, it still needs calm to grow. Adoption doesn’t thrive in disorder.”

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The founder and lead developer of Ethereum Name Service has warned his X followers of an “extremely sophisticated” phishing attack that can impersonate Google and trick users into giving out login credentials. 

The phishing attack exploits Google’s infrastructure to send a fake alert to users informing them that their Google data is being shared with law enforcement due to a subpoena, ENS’ Nick Johnson said in an April 16 post to X. 

“It passes the DKIM signature check, and GMail displays it without any warnings - it even puts it in the same conversation as other, legitimate security alerts,” he said. 

As part of the attack, users are offered the chance to view the case materials or protest by clicking a support page link, which uses Google Sites, a tool that can be used to build a website on a Google subdomain, according to Johnson. 

“From there, presumably, they harvest your login credentials and use them to compromise your account; I haven’t gone further to check,” he said.

The Google domain name gives the impression it’s legit, but Johnson says there are still telltale signs it’s a phishing scam, such as the email being forwarded by a private email address. 

Scammers exploit Google systems 

In an April 11 report, software firm EasyDMARC explained that the phishing scam works by weaponizing Google Sites.

Anyone with a Google account can create a site that looks legitimate and is hosted under a trusted Google-owned domain.

They also use the Google OAuth app, where the “key trick is that you can put anything you want in the App Name field in Google,” and use a domain via Namecheap that allows them to “put no-reply@google account as From address and the reply address can be anything.”

“Finally, they forward the message to their victims. Because DKIM only verifies the message and its headers and not the envelope, the message passes signature validation and shows up as a legitimate message in the user’s inbox — even in the same thread as legit security alerts,” Johnson said. 

Google deploying countermeasures soon 

Speaking to Cointelegraph, a Google spokesperson said they are aware of the issue and are shutting down the mechanism that attackers are using to insert the “arbitrary length text,” which will prevent the method of attack from working in the future. 

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“We’re aware of this class of targeted attack from the threat actor, Rockfoils, and have been rolling out protections for the past week. These protections will soon be fully deployed, which will shut down this avenue for abuse,” the spokesperson said. 

“In the meantime, we encourage users to adopt two-factor authentication and passkeys, which provide strong protection against these kinds of phishing campaigns.” 

The spokesperson added that Google will never ask for any private account credentials — including passwords, one-time passwords or push notifications, nor call users.  

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Crypto exchange Coinbase has distanced its blockchain network Base from a memecoin it shared that saw massive backlash after the token rapidly gained, then dropped in value by millions of dollars.

Base posted to X on April 16 with an image promoting the network with its marketing tagline, “Base is for everyone,” it also shared a link to a token of the same name on Zora, a social network where users can make posts into tokens for others to speculate on.

In just over an hour after it was created, the Base is for everyone token hit a peak market capitalization of $17.1 million — then dropped by nearly 90% over the next 20 minutes to a market value of $1.9 million, DEX Screener data shows.

The token has since made a slight recovery and was trading around $7.7 million at time of publication.

A Coinbase spokeswoman distanced Base from the token, telling Cointelegraph that “Base did not launch a token.”

“This is not an official Base token, and Base did not sell this token. Base posted on Zora, which automatically tokenizes content,” the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman pointed to a legal disclaimer on the token’s Zora page that states Base’s posts on the token-making platform “are similar to those already shared on X — do not expect profits or returns and no ongoing development or efforts will be made to increase their value.”

The post adds that Base will receive 10 million tokens out of a total supply of 1 billion that it pledged never to sell, and money made from fees will support grants for the network’s developers.

Zora shows Base has earned over $61,000 from the token, which has seen its total trading volume surpass $26 million.

Hundreds of X posts have criticized Base over the token, with one X user saying that “any credibility this chain had is now gone.”

Former Riot Platforms researcher Pierre Rochard called the token “terrible for the industry, very short-term transactional extraction.” 

AP Collective founder Abhishek Pawa said on X that Base “tried redefining memecoins as ‘contentcoins’ and completely botched the execution.”

“The core innovation actually has potential,” he added. “But base utterly fumbled execution, optics, and trader expectations, resulting in justified backlash.”

Meanwhile, Base creator Jesse Pollack, who has posted to Zora to create dozens of tokens in the past two months, defended Base creating the token, saying on X that “someone has to normalize putting all of our content onchain. I'm not afraid for it to be us.”

He added that creating a token for internet content is “the end game for how we can build a new economy where creators earn from their creativity,” which he said would “require overhauling our mental models and product experiences.”

Token “horrifically sniped” and second launch fizzles

Harrison Leggio, the co-founder of crypto startup g8keep, said that the Base is for everyone token “was HORRIFICALLY sniped.”

