China Could Change Crypto FOREVER!

China’s relationship with crypto can be best summed up by that oh-so-mid-noughties term - ‘it’s complicated’. Many of crypto’s earliest adopters were Chinese, and citizens there still trade it to the tune of billions of dollars in volume every month. But, crypto is ‘banned’ in China, right?

Well, not exactly. The Chinese government has restricted access to it and severely limited the scope of crypto businesses in the country, but it certainly isn’t banned. Despite the well-founded fears that Chinese citizens will use crypto to facilitate capital flight out of the country, they’re still able to get their hands on it.

Meanwhile, across the Pacific, China’s biggest rival is about to inaugurate its first pro-crypto president and possibly even begin to accumulate BTC as a reserve asset. How China reacts to this could have profound consequences for the entire crypto industry.

In today’s video, we examine China’s fraught relationship with crypto and look at how it could change in the second Trumpocene era. We look at the reasons why Beijing continues to harbour anti-crypto sentiment, despite the fact that so many ethnic Chinese have contributed to the industry in so many ways. And we ask whether Hong Kong might be the key to unlocking China’s vast crypto potential.

You can watch that video here.

📈 Crypto Market Forecast 📈

The next week could be the most volatile that the crypto market has ever experienced since its inception, at least in nominal terms. That’s because in 24 hours, the US is going to formally have a pro-crypto president who is literally launching his own DeFi protocol, and has promised to do everything from creating a Bitcoin reserve to basically canceling the SEC’s altcoin crackdowns.

One crypto Twitter/X user summed it up perfectly when Trump won the election last November: ‘crime is now legal, launch the tokens’. While this is obviously hyperbole, it’s not as far off from reality as you’d think. American readers will know that US crypto users have faced a lot of restrictions around things like airdrops, DeFi, and access to speculative altcoins. This is all going to change.

First, we can expect to see US exchanges starting to list significantly more altcoins if the SEC freezes all crypto cases involving alleged fraud, as has been reported. Of course, the altcoins that are the most likely to be listed are the ones that are affiliated with US exchanges and US investors. Pro tip: check which cryptos Coinbase Ventures has invested in but hasn’t listed yet.

Second, we can expect to see silly restrictions around things like airdrops lifted for US users. Circumstantial evidence for this can be found in the Phantom wallet’s recent $150 million raise. Phantom has raised almost $270 million in total, but claims it has ‘no plans’ to launch a token. The catch is that ‘no plans’ doesn’t mean they won’t do it, and the recent raise suggests they will.

Third, we can expect to see extreme competition among crypto projects to attract users, as new use cases are unlocked. The most notable in this regard are stablecoin-related use cases, such as payments and savings. These will be made possible once stablecoin-related regulations are passed, and airdrops by wallets like Phantom could be used as a means to attract/retain users.

Fourth, we can expect to see existing technology and finance companies integrating with crypto projects. A special mention is due here to one that nobody seems to have noticed, and that’s Sony, which recently launched Soneium, a layer 2 on Ethereum. Sony happens to be the manufacturer of Playstation consoles, which foreshadows GameFi integrations and interest.

Fifth, we can expect to see cryptocurrencies with close ties to the Trump administration perform the best. The top crypto on this list is arguably Solana, as PayPal is explicitly looking to use Solana for payments, and much of Trump’s cabinet consists of or is influenced by former PayPal executives. Trump’s so-called ‘Crypto Czar’, David Sacks, also happens to be a Solana bull.

Finally, we can expect to see countries around the world announce pro-crypto policies. Although most of this speculation has focused on the creation of strategic Bitcoin/crypto reserves, most countries will likely focus on retaining VC capital and tech talent which would otherwise migrate to the US. Consider that 46% of all crypto VC investments happened in the US in Q4 of 2024.

The only question then is when all of these things will happen. Many reports suggest that Trump will begin signing pro-crypto executive orders on day one, but this seems hard to believe given that there are clearly much more important issues that he needs to address. Then again, Trump has proven that he can be unpredictable, so there’s no way of knowing for sure.

One thing is for sure though, and that’s that the crypto market is currently expecting pro-crypto executive orders and policy changes to be a focus for Trump. These expectations may be too high relative to what he actually delivers in the coming days, and the result could be extreme volatility to the downside if he fails to deliver, and to the upside if he does indeed do it all on day one.

Make no mistake, if Trump delivers, then we will see the largest crypto bull market to date.

🤖 DeFAI Part 2 🤖

It's never a dull week in crypto. Since our newsletter coverage of DeFAI last week, there have been many more developments within the niche.

If you missed last week’s issue, we recommend you read it first. For those short on time, here’s a TLDR – the AI agents narrative has now crossed over into DeFi, birthing DeFAI (DeFi + AI). At its core, the narrative revolves around using AI agents to make DeFi trading simpler and more efficient.

