Ecosystem Update April 2025

We are pleased to share our April 2025 Ecosystem Update, highlighting recent developments across our group and portfolio companies. This report offers a detailed overview of key accomplishments, progress on strategic initiatives, and notable advancements achieved throughout the past month.

Macro Overview

Source: CoinGecko

In April 2025, the cryptocurrency market experienced notable volatility. Bitcoin (BTC) traded between $74,000 and $84,000 for most of the month before breaking out to $94,000, marking its first highest since mid-January. Ethereum (ETH) remained relatively stable, trading around $1,800. U.S. tariff played a significant role in the crypto industry in April. The crypto market surged around April 8 due to a rebound from earlier tariff fears, with Bitcoin recovering toward $80K and investors regaining confidence. Around April 21, optimism grew as the U.S. signaled easing trade tensions with China and institutional investors began accumulating Bitcoin, pushing it past key resistance levels.

Key events included:

Market Performance and Trends

• The total cryptocurrency market capitalization fluctuated significantly during April, driven largely by Bitcoin's performance. Bitcoin (BTC) opened the month trading around $74,000 and ranged between $74,000 and $84,000 for much of the first half. Toward the end of the month, BTC broke above $94,000, marking its first higher high since mid-January, and finishing the month up over 16%, its strongest monthly performance since January 2025
• Ethereum (ETH), meanwhile, maintained a relatively stable price, oscillating around the $1,800 mark throughout April.
• Sentiment across altcoins was more mixed, with selective gains tied to developments in regulation or institutional activity. Market analysts attributed the late-month BTC rally to speculation around forthcoming rate cuts and the broader market's reaction to easing regulatory pressures in key jurisdictions.

Regulatory Developments

• United States

Federal Reserve Policy Shift
On April 24, the Federal Reserve Board rescinded prior guidance requiring banks to notify regulators before engaging in crypto-related activities. This move allows banks to participate in permissible crypto activities without prior approval, provided they manage associated risks appropriately.

SEC Leadership's Stance
New SEC Chairman Paul Atkins emphasized the need for clear regulatory frameworks to foster innovation while protecting investors. In his first public remarks, Atkins criticized previous regulatory ambiguity for stifling innovation and signaled a more industry-friendly approach. 

• United Kingdom

Stablecoin Regulation

The UK announced plans to exempt overseas stablecoin issuers from its upcoming cryptocurrency regulations. This initiative aims to enhance tech cooperation with the US and establish Britain as a fintech hub.

Consumer Protection Measures

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) proposed new regulations to improve consumer protection in the crypto market. These include restricting the use of credit cards for purchasing cryptocurrencies and implementing credit checks for crypto lending and borrowing activities. 

• European Union

MiCA Implementation Progress

the European Commission published the first set of delegated regulations under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework in the Official Journal of the EU. These regulations focus on market abuse controls and aim to standardize crypto regulations across member states, enhancing transparency and investor protection.

Further, on April 29, 2025, the European Commission adopted a Delegated Regulation supplementing MiCA with regard to regulatory technical standards (RTS) specifying the arrangements, systems, and procedures to prevent, detect, and report market abuse.

• South Korea‍

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced plans to release institutional crypto investment guidelines by Q3 2025. This reflects the country's efforts to balance innovation with investor protection in the digital asset space. 

• South Africa
  

The Financial Intelligence Centre issued Directive 9, mandating that all crypto asset service providers implement the "Travel Rule" for crypto asset transfers by April 30, 2025. This aligns with global standards to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

• El Salvador

The first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, continues to expand its national BTC reserve. As of April 2025, the country held over 6,100 BTC, valued at more than $580 million. President Nayib Bukele’s administration has also launched initiatives including “Bitcoin bonds” and tax incentives, to attract crypto-focused businesses and nomads.

Institutional Activity

• MicroStrategy: The company acquired an additional 15,355 BTC in April, bringing its total holdings to 553,555 BTC, reinforcing its position as a major institutional holder.
  
  
• Ripple: Ripple announced the acquisition of prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, positioning itself as the first crypto company to operate a global prime broker.
  
  
• BlackRock: The asset management giant filed with the SEC to launch a new share class of its $150 billion money market fund registered on a blockchain, indicating growing institutional interest in digital assets.

Global Adoption and Expansion

• MoonPay: The crypto payment service provider announced the opening of its new U.S. headquarters in SoHo, New York City, reflecting a notable shift in the crypto industry's relationship with NYC. 

