WuBlockchain Weekly: Trump's Global Tax Hike Officially Kicks Off, Multiple Altcoins on Binance Plunge in Price, Justin Sun Claims to Have Been Scammed of $500 Million by FDT, etc

Apr 04, 2025

1. Trump Announces Reciprocal Tariff Plan, Which Will Take Effect on April 9th link

The United States will set a baseline tariff rate of 10% for all countries, and the reciprocal tariff rate will be half of its tariff rate.

President Trump has announced specific reciprocal tariff rates for multiple countries, including 49% for Cambodia, 46% for Vietnam, 37% for Bangladesh, 36% for Thailand, 34% for China, 32% each for Taiwan (China) and Indonesia, 31% for Switzerland, 30% for South Africa, 26% for India, 25% for South Korea, 24% each for Japan and Malaysia, 20% for the European Union, 17% for Israel, and 10% each for the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Singapore.

The reciprocal tariffs will come into effect at 12:01 a.m. on April 9. Senior White House officials said that the government plans to impose additional industry — specific tariffs on semiconductors, pharmaceutical products, and possibly critical minerals, which will not be included in this new tariff system. The United States will continue to exempt Canadian and Mexican goods from tariffs under the United States — Mexico — Canada Agreement (USMCA).

According to confirmation by Eamon Javers, a senior Washington correspondent for CNBC, through a short — message exchange with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt during an event, the 34% reciprocal tariff imposed on China is an addition to the previous 20% tariff, meaning that Chinese goods will face a total tariff rate of 54% after the new tariffs come into effect.

CICC analysis points out that the reciprocal tariffs announced by Trump on April 2 exceeded market expectations, covering more than 60 economies. The tariff increase could cause the effective tariff rate in the United States to rise sharply from 2.4% in 2024 to 25.1%, exceeding the level after the Smoot — Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. This move could push up the US PCE inflation by 1.9 percentage points and reduce the GDP growth rate by 1.3 percentage points, although it may bring in more than $700 billion in fiscal revenue. CICC believes that this will exacerbate market uncertainty and the risk of “stagflation” in the United States, making it difficult for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in the short term and further increasing the downward pressure on the economy.

2. The US Government Will Complete the Audit of Bitcoin Holdings on April 5th link

The US Department of the Treasury and other federal agencies will disclose their holdings of Bitcoin and other crypto — assets on April 5. Whether XRP, Solana, and Cardano will be included in the national digital asset reserve will also be clarified. According to a presidential document released on March 11, all federal agencies must report their holdings of Bitcoin and other digital assets to the Secretary of the Treasury within 30 days of the order’s issuance.

3. Goldman Sachs Expects the Federal Reserve to Cut Interest Rates Three Times in the Second Half of the Year link

According to Nick Timiraos, a reporter from The Wall Street Journal, Goldman Sachs currently expects that the growth rate of the core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) this year will rise to 3.5%, compared with its previous forecast of 3.0%. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs anticipates that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates three times in the second half of this year to address the impacts on economic growth and employment.

4. Eric Trump and Hut 8 Mining Announce the Joint Establishment of a New Bitcoin — mining Company, American Bitcoin link

Eric Trump, the second son of former U.S. President Donald Trump, and the mining company Hut 8 Mining have announced the joint establishment of a new Bitcoin mining company named American Bitcoin. Hut 8 will inject the majority of its ASIC mining machines into American Data Centers, in which Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have participated in the investment. After the transaction is completed, it will be renamed American Bitcoin, and Hut 8 will hold an 80% equity stake. The new company plans to increase its computing power to over 50 EH/s, with an average energy efficiency of less than 15 J/TH, and is seeking an independent listing in the future. Hut 8 will serve as its exclusive infrastructure and operation and maintenance partner to provide long-term services.

5. Fidelity Announces the Launch of a Commission — free Cryptocurrency Individual Retirement Account link

Fidelity has announced the launch of a commission — free Cryptocurrency Individual Retirement Account (Crypto IRA), which allows American users aged 18 and above to invest in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC) through Roth IRA, traditional IRA, or rollover IRA. The assets will be held in custody by Fidelity and stored in a cold wallet. This move is aimed at responding to users’ demand for tax — advantaged investment methods for crypto — assets.

6. Multiple Altcoins on Binance Experience a Sharp Decline link

Around 18:30 on Tuesday, several altcoins on Binance experienced sharp declines. Among them, the price of ACT/USDT dropped by more than 49% within 30 minutes, DEXE/USDT declined by over 23% in 30 minutes, and DF/USDT fell by more than 16% within 30 minutes. These drops were all caused by large sell orders within a short period, and the spot trading volume increased significantly and abnormally. According to data from Coinglass, the open interest of ACT perpetual contracts decreased by 60% within nearly one hour. At 18:30 UTC+8 on the same day, Binance updated the position limits of several perpetual contracts, including ACTUSDT and PNUTUSDT.

