The crypto market took a hit in early 2025 in contrast to the late 2024 highs it achieved. The total crypto market cap dropped over 18% in Q1 falling to $2.8 trillion at the close of Q1, after it briefly touched $3.8 trillion high in January.
Even with the market slump, Bitcoin’s dominance surged to 59.1%, which is its highest since 2021.
Ethereum Struggles Dropping 45% in Q1
Ethereum fell by a sharp 3.9 percentage points, falling to just 7.9% in market dominance. This marks Ether’s lowest share since late 2019 which shows its sluggish performance amidst the broader market downturn.
Ethereum plummeted 45.3% in Q1 2025, closing at $1,805, wiping out all its 2024 gains. It massively underperformed cryptos like Bitcoin, Solana, XRP, and Binance Coin, which recorded minimum declines. Its trading volume also dropped from $30 billion in Q4 2024 to $24.4 billion in the latest quarter.
Whale Activity Worsens the Drop
Additionally, recent data from lookonchain reveals that a wallet linked to the Ethereum Foundation deposited 1,000 $ETH worth $1.58M to Kraken, which could trigger a drop in price.
Ethereum Foundation (EF) faced criticism in 2024 for offloading 4,466 ETH worth $12.61 million during bearish market conditions. These sales have historically been followed by sharp price drops, adding more pressure to already lagging Ether.
Veteran trader Peter Brandt also recently warned that Ether could crash to $800, revisiting its 2022 lows. ETH is now over 60% below its 2021 peak of $4,878, with most of the losses in just the last three months. The token is currently trading at $1,757, down over 2% today.
Florida’s proposed Bitcoin Reserve Bills, HB 487 and SB 550, have officially failed. The state legislature ended its 2025 session on May 2 without taking a vote on either measure. As a result, both bills were indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from further consideration. The proposals aimed to establish a Bitcoin reserve for the state, but they didn’t gain enough traction to move forward. With the session closed, any similar effort would need to be reintroduced in a future session.
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Florida’s proposed Bitcoin Reserve Bills, HB 487 and SB 550, have officially failed. The state legislature ended its 2025 session on May 2 without taking a vote on either measure. As a result, both bills were indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from further consideration. The proposals aimed to establish a Bitcoin reserve for the state, but …
Many cryptocurrency projects such as Aave, dYdX, Jupiter, and Hyperliquid have recently announced token buyback mechanisms.
Traditional stock markets inspire the token buyback strategy. But does this strategy help crypto projects build a sustainable economic model and contribute to increasing the price of their tokens?
The Booming of Crypto Projects’ Token Buyback Programs
Token buybacks occur when crypto projects repurchase their tokens from the market. These repurchased tokens can be held as reserves or even burned. In theory, buybacks reduce circulating supply, creating scarcity, which may drive up token prices. Although not a new strategy, BeInCrypto has observed that this trend is rapidly expanding.
For example, in early March 2025, the lending protocol Aave (AAVE) announced the implementation of a new Aavenomics. Aave will repurchase tokens to reduce supply and shift from staking rewards to a more sustainable liquidity model. This included a weekly AAVE token buyback worth $1 million for six months, funded by protocol fees.
In an ideal scenario, this buyback plan could reach a total value of $100 million (3% of the circulating supply).
“We consider it the most important proposal in our history, feel free to have a read and provide feedback,” said Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI).
Also in March, the decentralized exchange (DEX) dYdX approved “Proposal #225” to buy back DYDX tokens. The protocol will use platform revenue for the buyback.
Other crypto projects like Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Jupiter (JUP) have similar plans. Estimates suggest Hyperliquid will repurchase $600 million worth of tokens annually, using 50-100% of transaction fees. This protocol dominates decentralized finance (DeFi) despite the market downturn.
These are just a few of the most typical crypto projects. Many other projects, including Gnosis, Gains Network, and Arbitrum, employ similar strategies. So, could this reshape the current cryptocurrency market?
What’s Driving This Token Buyback Trend?
Discussing this buyback strategy, an X (formerly Twitter) user commented:
“Buybacks create steady demand and reduce circulating supply, which can stabilize or even increase token prices.” commented Capitanike.
The fundamental economic principle of supply and demand is the key driver. By reducing circulating supply, crypto projects aim to increase token scarcity, which could push prices higher. According to SolanaFloor, projects with token buyback programs outperformed those without buybacks by 46.67% in 2024 (-0.6% vs. -47.15% YTD).
Performance of Projects with Token Buyback Programs Source: SolanaFloor
Secondly, the buyback can signal strong financial health for crypto projects. This is particularly effective in reassuring investors amid market volatility.
Thirdly, unlike the token burn strategy, many projects (such as AAVE and Gains Network) redistribute repurchased tokens to stakers or holders, aligning incentives. This approach could indicate the maturity of a project’s tokenomics model over time.
However, token buybacks are not without weaknesses. As this strategy becomes more widespread, regulators like the SEC may scrutinize it for potential manipulation or illicit activities.
Additionally, an improperly calculated buyback strategy could overly reduce token supply. If a project fails to balance new issuance or staking rewards, it might suffer from decreased trading volume. Moreover, buybacks could potentially mask financial weaknesses.
“What’s more plausible, in our opinion, is that these buybacks serve as proof that the projects raised too much during their ICO, are failing to develop anything useful, and don’t know what to do with their cash balances…” TokenData Research report.
The recent surge in crypto projects adopting token buybacks marks a significant evolution in tokenomics. While buybacks can enhance price stability, investor confidence, and ecosystem growth, they also carry manipulation risks and regulatory problems.
Lorenzo Protocol’s native token, BANK, has recorded a 150% price surge within six hours of its official launch.
The token’s rapid climb follows its listing on multiple platforms, including Binance’s Alpha Market and the launch of a BANKUSDT perpetual contract on Binance Futures with up to 50x leverage.
What is the New BANK Token on Binance Futures?
The Token Generation Event (TGE) for BANK took place today, April 18, via Binance Wallet, in partnership with PancakeSwap. Lorenzo Protocol raised $200,000 through the sale of 42 million BANK tokens—2% of the total supply—priced at $0.0048 each.
The token is now trading on PancakeSwap, Bitget, and CoinEx. Following its debut, BANK reached a market cap of approximately $22 million.
The protocol allows users to earn yield on BTC without giving up custody. It uses financial primitives like Liquid Principal Tokens (LPTs) and Yield-Accruing Tokens (YATs).
According to its claims, BANK holders can stake their tokens to receive veBANK, which provides governance rights and a share of future emissions.
BANK Token Price Chart After Launch. Source: CoinMarketCap
Also, Lorenzo Protocol is built on a Cosmos-based Ethermint appchain. It enables BTC restaking and interoperability with Bitcoin’s Layer 1. The design supports on-chain issuance and settlement of BTC-backed assets.
Binance has historically preferred new tokens on the BNB chain for early futures trading. BANK’s sharp price increase and rapid market integration highlight strong early interest in Lorenzo Protocol’s approach to BTC-based DeFi infrastructure.
Currently, it’s far-fetched to project whether the exchange will list this newly launched token. However, Binance’s new community voting on token listing has offered positive hopes for small market cap projects.