• Panama: The Panama City Council passed a bill allowing residents to pay taxes and government fees using cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, USDC, and USDT, marking a step toward mainstream digital asset adoption.

Outlook

Bitcoin (BTC) has demonstrated robust performance in early 2025, trading around $95,000 as of May 5. Analysts anticipate continued growth, driven by macroeconomic factors, institutional adoption, and favorable market dynamics. 

In summary, a confluence of institutional interest, macroeconomic factors, and favorable technical indicators underpin a positive outlook for Bitcoin in 2025. While volatility remains inherent in the cryptocurrency market, current trends suggest a trajectory toward new all-time highs in the coming months.

Advanced Blockchain’s Ecosystem Update

‍peaq

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peaq experienced significant growth in Q1 2025, with a 256.7% quarter-over-quarter increase in average daily active addresses, rising from 6,375 in Q4 2024 to 22,738 in Q1 2025. Average daily transactions also increased by 32.5%, from 58,424 to 77,386.

In April, peaq expanded its ecosystem by integrating new Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePINs).

Contango

Contango continues to show steady growth in open interest, maintaining momentum even amid broader market slowdowns. One of the platform’s standout strategies—looping—remains a favorite among users, particularly for trades involving stablecoins and Pendle Principal Tokens (PTs). This resilience highlights Contango’s appeal to sophisticated DeFi traders looking to maximize yield in less volatile conditions.

With total open interest trending upward and niche strategies gaining traction, Contango is solidifying its position as a key player in the onchain derivatives and structured yield space.

Silencio

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Silencio has introduced the Silencio Map Explorer, a powerful new tool that enables users to visualize real-world noise levels across streets, hotels, and restaurants—powered entirely by data from over one million decentralized sensors contributed by the community.

More than a typical map, the Explorer offers a unique window into community-driven environmental intelligence. Users can:
• Analyze outdoor noise conditions using distinct layers for streets, hotels, and restaurants
• Identify quieter areas for residential, professional, or leisure purposes
• Track noise level trends within specific geographic areas

This launch marks a major step forward in Silencio’s mission to make decentralized physical infrastructure data both accessible and actionable. You can explore the map here: https://map.silencio.store/.

Neon Labs

Neon has officially launched the Neon Dev Bootcamp, the first incentivized learning program designed specifically for EVM developers ready to build at high velocity.

This 10-week program offers:

• Expert mentorship from leading builders
• Hands-on learning and project development
• A $5,000 prize pool for top participants
• Only 50 spots available

Developers are encouraged to apply early to secure their place in this competitive and highly practical initiative. Signups close tomorrow. Apply now.

Teneo

Teneo has released its official roadmap, outlining both its recent milestones and upcoming developments. With over 1 million Community Node users already active, the roadmap provides a clear view of the network’s next phase—including the anticipated launch of $TENEO.

Key highlights include:

• Upcoming features such as the SDK, community badges, testnet rollout, and staking
• Infrastructure designed for real-time, AI-powered data delivery
•  A system built by users—for users—rather than traditional platforms

Teneo is focused on building a fully autonomous network of AI agents designed to power the next generation of real-time internet applications.

Please note: the roadmap is a living document and may evolve. Any changes will be communicated transparently through Teneo’s monthly recaps. Explore the full roadmap here.

‍Panoptic

Panoptic introduced the Loss Versus Panoptic (LVP) metric, revealing that Uniswap liquidity providers (LPs) could be earning significantly more, often up to 3× higher, by routing liquidity through Panoptic’s decentralized options protocol.
Panoptic V1.1 is now live on Ethereum for Uniswap v4 standard fee-tier, non-hook pools. Support for additional fee tiers, hook pools, Layer-2 networks, and trading competitions will follow in Q2 2025. Learn more in its April 2025 Newsletter.

‍Polymer

Polymer brings its interoperability to more than 20+ chains in April, thanks to its easily deployable stack. Now Polymer is covering most of the mainstream Layer 1 chains and some most used Layer 2 chains, making a big march towards an omni-interoperable future. 

Arweave

Arweave's native token, $AR, is now officially live for trading on Kraken. Deposits and withdrawals are fully enabled, and users can begin trading immediately via the Kraken platform.

Furthermore, Arweave held a side event in Bengaluru, Arweave Day India 2025. It marked a significant milestone for the permaweb community. Unlike typical side events, this standalone gathering brought together over 250 attendees, including developers, creators, and contributors, to explore the future of a permanent, censorship-resistant internet.

