Ethereum's Market Struggles

Crypto doesn’t reward fundamentals. It rewards attention. So what does that say about how investors, like Warren Buffett, would fare today?

In this week’s Bits + Bips, the crew dissects what’s really behind this rally, why Ethereum’s sentiment problem may run deeper than roadmap delays, and how the stablecoin bill turned into a political tug of war.

Plus:

• Apple and NFTs: why this matters more than people think

• Whether tariffs are about politics or actual policy

• Why Bessent is “the best” in the Trump administration

• And why Buffett’s era may be ending, with Portnoy rising in his place 😬

Sponsor:

• Bitwise

• James Seyffart, Research Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence

• Alex Kruger, Founder of Asgard

• Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

• Katalin Tischhauser, Head of Research at Sygnum Bank

Macro 

• Bloomberg: Trump Suggests Some Trade Deals May Come as Soon as This Week - 

• Asymmetric Market Update™️ #29

• May 2025 Newsletter: A Trade Breakdown - Lyn Alden

• Stagflation bears are wrong?

• Reuters: Dollar slips as Taiwan dollar surge sparks revaluation talk

• WSJ: 

• Tariffs Threaten Semiconductor Supply Chains, Chip-Equipment Maker Warns

• Bessent’s oped: Trump’s Three Steps to Economic Growth

• Buffett on Tariffs

• Buffet: The Natural Course of Government is to make Currency worth less overtime

ETH pivot

• Unchained: 

• Ethereum Gave Away Too Much for Too Long. Will Its Pivot Be Enough?

• Ethereum Ecosystem Shifts Toward User Focus

• Ethereum Developers Vote EOF Out of Fusaka Hard Fork

• Vitalik Buterin Proposes Replacing Ethereum Virtual Machine

• The Block: 

• Vitalik and new Ethereum Foundation co-executive directors outline updated board structure, mission

• Vitalik Buterin- and StarkWare-backed Kakarot reveals alternative Ethereum ZK stack, targeting real-time STARK proofs on Layer 1 by end of 2025

• CoinDesk: Ethereum Could Supercharge Transaction Speed to 2,000 TPS Thanks to Bold New Proposal

• Simplifying the L1 by Vitalik Buterin

Stablecoin bill:

• POLITICO: Why the Senate crypto bill is in turmoil

• Latest on the Senate's "GENIUS Act" by Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy 

Timestamps:

🚪 0:00 Intro

👋 1:01 Katalin’s background

📦 3:40 The real motive behind tariffs, according to Katalin

😬 11:43 What the market is forgetting to price in

🇪🇺  18:57 How Europe views Trump’s trade moves

🤝 21:33 Trump thinking that U.S. companies are cutting bad deals with China

🧠 26:04 Why Bessent’s op-ed made waves, and why Alex calls him the smartest in Trump’s crew

📉 29:13 The collapse in U.S. manufacturing employment, despite a surge in production

🧓 33:12 Buffett’s exit and his old-school take on tariffs in a new-school market

🌀 39:46 Will Ethereum’s pivot actually improve the price?

⚖️ 51:28 The impact of the political mess around the stablecoin bill

💸 53:53 Ripple’s attempted Circle acquisition and why Ram wouldn’t touch XRP

🍎 1:00:43 Importance of Apple quietly opening the door to NFTs and crypto sales

💱 1:03:34 What’s up with the Taiwanese dollar

💻 1:06:05 Why adding tariffs to chips could backfire big time

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