I just noticed something quite interesting—when geopolitical tensions flared up on April 22, the crypto market reacted very quickly. At first, when Iran refused to participate in the negotiations and the US Vice President canceled his trip to Pakistan, risk-avoidance sentiment rose sharply, and US stocks wiped out their gains. But then, in the next after-hours trading session, Trump announced an extension of the ceasefire with Iran, Iran agreed to temporarily suspend military actions—and the crypto market started recovering immediately.

What’s notable is that bitcoin closed higher in that context, with the price reaching $77.54K (increasing 1.79% in the past 24 hours), while Ethereum also rose 2.57% to $2.33K. Bitcoin’s dominance held above 60%, indicating that investors still prefer large assets. At this moment, the crypto market is really showing that it is highly sensitive to macro news—not necessarily a bad thing, but a sign that the market is maturing.

But what I want to discuss further is the tokens drawing attention in the crypto market during this period. RAVE and M have surged again, rising by 40% and 26% respectively over the past 24 hours, despite on-chain analysts warning about concentration of holdings. OPG is different—after Coinbase announced an upcoming listing, it jumped 143%. CHIP rose 82%, and ASTEROID (a meme token on Ethereum themed around space dogs) also just surpassed a market cap of $200 million.

I feel that the crypto market is in a phase where macro news has a very large impact. The Fear & Greed Index fell from 33 to 32, showing that sentiment is still cautious. The PMI index is about to be released, and Tesla and Intel results will also be announced this week—these events could continue to affect the crypto market.

On the policy front, the SEC is pushing for a digital asset regulatory framework under the A-C-T (modernization strategy, clarifying boundaries, and reform). The US cryptocurrency market structure bill has been postponed, but the PACE Act has been proposed, opening up the possibility for companies to access direct payments from the Fed. This could be a major turning point for the crypto ecosystem.

There’s another detail I find interesting—Kevin Warsh (a Fed Chair candidate) supports integrating cryptocurrencies into the financial system. DoorDash is set to use stablecoins to pay delivery drivers in 40 countries, and 12 European banks are expected to issue euro stablecoins compliant with MiCA. These news items show that the crypto market is gradually becoming institutionalized.

Today, HYPER and LMTS will release tokens, and Polymarket V2 officially launches—small events, but they could still create movement in the market. I’ll keep monitoring how the crypto market will react to upcoming economic and policy events.