The crypto market and broader economy are moving fast as global liquidity reached an all-time high in April 2025. Gold has already broken past $3,200, setting a new record. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is still 30% below its previous peak.
Amid this backdrop, analysts are taking a closer look at the link between Bitcoin and gold. Fresh data also shows strong corporate demand for Bitcoin, with record levels of buying in Q1 2025.
What Bitcoin’s Ties to Gold and Liquidity Signal for Its Price
According to Joe Consorti, Head of Growth at Theya, Bitcoin tends to follow gold’s lead with a lag of about 100 to 150 days. A chart shared by Consorti on X, based on Bloomberg data, illustrates this trend from 2019 to April 14, 2025.
The chart shows gold (XAU/USD) in white and Bitcoin (XBT/USD) in orange. The data reveals that gold usually moves first during upswings, but Bitcoin often rallies harder afterward—especially when global liquidity is rising.
“When the printer roars to life, gold sniffs it out first, then Bitcoin follows harder,” Consorti said.
That 100-to-150-day lag is notable. It suggests Bitcoin could be set for a sharp move higher within the next 3 to 4 months. The recent surge in global liquidity also supports this view.
According to analyst Root, M2 money supply from major central banks—including the US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank (ECB), People’s Bank of China (PBoC), Bank of Japan (BoJ), Bank of England (BoE), Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Bank of Canada (BoC), and others—has hit a record high as of April 2025.
The sharp rise points to more cash flowing through the global economy.
Historically, Bitcoin bull markets have often lined up with major increases in global liquidity, as more money in the system tends to push investors toward riskier assets like Bitcoin.
Why Bitcoin Might Outperform Gold and Stocks
Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise Invest, states that Bitcoin is not just outperforming gold but is also surpassing the S&P 500 in the long run. This indicates that Bitcoin is becoming a stronger investment option despite its price volatility.
Data also supports this. A recent Bitwise report shows corporations bought over 95,400 BTC in Q1—about 0.5% of all Bitcoin in circulation. That makes it the largest quarter for corporate accumulation on record.
“People want to own Bitcoin. Corporations do too. 95,000 BTC purchased in Q1,” Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said.
With rising corporate demand and Bitcoin’s strong performance against traditional assets, the stage may be set for a major rally in summer 2025—driven by peak global liquidity and Bitcoin’s historic tendency to follow gold’s lead.
Following years of anticipation, Shiba Inu’s Layer-2 (L2) solution Shibarium launched on August 16, 2023. Despite being designed to bring speed, scalability, and reduced costs to SHIB holders, network data shows that Shibarium’s daily activity has significantly lagged behind competing L2 networks like Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism.
This piece looks at how Shibarium has performed this year and what its slow growth means for the wider Shiba Inu ecosystem, especially for BONE, the token that powers Shibarium, and SHIB itself.
Shibarium’s User Engagement Falters After Meme Market Rally
According to Shibariumscan, Shiba Inu’s L2 network had an unimpressive start to the year. In the first quarter of 2025, daily active addresses on the network were relatively low, showing little user engagement.
It was not until April that activity began to pick up on Shibarium. This spike in network usage was driven by the surge in meme coin activity across the broader crypto market.
For context, between April 10 and May 10, the meme coin market capitalization rose 56% as demand for these assets rocketed.
Riding that wave, Shibarium saw a surge in activity, peaking at over 21,000 daily active addresses on May 12, its year-to-date high. However, this momentum did not last.
As the meme coin market mania began to fade in late May, user activity on Shibarium also declined. By June 5, the number of daily active addresses had fallen to around 9,000—a drop of more than 55% in just three weeks.
Shibarium Daily Active Accounts. Source: Shibariumscan
Why Shiba Inu’s Layer-2 Network Is Falling Behind Other L2s
This pattern of user activity on Shibarium suggests a lack of sustained utility or use cases that keep users engaged beyond speculative trading.
In an exclusive interview with BeInCrypto, Dominick John, an analyst at Kronos Research, noted that while Shibarium experiences “bursts of community-driven activity,” it still lags behind other Layer-2 networks like Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism.
“Those networks benefit from robust ecosystems and composability in DEFI beyond the memecoin hype. For Shibarium to stand out, it must evolve and cultivate a unique DeFi ecosystem that delivers long-term value,” John explained.
