FalconX, a top digital asset prime broker, has announced a new partnership with Standard Chartered, a major global banking group. This strategic collaboration aims to provide institutional clients with advanced crypto investment solutions. The move strengthens FalconX’s position in the digital asset market and offers enhanced services to meet the growing demand for institutional crypto investments, creating new opportunities in the rapidly evolving crypto space.
Bitcoin (BTC) enters May 2025 with renewed momentum, gaining over 14% in the past 30 days and trading just 6.3% below the key $100,000 mark. Behind the price action, Bitcoin’s apparent demand has turned positive for the first time since late February, signaling a shift in on-chain behavior.
However, fresh inflows—especially from US-based ETFs—remain subdued compared to 2024 levels, suggesting institutional conviction has yet to fully return. According to MEXC COO Tracy Jin, if current conditions hold, a summer rally toward $150,000 is plausible, with sentiment turning increasingly bullish.
Bitcoin Apparent Demand Turns Positive, But Fresh Inflows Still Lacking
Bitcoin’s apparent demand has shown clear signs of recovery recently, rising to 65,000 BTC over the past 30 days. This marks a sharp rebound from the trough on March 27, when apparent demand—defined as the net 30-day change in holdings across all investor cohorts—reached a deeply negative level of -311,000 BTC.
Apparent demand reflects the aggregated balance shifts across wallets and provides insight into whether capital is entering or exiting the Bitcoin network.
While the current demand level is still well below earlier peaks in 2024, a meaningful inflection point occurred on April 24: Bitcoin’s apparent demand turned positive and has remained positive for six consecutive days after nearly two months of sustained outflows.
Despite this improvement, broader demand momentum remains weak.
The continued lack of significant new inflows suggests that most of the recent accumulation may be driven by existing holders rather than fresh capital entering the market.
For Bitcoin to mount a sustainable rally, both apparent demand and demand momentum must show consistent and synchronized growth. Until that alignment occurs, the current stabilization may not support a strong or prolonged price breakout.
US Spot Bitcoin ETF Inflows Still Far Below 2024 Levels
Bitcoin purchases from U.S.-based ETFs have remained largely flat since late March, fluctuating between daily net flows of -5,000 to +3,000 BTC.
This activity level sharply contrasts with the strong inflows seen in late 2024, when daily purchases frequently exceeded 8,000 BTC and contributed to Bitcoin’s initial rally toward $100,000.
So far in 2025, BTC ETFs have collectively accumulated a net total of 28,000 BTC, well below the more than 200,000 BTC they had purchased by this point last year.
This decline shows a slowdown in institutional demand, which has historically been key in driving major price movements.
Bitcoin: Net Cumulative Inflows to US Spot ETFs by Year. Source: CryptoQuant.
There are early signs of a modest rebound, with ETF inflows beginning to tick higher recently. However, current levels remain insufficient to fuel a sustained uptrend.
ETF activity is often viewed as a proxy for institutional conviction, and a notable increase in purchases would likely signal renewed confidence in Bitcoin’s medium-term trajectory.
Until those inflows return in force, the broader market may struggle to generate the momentum needed for a prolonged rally.
Bitcoin Nears $100,000 as Momentum Builds Despite Macro Pressure
Bitcoin price has gained over 14% in the past 30 days, rebounding strongly after dipping below $75,000 in April.
This renewed momentum comes as BTC shows relative resilience amid broader macroeconomic volatility and policy-driven pressures, including Trump’s tariff measures that have weighed on risk assets.
While the entire crypto market has felt the impact, Bitcoin appears to be detaching slightly, showing less sensitivity to these external shocks than other digital assets.
BTC now sits just 6.3% below the $100,000 mark and remains under 17% from a potential move toward $110,000. According to Tracy Jin, COO of MEXC, sentiment is turning positive again:
“Beyond immediate price action, the growing institutional appetite and shrinking supply mechanisms against the macroeconomic uncertainty backdrop point to a structural shift in Bitcoin’s role within the global financial market. BTC is used to hedging against inflation and the fiat-based financial model. Its liquidity, scalability, programmability, and global accessibility offer a reliable modern alternative to traditional financial instruments for many corporations,” Jin said.
According to Jin, a summer rally towards $150,000 is plausible. She stressed that the $95,000 range will likely become a launch point for the brewing decisive breakout above $100,000 in the coming days.
