It’s Been Another Eventful Week in Cryptocurrency, with Notable News and Developments Impacting Bitcoin (BTC) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

The crypto market is always in motion, with price changes, whale activity, evolving regulations, and the growth of Web3. Here’s a concise recap of the key happenings

This week in crypto, 21Shares filed for the first U.S. spot Dogecoin ETF with Nasdaq, aiming to hold DOGE in custody via Coinbase. The move puts 21Shares ahead in the race to introduce a meme coin ETF to American markets, with support from the House of Doge. Analysts say there’s a good chance it will be approved this year, which could mark a major milestone in bringing Dogecoin into mainstream investing.

In other news, BlackRock has filed with the SEC to launch “DLT Shares,” a share class that will use blockchain to hold and mirror ownership records of its $150B Treasury Trust Fund. The shares won’t directly hold any crypto assets. Instead, they will use blockchain technology to provide greater transparency and efficiency in tracking the fund’s structure and shareholdings.

This follows BlackRock’s successful $2.5B BUIDL fund and similar efforts by JPMorgan and Fidelity to tokenize private equity funds and other assets. BNY Mellon will handle the blockchain ledger for the money market fund shares.

Meanwhile, Truth Social is planning to launch a utility token and digital wallet to facilitate subscriptions and services across its platforms. The move deepens Trump Media’s push into blockchain, which began last year with a $250M investment from crypto firms.

The token will first be used for subscriptions to Truth+ streaming, which will offer exclusive content and interactions with Trump. In future phases, the token will be integrated into Truth Social and financial services.

However, details about the token’s type, launch date, or legal structure remain largely unconfirmed, despite rumors circulating since March. The TRUMP memecoin dipped 10% this week on fears of direct competition from Truth Social’s token.

In DeFi, Sui is integrating sBTC—a Bitcoin-backed asset on the Stacks network—into its ecosystem. Backed 1:1 by BTC, sBTC will bring smart contract functionality and liquidity from the Bitcoin ecosystem into Sui’s fast-growing DeFi hub, which already has over $9.6B in locked value.

Sui aims to capture a larger share of the DeFi market by providing a more efficient and interoperable environment for deploying and using decentralized applications and protocols.

This integration builds on the growing collaboration between Stacks and Sui to expand Bitcoin’s role in decentralized finance and create new possibilities for interoperability and asset transferability across different blockchains.

In other news, the UK’s FCA is planning to ban retail investors from using credit cards, loans, or any borrowed funds to buy crypto. The move comes after data showed 14% of Brits used credit for crypto in 2024—more than double from 2022.

The regulator aims to curb risky speculation and household debt, especially among younger generations who are new to investing. The ban may exempt regulated stablecoins, which are pegged to the British pound and used in some DeFi protocols.

The proposals also tighten lending, staking, and DeFi rules, sparking debate over balancing innovation with consumer protection.