The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is signaling its commitment to combating inflation with more aggressive monetary tightening. Governor Kazuo Ueda has reaffirmed the central bank’s stance on potential interest rate hikes, sending shockwaves through the financial markets.
In a recent statement, Ueda emphasized that the BOJ remains prepared to adjust its monetary policy stance if economic conditions warrant. His comments sparked a rally in the Japanese yen against the US dollar, with the currency appreciating significantly during Tokyo trading.
The BOJ’s latest stance marks a departure from its historically loose monetary policy. The central bank has already implemented several rate hikes, including a significant increase in July. These moves aim to address rising inflation rates, which have exceeded the BOJ’s target of 2%.
While the BOJ’s actions have been met with some concerns about their impact on the economy, Governor Ueda has assured investors that the central bank is closely monitoring financial markets. He has emphasized the importance of maintaining stability and avoiding excessive volatility.
The BOJ’s tightening measures have also had implications for the yen carry trade, a popular investment strategy that involves borrowing yen at low interest rates and investing the proceeds in higher-yielding assets. As the yen has strengthened, the attractiveness of this trade has diminished, leading to a decline in its popularity.
However, there may be opportunities for investors in the yuan carry trade. This strategy involves borrowing yuan and investing in higher-yielding assets, and it is less susceptible to the volatility associated with the yen carry trade. According to the Royal Bank of Canada, the yuan carry trade could be a more resilient option given China’s dovish monetary policy.
As the BOJ continues to navigate the challenges of inflation and economic growth, its decisions will have a significant impact on global financial markets. Investors will be closely watching the central bank’s future moves for clues about the direction of interest rates and the yen.
The crypto market in 2025 is facing intense turbulence. The capitalization of once-hot trends like meme coins has plummeted. Capital has flowed out of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, driving DeFi’s total value locked (TVL) down from $120 billion to around $87 billion.
In this context, Sonic stands out. It has consistently hit new TVL highs, reaching $1 billion in April after growing nearly 40 times since the beginning of the year. So, what makes Sonic a bright spot amid a stormy market?
Investors Are Pouring Capital into Sonic
Sonic has made its mark with a rapid TVL growth rate, far outpacing better-known blockchains. According to DefiLlama, Sonic reached $1 billion in TVL within 66 days. In comparison, Sui took 505 days, and Aptos needed 709.
This achievement reflects strong capital inflows into the Sonic ecosystem despite the broader DeFi trend of capital withdrawal. Data from Artemis supports this, ranking Sonic as the second-highest netflow protocol this year—trailing only Base, a blockchain backed by Coinbase.
The growth goes beyond TVL numbers. Sonic’s ecosystem is attracting various projects, including derivatives exchanges like Aark Digital and Shadow Exchange and protocols such as Snake Finance, Equalizer0x, and Beets. These projects still have small TVLs, but they have the potential to draw new users and capital, fueling Sonic’s momentum.
However, the question remains: Can this capital inflow remain sustainable while the market fluctuates?
Andre Cronje on Sonic’s Potential and Strengths
Andre Cronje, the developer behind Sonic, shared his ambition in an interview to push this blockchain beyond its competitors.
“Sonic has sub-200 millisecond finality, faster than human responsiveness,” Andre Cronje said.
According to Cronje, Sonic isn’t just about speed. The platform also focuses on improving both user and developer experience. He explained that 90% of transaction fees go to dApp, not to validators, creating incentives for developers to build.
Unlike other blockchains, such as Ethereum, which are limited by long block times, Sonic leverages an enhanced virtual machine that theoretically processes up to 400,000 transactions per second. Cronje acknowledges, however, that current demand has yet to push the network to its full capacity. Still, these technical advantages make Sonic a compelling option for developers seeking more user-friendly dApps.
He also revealed new features on Sonic that have the potential to attract users.
“If your first touch point with a user is to download this wallet and then buy this token on an exchange, you’ve lost 99.9% of your users. They’ll use their Google off-email password, fingerprint, face, whatever it is, to access the dApp and interact with it, and they’ll never need to know about Sonic or token,” Andre Cronje revealed.
Risks and Challenges Ahead
Despite reaching impressive milestones, Sonic is not immune to risk. The price of its token, S, has declined significantly from its peak. According to BeInCrypto, it has dropped around 20% in the past month—from $0.60 down to $0.47—mirroring the broader market’s volatility.
Furthermore, Grayscale recently removed Sonic from its April asset consideration list. This decision reflects a shift in the fund’s expectations and raises concerns about Sonic’s ability to maintain its TVL should investor sentiment deteriorate.
Sonic also faces fierce competition from other high-performance chains like Solana and Base. Although Sonic holds a clear advantage in speed, long-term user adoption will depend on whether its ecosystem can deliver real value, not just high TVL figures.
Chainlink (LINK) has been showing mixed technical signals recently, with some indicators turning bearish while others suggest a potential upside ahead. With its price up 11% in the last seven days, Chainlink was on its path to surpass Pi Network in market cap, but this could be delayed for now.
With LINK almost not moving in the last 24 hours, its market cap is currently $10.3 billion, and Pi Network is around $12.7 billion. The upcoming days will be crucial as several technical indicators reach critical inflection points that could determine whether LINK continues its rally or faces a correction.