According to John, Shibarium’s muted growth “reflects project-specific hurdles, limited dApp adoption, ecosystem fragmentation, and fierce L2 competition more than meme-token fatigue.”
On-chain data from DefiLlama confirms this narrative. Currently, Shibarium hosts just 18 decentralized finance (DeFi) projects— a stark contrast to more established Layer-2s like Base and Arbitrum, which support 549 and 741 projects, respectively.
Lynn C., SONEX’s CMO, echoes the same sentiment. Lynn acknowledges that meme-token fatigue may be partially responsible for Shibarium’s slow adoption, but emphasizes that much of the challenge lies in project-specific scaling strategies.
“On one hand, there is certainly meme-token fatigue in the market as users look for more utility-driven projects. On the other hand, Shibarium’s growth challenges may be specific to how the network is structured and its approach to scaling. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and different projects take different paths toward growth,” she said.
Despite its challenges, Shibarium has introduced utility benefits to the Shiba Inu ecosystem. John noted, “Shibarium has strengthened the Shiba Inu ecosystem by enabling cheaper transactions, supporting SHIB burns, and giving BONE real utility.”
For Lynn, the L2 “has added an important component to the Shiba Inu ecosystem by offering a Layer-2 network that promises to scale transactions and reduce costs.”
BONE Token Struggles Amid Shibarium’s Slow Adoption
BONE serves as the primary gas token, facilitating transactions and enabling users to interact on Shibarium. With fewer transactions taking place on the L2, the practical need for BONE as gas has diminished. This lack of on-chain utility has impacted the token’s market performance, falling 38% YTD.
John echoed this concern, stating that, “from a market-making perspective, token utility needs to translate into recurring on-chain demand and transactional velocity. At this stage, BONE demonstrates some early use cases, but it has yet to establish consistent capital retention across the ecosystem.”
On the other hand, Lynn holds a more cautiously optimistic view of BONE. In her words:
“BONE has certainly played a role within the Shiba Inu ecosystem, but like many tokens, it’s still working on building its utility beyond speculative trading. It’s common for newer tokens to find their footing as they grow and develop more use cases. The demand for tokens like BONE will evolve as the ecosystem matures and as more opportunities for real utility emerge.”
For the SHIB meme coin, Shibarium’s lackluster performance also has its impacts.
“If Shibarium fails to scale meaningfully, SHIB holders face several risks: reduced utility due to low transaction volume and limited dApp adoption, weaker SHIB burn rates, and stagnating token value,” John added.
Lynn, on the other hand, struck a slightly more optimistic tone. According to her:
“If Shibarium doesn’t scale, it could slow down the momentum of the broader Shiba Inu ecosystem, especially in terms of user adoption and network effects. However, it’s important to remember that blockchain and DeFi projects face various challenges as they grow, and Shibarium’s trajectory will likely continue to evolve as the team adapts to feedback and market needs.”
XRP has suffered a near 10% decline over the past week, dampening trader sentiment and triggering a wave of sell-side activity in its futures market.
As buying pressure wanes, the altcoin risks plunging below the key support formed at $2 in the near term.
XRP Futures Traders Position for Decline
The bearish tone in the XRP market is evident in the token’s taker buy/sell ratio, which has consistently posted negative values for the past two weeks.
This indicates that sell orders dominate buy orders across the XRP futures market. At press time, this stands at 0.92, per CryptoQuant.
An asset’s taker buy-sell ratio measures the ratio between the buy and sell volumes in its futures market. Values above one indicate more buy than sell volume, while values below one suggest that more futures traders are selling their holdings.
The sustained decline in XRP’s taker buy/sell ratio over the past few weeks points to a mounting sell-off among futures traders, many of whom are increasing their exposure to short positions.
This is reflected by the token’s long/short ratio, which currently stands at 0.94.
For context, this metric has remained below one since May 8, highlighting that traders have been positioning for a downside move for nearly a month.
The extended demand for short positions suggests that XRP’s price dip is not just a reaction to short-term volatility. It also shows a broader bearish tilt increasingly driven by expectations of lower prices.
Will XRP Hold the $2 Support?