Leggio, who goes by “Pop Punk” on X, said he found two addresses that bought 21% of the token’s supply for 2 Ether (ETH), currently worth about $3,200, before both wallets transferred the tokens to other addresses and sold them for a toal profit of around $300,000.

Related: Pump.Fun’s PumpSwap DEX processed $2.5B of trades last week, up 40% 

Just over 75 minutes after the creation of the Base is for everyone token, Base again posted to Zora to promote its presence at an event in New York next month — which also generated a related token.

DEX Screener shows that token, called “Base @ FarCon 2025,” reached a peak value of only $987,570 in the minute after its launch before quickly dropping nearly 77% to settle to a value of around $230,000.

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Quantum computing research firm Project Eleven has launched a competition to see just how much of a threat quantum computing currently poses to Bitcoin.

Launching the competition on April 16, Project Eleven said it is offering 1 Bitcoin (BTC) to whoever cracks the biggest chunk of a Bitcoin key using a quantum computer within the next year. 

Project Eleven said the purpose of the “Q-Day Prize” is to test “how urgent the threat” of quantum is to Bitcoin and to find quantum-proof solutions to secure Bitcoin over the long term.

“10 million+ addresses have exposed public keys. Quantum computing is steadily progressing. Nobody has rigorously benchmarked this threat yet,” Project Eleven wrote on X on April 16.

More than 6 million Bitcoin — worth around $500 billion — could be at risk if quantum computers become powerful enough to crack elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) keys, Project Eleven said.

Participants can register as individuals or as a team and have until April 5, 2026, to complete the task. The prize winner will win 1 Bitcoin, currently worth $84,100.

The aim is to run Shor's algorithm on a quantum computer to crack as many bits of a Bitcoin key as possible, acting as a proof-of-concept that the technique could scale to crack a full, 256-bit Bitcoin key once the necessary compute is available. 

“The mission: break the largest ECC key possible using Shor's algorithm on a quantum computer. No classical shortcuts. No hybrid tricks. Pure quantum power,” Project Eleven said.

“You don't need to break a Bitcoin key. A 3-bit key would be big news,” it added.

No ECC key used in real-world applications has ever been cracked, noted Project Eleven, adding that the winner could “go down in cryptography history.”

Project Eleven noted that several online platforms offer quantum computing access, such as Amazon Web Services and IBM.

Related: Bitcoin’s quantum-resistant hard fork is inevitable — It’s the only chance to fix node incentives

Current estimates suggest that around 2,000 logical qubits (error-corrected) would be enough to break a 256-bit ECC key, Project Eleven noted.

IBM’s Heron chip and Google’s Willow can currently do 156 and 105 qubits — significant enough to cause concern, according to Project Eleven, which believes a 2,000-qubit quantum system could be developed within the next decade.

Quantum threat to Bitcoin is real but there’s time, Bitcoiners say

Bitcoin cypherpunk Jameson Lopp recently said the question of how concerned the industry should be about quantum computing is currently “unanswerable.”

“I think it's far from a crisis, but given the difficulty in changing Bitcoin it's worth starting to seriously discuss,” Lopp said in a March 16 post.

In February, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the concern is well-founded but is confident that quantum-proof Bitcoin addresses will be implemented well before any “serious threat” emerges.

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Stablecoins rose to popularity as a result of limitations in the US financial system — particularly restricted banking hours and the lack of a non-USD trading pair, according to Jerald David, president of Arca Labs.

“So we start thinking about the reason why, we start talking about the nine-to-five banking hours,” David said during a panel at TokenizeThis 2025 event on April 16.

The panel discussion centered on yieldcoins or, essentially, the rising of cryptocurrencies that can generate yield through holding, staking or lending, like stablecoins.

“Well, nine-to-five banking hours don’t work, right? There are implementations right now of payment systems that are going to come to market very soon, that are a good combination of both yield-bearing instruments as well as stabletokens,” David said.

According to David, the need for stablecoins stems from the fact that the traditional US banking infrastructure doesn’t support round-the-clock transactions. “And this industry, as we all know, is a 24-hour industry.”

KYC for stablecoins

Know Your Customer procedures were a significant topic at the panel. One representative from Figure Markets said that everyone who owns a yield-bearing stablecoin would have to be KYC-ed for tax reasons.

But David pointed out that stablecoins have several use cases beyond yield generation, including payments. “Using this stable token to buy a cup of coffee is not something that really should require AML or KYC for somebody.”

Nick Carmi, head of exchange at Figure Markets, suggested that part of the solution could be a trust-based KYC system that allows users to carry their credentials across platforms. KYC is a process used by financial institutions to verify a user's identity. It's meant to prevent fraud, money laundering, and other illegal activities by ensuring users are who they claim to be.

Currently, users must complete separate KYC checks for each financial institution or service they use, creating friction and frustration — especially for those navigating multiple platforms or exploring different crypto ecosystems.

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