Here’s what you’ll find in today’s edition:

• It’s been two weeks since Liberation Day. Here’s where we stand. 

• Canada beat the US to spot solana ETFs. But will those funds attract flows?

• A YTD returns check-in on BTC, the S&P, crypto stocks and more.

Two weeks in review

It’s been two weeks since Liberation Day sent global markets into a tailspin. We’ve seen a lot these past 14 days, but I wouldn’t dare say we’ve seen it all. 

To oversimplify it, we’ve seen stocks fall, then rise, then fall again. Gold did the opposite, posting a surprising drop in the days after Liberation Day. But the precious metal has since hit a new record high. 

Bond markets sold off dramatically — spurring concerns over a massive basis trade unwind, or retaliatory selling from big foreign holders. We don’t know who was selling (and it’s hard to even say which scenario is worse), but the situation reportedly spooked Trump’s team enough to talk him into walking back his policies. 

Speaking of tariff policies, those too have changed a lot this month. After announcing a 90-day pause on rates exceeding 10% for most countries, the Trump administration increased its levies on China. It actually did this several times. As it currently stands, some goods (like electric vehicles and medical syringes) have tariffs of 245%. 

Trump also issued some “exemptions,” although he’d classify these policies as simply moving certain imports into a different tariff “bucket.” The US Customs and Border Protection last week issued guidance exempting certain consumer electronics (smartphones, computers, etc.) from both reciprocal tariffs on China and the 10% global tariff on all imports.

The next day, White House senior adviser Stephen Miller clarified that these products, when imported from China, are still subject to a 20% levy. The administration maintains that these exemptions will be temporary. 

Personally, I’d be surprised if we see a permanent tariff — at least as high as initially proposed — on consumer electronic imports. 

Consider Apple, the largest company in the US by market cap. If the price of an iPhone increases to $2,500, not only would the masses be furious; the company would have to withdraw investments and pause growth plans. The $3 trillion market cap would plummet. That’s retirement accounts and pensions. 

We saw Trump blink at the first signs of trouble in the bond market, and I’d bet he’d blink here too. 

OK, putting the crystal ball away. 

Today, US equities were back in the red midway through the session after futures plummeted overnight. The dollar was also trading lower, but Treasurys, on the bright side, were on the upswing. 

NVDA led a selloff in tech stocks, spurred by news that the US government is restricting sales of its H20 chips to China. Nvidia said the new policy means investors will see a $5.5 billion charge on its first quarter earnings, slated to be released next month. 

Investors were also apparently not moved by Fed Chair Powell’s Wednesday remarks, in which he gave no indication that the central bank plans to save markets with interest rate cuts. He said that while he’s satisfied with the labor market, tariffs pose an unknown risk to inflation. 

Trump’s tariff rates have been even higher than central bankers’ most extreme scenarios, Powell added. 

All this to say: Don’t hold your breath for a Fed put, and maybe avoid checking your brokerage account for a while longer.

— Casey Wagner

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This is how much the S&P 500 fell in 30 minutes today as Fed Chair Powell spoke at the Economic Club of Chicago.

Powell noted that the impact tariffs have on inflation could be short-term, but we just don’t know yet. He is in no hurry to cut interest rates.

We’ve highlighted the milestone that is spot solana ETFs launching on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but industry watchers aren’t expecting big demand initially.

ETF.com analyst Sumit Roy noted that spot ether ETFs in Canada hold about $500 million in assets — roughly one-tenth of the money in Canadian spot crypto ETFs overall. The rest resides in bitcoin products.  

“We've seen a similar phenomenon here in the US, where ether ETFs have attracted a fraction of the demand that bitcoin ETFs have,” Roy told me. “And so it's reasonable to assume that SOL, which is an even less popular cryptocurrency than ether, will have less demand in turn.” 

The market cap of ether is roughly 3x larger than that of solana — at $190 billion, compared to SOL’s $65 billion.

Most US investors might wait for US-listed solana ETFs before seeking out that exposure, Roy added. Even then, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart said frankly: “I don't see a massive wall of demand for solana ETFs here in the US.”

Volatility Shares’ two US solana futures ETFs have just $15 million in combined AUM after nearly a month on the market. 

“That said, over time, I think SOL ETFs can grow,” Roy said. “Solana is a vibrant blockchain that's at the center of the memecoin phenomenon.” 

As for when we could see spot solana ETFs in the US, Seyffart previously pinned the odds of SEC approval at 70% by the end of the year. 

He told me this morning he still expects those funds — as well as proposals to allow staking in the US ETH products — to get the green light in the coming months. 

“Final deadlines for both of those things are in October 2025, but the SEC could move quicker if they wanted,” Seyffart said. 

As noted yesterday, Canada beating the US to crypto ETFs is nothing new. Its spot bitcoin and ether ETFs launched three years before similar products hit the US market. Heck, Canada welcomed the first ETF ever in 1990 — three years before the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) debuted in the US. 

“I don't think the SEC will feel any pressure from what regulators in Canada do,” Roy said. “They will move to the beat of their own drum as they've always done.”

— Ben Strack

You may have seen our rundown that detailed various crypto exposure returns so far in 2025.

The upshot was that while BTC has fallen in line with some of the biggest stock market indexes, a number of crypto stocks have fared substantially worse. Good ol’ physical gold, meanwhile, is enjoying itself (as much as an inanimate thing can).

Updating some numbers, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes are down 10% and 16%, respectively, so far this year.

As BTC hovered around $83,500 Wednesday afternoon, it was similarly down nearly 11% year to date. Gold is up 24% over that span, flaunting a safe-haven status that BTC does not yet widely enjoy. 

Moving to crypto stocks, shares of Strategy (a holder of 531,644 BTC) are up about 2% YTD.

MSTR is the top holding in the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK). That fund’s co-portfolio manager, Dan Weiskopf, told me: “We think MSTR’s growth rate deserves a premium to traditional multiples of book, especially when the book value is so easy to measure.” 

COIN has fared much worse, down 34% in 2025. Such a stock is impacted by retail investors and hedge funds that are more inclined to trade out of their positions than institutional holders who sit tight during market downturns, Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer told me.

Meanwhile, large miners like Marathon Digital and Core Scientific are down 29% and 54% YTD, respectively. Investors can position toward pure-play BTC miners or ones more focused on building or managing AI data centers.

“During a sharp downturn, those visions of future upside can be pushed aside as investor horizons shrink and there is more focus on necessities and staples and stocks with attractive dividend yields,” Palmer said.

Weiskopf added: “We do not believe that the AI/data center trend is a bubble and would expect a sizable relief to take form when markets lean more towards risk again.”

— Ben Strack

• Less than two months after settling with the DOJ, crypto exchange OKX said Wednesday it will re-enter the US market — complete with a new regional headquarters in California and a wallet available to US users. 

• US retail sales rose 1.4%, a Wednesday report shows. Analysts say consumers were moving to make bigger purchases — like cars — before tariffs hit.