According to sentiment analytics platform Kaito, DeFAI currently has (almost) as much mindshare as DeFi. In fact, DeFAI seems to be the fastest-growing sub-niche within the AI agent meta. Crypto x AI researcher 0xJeff also notes that coins within the DeFAI niche were the only AI agent coins that managed to pump, despite a broader market downturn, earlier this week.

A look at the AI agent tracker cookie.fun’s DeFAI dashboard shows that the total market cap for DeFAI coins stands at $2.5B - a roughly 150% increase since last week. This sudden rise in total market cap was partly led by the launch of new DeFAI projects, as well as the positive price performance of existing players.

Some of the notable performers over the last week include Orbit’s $GRIFT and HeyAnon’s $ANON.

On that note, $GRIFT’s price performance appears to be led by the fact that it is currently one of the few DeFAI projects open for public use. Not to mention that it’s also one of the few DeFAI projects offering multichain compatibility. The platform also has multiple agents to help users perform DeFi tasks, each one specialised for a specific task. This includes a USDC transfer agent, an LP agent, research agent, copy trading agent and a memecoin trading agent. The team also announced the integration of multiple DeFi protocols with Orbit over the past week.

As for $ANON, its price rise appears to follow increased visibility for the project across socials. HeyAnon founder Daniele Siesta’s notoriety due to his association with the rebasing DAO ‘Wonderland (TIME)’ also likely contributes to this increased mindshare. That said, the project did announce two major developments over the past week. The first is the launch of ‘AUTOMATE’ - a TypeScript framework for DeFAI that makes it simple for any developer to integrate any DeFi protocol into the Hey Anon ecosystem. AUTOMATE is already being used to integrate DeFi protocols from Arbitrum, Base, and BNBChain among others. The second development was the launch of a research assistant agent named ‘Gemma.’ Functionally, Gemma operates similarly to the popular research agent AIXBT.

Overall, the price performance of these two projects hints at two major factors we believe are crucial for DeFAI agents to go mainstream.

The first is the need for at least one project in the niche to achieve mass adoption. In its current state, most DeFAI projects are either still in development, or are in the beta-testing phase with limited users. There’s also an appetite for multi-chain DeFAI projects. The first wave of DeFAI adopters will likely be the users currently using Telegram trading bots and terminals like BullX. These users have already become accustomed to trading on a multi-chain interface.

The second is the need for DeFAI projects to offer more ‘alpha’ compared to previous DeFi abstraction interfaces such as Telegram trading bots and intent-based protocols. We suspect leading DeFAI projects will incorporate research and market analysis agents similar to AIXBT as a core component of the user experience. For context, AIXBT is a market sentiment analysis agent that analyses data from KOLs on X. Other projects that fall within the AI agent researcher category include TriSigma, ASYM, Gemach, and KwanXBT.

Of course, the only problem here is when AI research agents ‘hallucinate’ or draw upon outdated data for their analysis. Not to mention the need for these outputs to be truly autonomous and untouched by humans.

In summary then, it’s still super early days for DeFAI, but the potential is massive nonetheless. Just don’t expect to see quick gains like the ones we saw during the initial days of the AI agent meta. This one could be more of a slow burner but no less exciting for all that.

🔥 Hot Deal of The Week 🔥

The rise of the new Trump memecoin has sucked liquidity out of other altcoins this weekend. This has meant that many great projects are now trading at a discount and that provides you an opportunity to buy the dip.

If you want to make those final tweaks to your portfolio then you’ll need an exchange. One exchange that is increasingly popular amongst traders is CoinCatch. Here you can get a really special deal that you probably want to lock in whilst you can!

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🔮 Video Pipeline 🔮

* Solana Update: Does it have potential in 2025?
* Cycle Top Indicators: How to sell the top?
* Trump Cryptos: Which cryptos will benefit from Trump the most?
* Base Ecosystem Guide: What is it and what opportunities are there?
* Top Wallets 2025: Our top wallet picks!
 
🏆 What's New at CoinBureau.com This Week? 🏆

* Top Crypto Narratives to Watch Out in 2025
* Analog Review 2025: The Future of Blockchain Interoperability?
* Explore The Top Crypto Exchanges For Day Trading In 2025
* Create Your Crypto Trading Bot: Step-by-Step Guide!
* Discover the Future of Finance with DeFi 2.0!

📖 Quote of the Week 📖

Screenshots don’t equal profits. Don’t tie your unrealised profits to your spending habits and don’t forget to take profit this cycle.

"Never spend your money before you have it." - Thomas Jefferson

Team Coin Bureau

Disclosure: Authors may own cryptoassets named in this newsletter. These are unqualified opinions, and a Coin Bureau newsletter, is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. Please consult with your investment, tax, or legal advisor.