” Should global trade tensions stabilize further and institutional accumulation continues, a summer rally towards $150,000 is plausible, potentially extending towards $200,000 by 2026. Overall, the external background remains favorable for the continuation of the upward movement, especially given the growth of stock indices on Friday, which could support Bitcoin over the weekend.”
The founder of Yescoin, a tap-to-earn game on Telegram, has apparently been arrested by Shanghai law enforcement. The project still hasn’t launched a token, citing delays due to repeated cyberattacks, and the community is growing restless.
Yescoin’s statement assured users that operations would continue as normal, but it gave very few details about the dispute or criminal charges. Hopefully, everyone involved is acting in good faith, and its token launch will happen on March 31.
Today, however, Yescoin has encountered legal trouble, as its pseudonymous founder, Zoroo, was arrested by Shanghai law enforcement:
“We regret to inform you that Zoroo, the founder of Yescoin, has been taken away from Hangzhou by Shanghai police due to a dispute with his business partner, OldWang. What began as a business disagreement between partners has now escalated into a criminal case. We would like to assure everyone that Yescoin continues to operate normally,” the firm claimed.
Other than this statement, very few details about the arrest have come to light. Shanghai is nearly 200 kilometers away from Hangzhou and is in a totally different administrative province, so it’s somewhat surprising that the city’s police arrested Yescoin’s founder.
So far, the community doesn’t have any idea what the criminal charges are about.
Yescoin launched in mid-2024 when the tap-to-earn hype was at its peak. The game has over 4 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and nearly 3 million subscribers on Telegram.
However, unlike Hamster Kombat and other Telegram mini-games, Yescoin has yet to have its token generation event (TGE). The project cited repeated cyberattacks as the reason for the launch delays but maintains that the token will go live on March 31.
On Yescoin’s initial announcement and other social media posts, users professed skepticism about the alleged arrest. Some fans apparently believe that this incident is an excuse to perpetually delay the launch date or is otherwise somehow fabricated.
In other words, this arrest announcement has riled up the Yescoin community. If further delays happen, it could seriously damage the project’s credibility.
According to the latest data, artificial intelligence (AI) agent tokens have outperformed other crypto sectors over the past 30 days, experiencing a remarkable double-digit price growth.
This surge comes amid a broader market recovery, with AI agents emerging as the dominant narrative.
Yet, the momentum has reversed. Over the past month, AI agents have seen a 39.4% price growth. The sector has outpaced other narratives like meme coins (+36.9%) and decentralized AI (+16.3%) over the past 30 days.
With the highest relative strength score of +7.7, the tokens have demonstrated exceptional momentum, highlighting their increasing appeal among investors.
CoinGecko data shows that this surge has propelled the total market capitalization of AI agent tokens to $6.4 billion. Among the top ten tokens, Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) has seen an extraordinary 142.8% increase in value, hitting a two-month high. The token’s growth is underpinned by a notable uptick in active users, signaling strong community engagement and adoption.
Top 10 AI Agents Price Performance. Source: CoinGecko
“AI agents are the hot rotation right now — and Santiment backs it up with a clear surge in social dominance for “AI agents,” mirroring the sharp sector-wide price rebound,” a user noted on X.
The broader interest in the sector extends beyond the crypto market, as evidenced by Google Trends data. Last week, the search volume for the keyword “AI Agents” peaked at 100. At the time of writing, it stood at 94. This reflected growing public curiosity, both within and outside the blockchain space.
Is FOMO Fueling the Latest Surge in AI Agents?
Nonetheless, despite the bullish sentiment, some experts remain skeptical. Simon Dedic, CEO of Moonrock Capital, drew attention to AI and meme coins’ recent outperformance.
According to him, this trend reflects what he describes as the “ultimate mid-curve trade.” In other words, many investors who had previously remained on the sidelines are now rushing to invest in these sectors. Nevertheless, they are driven by the fear of missing out (FOMO) on potential gains as market conditions improve.
Thus, Dedic is highly critical of this behavior. He suggested that these investors focus more on chasing trends than making sound, long-term investment decisions.
“They deserve to lose it all – and most of them probably will. The real alpha will be in the fundamental catch-up trade and it will outperform everything else,” Dedic claimed.
As the market continues to evolve, only time will reveal whether these tokens can maintain their momentum or if the speculative hype will ultimately fade.
