Arch Promo, Gold's Surge, and Waymo's Expansion

In case you missed it:

This Week in Crypto

I remember the days of showing a sea of green here. If this keeps up, we might just have to scrap the whole section. Bitcoin dropped to a low of $76,600 on the whole macro malarky we’ll talk about later. This made even more infuriating with Gold punching to new ATHs. Nevertheless, we’re sitting at a reasonable $84,500 as of Friday midday ET.

Congress is making moves on crypto policy:

• The Senate Banking Committee just advanced a bipartisan stablecoin bill, the GENIUS Act, which could see a floor vote in 2025. The latest version gives state regulators authority over stablecoin issuers with market caps under $10B, while larger players likely fall under Fed purview.

• David Sacks team are busy drafting a crypto market structure bill, which should see the light of day in the coming months.

At the same time, momentum is building in Washington - The Bitcoin Policy Institute’s “Bitcoin for America” summit brought together policymakers and industry leaders to discuss bitcoin’s future in the U.S. You can see Saylor’s keynote here:

“Bitcoin is the only asset endorsed by the President of the United States in the past 50 years.”

Now look, I could go on about stonks and alts too, but honestly, it’s a bloodbath out there and I’d rather save myself the trouble. So here are a couple of headlines instead:

• Coinbase Looking To Release Tokenised $COIN ( ▲ 4.83% ) 

• Kraken Preparing to IPO in 2026

This Week in TradFi

Better news in the U.S. this week:

• U.S. stocks rose today after broader selloffs earlier in the week, as investors continue to assess the impact of tariff policies on economic growth. Gold broke above $3,000 for the first time ever, as investors hedge against President Trump’s ongoing tariff war. 

• Investors were also reassured by some inflation data rolling in. The Consumer Price Index numbers from this week showed consumer prices cooling more than expected, reassuring investors that inflation is heading in the right direction. And keeping that evergreen hope alive that there will be another rate cut this year. 

• And the good news continues - wholesale prices were flat last month. The producer price index is typically considered a leading indicator of pipeline inflation pressures, and it showed no gain in February after a 0.6% increase in January. 

• And weekly jobless claims dropped 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 220,000 last week - though this may increase as we continue to see federal layoffs and government spending cuts. 

• All in all - the market is poised for another rate cut in June.

On the international front: 

• Some good inflation news in Europe as well - French inflation dropped below 1% for the first time in four years last month, coming in at 0.9% YoY. German inflation also unexpectedly fell in February, down to 2.6%. Overall, inflation fell to an annual rate of 2.4% in the eurozone. 

• And inflation news continues - India’s retail inflation fell below 4% in February for the first time in six months, primarily due to a decline in vegetable prices. Annual retail inflation dropped to 3.61% last month, below the predicted 3.98% and well below January’s rate of 4.26%.

• German shares led a rally in European stocks today, after reports of a historic deal ro raise state borrowing. Investors predicted this deal would happen, but confirmation seems to have come early - stealing gains from next week. 

• Though U.S. stocks have taken a dip since President Trump took office, Chinese stocks seem to be thriving. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, where many major Chinese companies are listed, is up 17% since Trump took office, compared to the S&P which is down about 9%.

This Week in Tech

OpenAI has signed a five-year, $11.9B agreement with cloud service provider CoreWeave.

• The deal gives OpenAI $350M in equity in CoreWeave, though this is reported to be separate from CoreWeave’s planned IPO. 

• CoreWeave filed to become public last week, but exact pricing and timeline is still unclear. 

• The company runs an AI-specific cloud service with 32 data centers that operate more than 250,000 Nvidia GPUs as of last year. 

• Prior to this deal, Microsoft was actually CoreWeave’s biggest customer, accounting for an astounding 62% of the company’s revenue last year. 

• Tensions between Microsoft and OpenAI have been rising over the past couple years, and this will only stoke the flames. 

And some non-AI news for you - Waymo has expanded its taxi service into Silicon Valley.

• Starting Wednesday, riders in Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto, and parts of Sunnyvale can now use the robotaxi service. 

• This adds 27 square miles to Waymo’s map, in addition to the 55 square miles already covered in the San Francisco Bay Area.

• The company also launched in Austin last week and plans to expand to Atlanta later this year. The company is also launching in Miami, in partnership with African startup Moove. 

• And that’s not all - they also plan on testing in as many as 10 new U.S. cities this year, including Las Vegas and San Diego - all thanks to a $5.6B funding round late last year. 

As usual, below are some fundraising announcements, M&A, and tech personnel changes that caught our eye:

• Intel has appointed Lip-Bu Tan, former CEO of Cadence Design Systems and a major figure in the semiconductor industry, as its next CEO. 

• Mobile gaming company Scopely has agreed to acquire Niantic’s gaming division for $3.5B. 

• Hinge Health, which offers virtual physical therapists, has filed to go public, after recording $390M revenue last year.

Arch is building next-gen wealth management platform for individuals holding Alternative Assets. Our flagship product is the crypto-backed loan, which allows you to securely and affordably borrow against your crypto. We also offer access to bank-grade custody, trading and staking services, powered by BitGo.

Disclaimer: None of the above is financial advice, seriously.