Benson Sun, a crypto Key Opinion Leader (KOL), analyzed that at 18:30 today, ACT suddenly crashed by 50%. The cause was that Binance adjusted the leverage position limit of ACT. With a 1x leverage, the maximum position that can be opened is only $4.5 million. Since the position of a market maker exceeded the limit, it was directly liquidated at the market price. After the contract price crashed, there was a huge price difference between the contract and the spot, causing the spot price to crash as well. Binance released the announcement at 15:32 on April 1st, and it took effect at 18:30 on April 1st, giving users less than 3 hours to react. Binance had already released an announcement to modify the position limit of ACT on March 31st, and on April 1st, the position limit for low-leverage positions was further cut by 50%.

On Wednesday, Binance’s preliminary investigation showed that three VIP users cross-sold tokens worth approximately 514,000 USDT within a short period, and another non-VIP user transferred and sold about 540,000 USDT worth of ACT from other platforms, leading to the price decline. Some users’ futures contracts were liquidated, which in turn affected other tokens. Currently, no single account has been found to have made a large profit, and Binance has not actively reduced the positions of any users. Binance stated that since all of this token is already in circulation in the secondary market, the platform cannot interfere with any selling behavior of users. Binance also offers a complete market maker program to encourage more market makers to join Binance and improve market liquidity.

7. Justin Sun Alleges That FDT Has Gone Bankrupt and Funds Cannot Be Redeemed link

Justin Sun accused FDT/First Digital Trust of managing $501 million in reserves of TUSD but refusing to redeem them. FDT, on the other hand, stated that it was due to concerns about Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures, as well as concerns about the true identities of the ultimate beneficial owners. Justin Sun claimed that FDT was actually insolvent and unable to fulfill the redemption of customer funds. FDT is also the issuer of FDUSD, a stablecoin that is currently mainly supported by Binance. Affected by this, FDUSD once dropped to a low of $0.87, but as of the time of writing, it has recovered to about $1.

First Digital said that Justin Sun’s recent accusations against First Digital Trust are completely wrong. This dispute is related to TUSD and has nothing to do with FDUSD. First Digital is fully solvent. Every dollar supporting FDUSD is fully, safely, and reliably accounted for, and is backed by U.S.-supported treasury bills. This is a typical slander campaign by Justin Sun, trying to attack his business competitors.

Binance issued an announcement stating that it has completed the review of the reserve audit report of the stablecoin FDUSD for February. The report was issued by Prescient Assurance, a third-party audit institution commissioned by the issuer FD121 Limited. As of March 1, 2025, the total reserves of FDUSD amounted to $2.051 billion, which were deposited in U.S. treasury bonds and overnight time deposits, exceeding the total circulation at that time, confirming its 1:1 redemption ability. Binance said that it will conduct an in-depth review of the audit report for March, and the report is expected to be released within the next two weeks.

8. Circle Plans to List on the New York Stock Exchange with the Ticker CRCL, with an Annual Revenue of $1.7 Billion link

Circle has filed an S — 1 document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its initial public offering (IPO). It plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CRCL”, and the IPO price range has not been determined yet. According to the document, Circle has established partnerships with Coinbase, Binance, BlackRock and other partners to promote the circulation and ecological development of USDC.

In the agreement with Coinbase, Circle sets the payment base according to the daily net income of USDC reserves. After deducting the management fee, 0.1% to 2% is reserved as the issuer’s share, and the remaining part is distributed according to the proportion of coins held by the platform. 50% of the remaining payment base is paid to Coinbase. The cooperation with Binance started in November 2024. Circle paid a $60.25 million advance payment to Binance and will issue incentive fees based on the balance of USDC held on its platform and the quarterly adjusted interest rate.

9. Coinbase CEO: US Stablecoin Legislation Should Allow Consumers to Earn Interest through Stablecoins link

Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, stated that the legislation on stablecoins in the United States should allow consumers to earn interest through stablecoins. Directly paying the interest earned from reserve assets to stablecoin holders is essentially equivalent to having an interest-bearing checking account. The technology already exists, but the laws have not caught up yet. Currently, stablecoins are unable to enjoy the exemption in securities laws that allows issuers to pay interest to users. We have the option to create a fair playing field and ensure that these laws pave the way for all regulated stablecoins, enabling them to offer interest directly to consumers in the same way as savings or checking accounts.

10. STRATEGY Increases Its Bitcoin Holdings by 22,048 Coins link

Between March 24th and March 30th, STRATEGY purchased 22,048 Bitcoins at a cost of $1.92 billion, with an average price of $86,969 per Bitcoin. As of March 30th, 2025, STRATEGY held 528,185 Bitcoins, with an average acquisition price of $67,458 per Bitcoin, and the total acquisition cost was approximately $35.63 billion.

Fundraising

Ambient has completed a seed round of financing worth $7.2 million. link
Mahojin, an artificial intelligence startup, has announced the completion of a $5 million financing. link
Ultra, a blockchain gaming platform, has announced the completion of a new round of financing worth $12 million. link

Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.

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