At press time, XRP trades at $2.13. If bearish pressure gains momentum, the token risks slipping below the psychological $2 mark. A breach of this key support line could deepen the ongoing correction and cause XRP to trade below $1.99.
However, a resurgence in new demand for the altcoin could invalidate this bearish outlook. If buying surges, the XRP token could witness a bullish correction and climb to $2.29.
In crypto trading, the promise of massive gains often comes with the risk of heavy losses. Over the years, several high-profile crypto traders have made headlines for their bold bets, only to see their fortunes crumble when the market turned against them.
From Bitcoin (BTC) to Ethereum (ETH), the crypto market has proven to be a double-edged sword. Millions can be made or lost in just hours, and traders are left to deal with the fallout from their high-risk moves. Here are the stories of three crypto traders who wiped out millions:
James Wynn
James Wynn, a pseudonymous trader on Hyperliquid, has become one of the most discussed figures on crypto Twitter (now X) due to his high-risk, high-reward trading style.
“Since I began trading this year on HyperLiquid I have made a total profit of $41,696,589.75 (on-chain). Next goal is $1bn. Not for the money. But for the legacy. Unlikely I’ll do it this cycle unless I went max degen on shorting the top, which I’m probably the only person with this kind of wealth who’s willing to turn it up on 40x leverage and put a significant % on the line,” Wynn said on May 9.
The trader had several successful trades. On May 24, he booked a $25.18 million profit from a long position in kPEPE and $16.89 million from a long Bitcoin position. Other notable trades included a $4.84 million profit from Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) on May 13 and a $6.83 million profit from Official Trump (TRUMP) on May 12.
Wynn’s profits peaked at over $87 million in late May. However, this was short-lived, as the trades began to backfire soon after. Wynn faced a series of significant setbacks.
On May 23, he lost $3.69 million from a long Ethereum position and $1.59 million from a Sui (SUI) long position. Two days later, on May 25, he suffered a $15.86 million loss from a short position in BTC.
“James Wynn has wiped out almost all his profits on Hyperliquid. It took him 70 days to go from 0 to $87 million+ in profit, and only 5 days to lose almost all the $87 million+ in profit,” Lookonchain posted on May 28.
Despite losing it all, Wynn’s bets continued. The largest blow came on May 30, when a long BTC position resulted in a loss of $37.41 million. Wynn’s losses extended into May 31, with an additional $1.20 million lost from another BTC long position.
At the time of writing, Wynn’s performance showed a win rate of 40.48%, with 17 successful trades out of 42.
Anonymous ETH Whale
Wynn’s downfall is part of a larger trend, with other crypto traders also losing millions. In March 2025, an anonymous cryptocurrency trader, identified by the wallet address 0xf3F496C9486BE5924a93D67e98298733Bb47057c, suffered a staggering $308 million loss after a 50x leveraged long position on ETH was liquidated.
The trader had opened the position when ETH was trading at $1,900, with a liquidation price of $1,877. However, amid heightened market volatility driven by global tariff concerns, ETH’s price plummeted, liquidating 160,234 ETH.
An Anonymous Trader’s 160,234 ETH Liquidation. Source: Hypurrscan
Lookonchain reported that the whale had rotated all their Bitcoin holdings into this leveraged ETH trade, amplifying the risk.
“Crazy! This whale has switched all of his long BTC positions to long ETH,” the post read.
Leveraged trading, which uses borrowed funds to magnify both gains and losses, proved disastrous in this case, as a small price movement wiped out the trader’s entire position.
While leveraged bets have led to massive financial losses, they have also tragically resulted in the loss of life. In June 2019, Hui Yi, the co-founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency market analysis platform BTE.TOP reportedly took his own life.
Yi’s distress was believed to be caused by his involvement in a failed 100x leveraged short position on 2,000 Bitcoins. The extreme leverage amplified his losses, making his position highly vulnerable to even minor price fluctuations.
There was also speculation that the 2,000 Bitcoins might have belonged to clients. Some even suggested that Yi may have faked his death to avoid repayment. However, no evidence supported these theories.
An ex-partner confirmed Yi’s death. This tragic incident highlighted the psychological toll of leveraged trading and the dangers of using excessive borrowed funds in the volatile crypto market.