Chainlink DMI Shows Sellers Took Control
According to Chainlink’s DMI chart, its ADX (Average Directional Index) has decreased from 26 yesterday to 20.46 today. This decline indicates weakening trend strength regardless of direction.
ADX is a component of the Directional Movement Index (DMI) that quantifies trend strength on a scale of 0-100, without indicating direction. Generally, readings above 25 suggest a strong trend, 20-25 indicate a developing trend, and below 20 reflect a weak or absent trend.
Chainlink’s ADX moving from above 25 to just above 20 signals that the previous strong trend is losing momentum and shifting toward a more neutral or ranging market.
The Positive Directional Indicator (+DI) has fallen significantly from 33.3 to 20.1, while the Negative Directional Indicator (-DI) has increased from 14.2 to 21. This crossover, with -DI now exceeding +DI, suggests a potential shift from bullish to bearish momentum.
Combined with the weakening ADX, this technical picture points to a likely bearish reversal or continuation pattern forming for LINK’s price. Traders might anticipate further downside pressure in the near term, though they should monitor for stabilization or reversal signals as the trend weakens.
LINK BBTrend Is Now Positive After Staying Negative For Several Days
LINK’s BBTrend has now turned positive, reaching 3.69 after remaining in negative territory since March 4. A significantly negative reading of -20 was recorded on February 28.
The BBTrend (Bollinger Bands Trend) indicator is a momentum oscillator that measures the relationship between price and Bollinger Bands to identify trend strength and direction. It calculates how price is moving relative to the Bollinger Bands, which themselves represent standard deviations from a moving average.
When BBTrend is positive, it suggests prices are moving above the middle band and potentially toward the upper band, indicating bullish momentum.
Conversely, negative readings suggest bearish pressure with prices moving below the middle band toward the lower band. The recent shift to a positive 3.69 BBTrend value for LINK could signal emerging bullish momentum after a period of downward pressure.
This reversal, coming after an extended negative period that bottomed at -20, might indicate a meaningful change in market sentiment.
However, traders should confirm this signal with other indicators, as the relatively modest positive reading of 3.69 suggests the bullish momentum is still developing rather than strongly established.
Will Chainlink Go Back To $20 In March?
LINK EMA (Exponential Moving Average) lines are currently trending downward, potentially forming a death cross in the near future.
If this bearish pattern materializes and Chainlink price breaks below the critical support level at $15.79, we could see further downside movement.
In this scenario, LINK might decline to test psychological and technical support levels at $14 and potentially even $13.45, representing significant drops from current prices.
Conversely, the recent positive shift in BBTrend suggests growing buying pressure may be building. If this bullish momentum continues to strengthen, LINK could challenge the immediate resistance at $17.64.
A decisive break above this level would open the path to test higher resistance zones at $19.79 and, subsequently, $22.31. In a strongly bullish scenario where upward momentum accelerates, Chainlink could potentially reach $26.4, which would mark its first time trading above $25 in over a month.
This technical setup presents a clear inflection point for LINK, with convincing breaks of either the support at $15.79 or resistance at $17.64, likely determining the next significant price movement.
On March 20, 2025, an important meeting took place between David Sacks, the US Special Advisor on AI and Crypto, and Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Chairman of Abu Dhabi’s investment fund MGX.
This meeting marked significant progress in technological cooperation between the US and the UAE and created new opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency.
What Did David Sacks and Sheikh Tahnoon Discuss?
Sheikh Tahnoon is a powerful figure in the UAE. He is the brother of the UAE President and serves as the country’s National Security Advisor. He also chairs MGX, an investment fund established in 2024 to promote AI and blockchain technologies.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Sheikh Tahnoon stated that he and David Sacks discussed AI development, the role of digital currencies, and investment opportunities.
“I explored with David Sacks, the Special Advisor on AI and Crypto, the transformative effects of artificial intelligence across various sectors, the expanding role of digital currencies in reshaping financial systems, and the investment opportunities emerging at their convergence,” Sheikh Tahnoon said.
This meeting took place just one week after MGX announced a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Notably, MGX conducted this investment using stablecoins, making it the largest crypto-based investment transaction ever.
Under Sheikh Tahnoon’s leadership, MGX is emerging as a major AI investor with allocations across various AI sectors. According to The Wall Street Journal, MGX is expected to receive over $50 billion from Sheikh Tahnoon’s personal assets and other sources in Abu Dhabi.
Additionally, MGX is one of the key backers of Stargate, a $100 billion data center project led by SoftBank and OpenAI, announced at the White House. The fund has also invested in OpenAI, Elon Musk’s xAI, and Amazon-backed Anthropic.
This meeting was part of a broader series of diplomatic engagements between the US and the UAE. On March 18, President Trump announced on TruthSocial that he had hosted Sheikh Tahnoon for dinner at the White House. They discussed economic and technological cooperation.
“Discussions also included ways for our countries to increase our partnership for the advancing of our economic and technological futures,” President Trump stated.
Additionally, reports have recently surfaced suggesting that the Trump family is negotiating to acquire a stake in Binance.US. However, CZ, the former Binance CEO, has denied these claims. Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial, a DeFi project linked to the Trump family, has been continuously investing in projects like Avalanche, Mantle, Sui Blockchain, and Movement.
