Week of April 28 — BTC consolidates above $67k

1. Top line

Bitcoin closed the week at $67,180, a 1.2% gain. Spot trading volume across major venues was down 12% week-on-week as ETF inflow slowed to a trickle. Stablecoin supply expanded by $3.2B, with Tether and USDC roughly evenly split. Alt-L1s tested support and held — a quiet week, mostly.

2. Bitcoin

The 67k level acted as both support and resistance through the week. Two attempts to break $68k on Tuesday and Thursday faded inside two hours. ETF flows were $310M net into spot Bitcoin ETFs, down from $920M the prior week. Open interest in CME futures climbed by 8.4k contracts — perpetual funding stayed mildly positive (0.005% / 8h average), suggesting longs are levered but not extreme.

The on-chain picture: realised cap up $2.1B, MVRV-Z at 1.4 (neither overheated nor cheap), miner-to-exchange flows muted. Nothing to predict, just a market in pause.

3. Ethereum and L2s

ETH closed at $3,540, up 0.8%. The interesting story is on L2 — Arbitrum and Base both posted record weekly DEX volume ($840M and $610M respectively), but ETH burn from L1 stayed flat because L2 batch-posting now dominates. Net: L2 economic activity is real, L1 fee compression is real, ETH staking yield (3.4%) is the floor.

4. Alt-L1s

Solana held $165 through the week, with daily DEX volume hitting $2.1B — third only to Uniswap and PancakeSwap. Avalanche, Cardano and Polkadot all ranged inside ±2.5% with no obvious catalyst. The "alts catching up" narrative is on hold; correlations to BTC stayed in the 0.8 range.

5. Stablecoins and lending

USDT supply grew by $1.7B, USDC by $1.4B. Aggregate stablecoin supply now $182B (record high). On bitexasia Earn, savings APY for USDT hovered at 6.20% on 78% utilisation; locked 90-day at 12.0% saw $84M of new deposits this week (record).

Translation: yield demand from market makers and margin traders remains strong; supply is keeping up but not flooding.

6. Money flow

The big mover this week wasn't price — it was the slowdown in retail-driven onboarding. New verified accounts dropped 14% w/w; first-trade-volume per new account stayed flat. That suggests we're in a "current-cohort consolidation" phase rather than acquisition.

7. Setting up next week

Fed minutes Wednesday. ETH spot ETF inflow data Thursday. CPI print the following Tuesday — the macro hand-off that usually sets the tone for the back half of May. Watch BTC's $66k level: a clean break would invite the gap-fill argument toward $58k that's been muttered about for a month.