Talisman

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Talisman has announced a playful new integration: it’s now available on Tamagotchi. By feeding the virtual pet some cryptocurrencies, you can unlock special powers and even spawn on-chain creatures. Get Talisman and start exploring.

Group Update

On April 15, 2025, we held our first investor update of the year, covering key activities for 2025, ongoing historical cleanup, and financial updates. Key topics included a review of FinPro transactions, the 2023 share buy-back program, 2025 sales activities, vesting schedule updates, and the group’s revenue streams for 2025-2026. As of April 15, 2025, token sales generated $338k.

We provided dashboards of our expected token unlocks and a pilot algorithmic trading project focused on blue-chip tokens. Additionally, the analysis of establishing a bitcoin strategic reserve is underway, with a conclusion expected by June 2025.

Accounting for Advanced Blockchain AG's 2024 financials is complete, and work on Incredulous Labs' accounts continues. We’ve also engaged Edison Research for equity research coverage, which will launch at the upcoming AGM.

Our team attended MKK and TOKEN2049 in April 2025 to present our strategy and connect with partners.

Lastly, we welcomed Nuria Gimeno to the team, a Web3 marketing expert, to refine our communication and marketing strategy for 2025 and beyond. We remain focused on delivering value and making a lasting impact in the industry.

‍Staking, DeFi Activities, and Asset Management

On 15th of April, 2025 we held our first investor update call in 2025 where we covered key items related not only to our new activities and initiatives in 2025 but also our ongoing historical cleanup. 

The agenda of the update call included numerous topics, starting from a review of FinPro historical transactions, 2023 share buy-back program of the year 2023 to an update on the sales activities of the year 2025, vesting schedules update as well as the envisioned revenue path of the group for the years 2025 and 2026. You can access the dedicated presentation of the update call here.

As communicated in the recent presentation held in the investor update call, as of 15.04.2025, the revenues generated from the token sales activities reached were $338k, as displayed in detail below:

Furthermore, we shed more light on the planned token unlocks of the group and the current underlying value of the tokens to be unlocked. Two dedicated dashboard have been built, displaying those insights: 

• Token Unlocks (in Quantity)
• Token Unlocks (in USD) 

Aside from the token unlocks, we have officially started the algorithmic trading activities as previously communicated, starting with a small pilot project focused on active trading of specific blue-chip tokens. The pilot project serves as a proof-of-concept phase to assess whether such activities should be integrated as a key pillar of our group business model and the underlying revenue streams.

Moreover, our comprehensive analysis on the establishment of bitcoin strategic reserve, its respective products and related discussions remains underway, with a final conclusion around this topic expected towards June 2025.

‍Accounting, Auditing & Research 

We continue to work actively and focus on closing the Group accounts, both for 2023 and 2024. Accounting for the Financial Year 2024 of Advanced Blockchain AG has now been closed and submitted to the auditor. 

Accounting for Incredulous Labs is still a work in progress, as restatements from previous years still need to be included and audited. It is the management board’s clear intention to account for the financial year 2025 with a clear and proper foundation, meaning all previous years have been corrected and properly accounted for.

Advanced Blockchain AG has also mandated Edison Research to provide additional equity research coverage of the company, as communicated earlier. The full coverage will be initiated at the occasion of the forthcoming AGM, but Edison Research has already prepared a 60-second glimpse of the Q1 trading update that Advanced Blockchain conducted on 15th April 2025.

‍Physical Presence

On 2 April 2025, our management team attended the Münchner Kapitalmarkt Konferenz (MKK), where they presented our latest market outlook, recent company developments, and strategic plans for 2025 and 2026.

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Furthermore, we attended TOKEN2049 in Dubai, along with several side events, where we connected with Web3 builders, potential partners, and existing portfolio companies—such as Panoptic and XMAQUINA, among others.

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‍Human Resources

We are pleased to welcome our new team member, Nuria Gimeno, who brings many years of experience in the marketing and content field. Nuria is a seasoned Web3 Marketer with a strong background in digital innovation. She has led content and growth initiatives for notable names such as Cointelegraph, Paris Blockchain Week, and CryptoTicker, operating at the forefront of decentralized-finance and Web3 ecosystems. Nuria is passionate about building meaningful connections between technology and people, and she brings her strategic and creative expertise to Advanced Blockchain AG.

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Nuria is working closely currently with the management team on refining the group’s holistic communication and marketing strategy while shaping the pipeline of initiatives for the remainder of 2025 and the years to come.

 As the year unfolds, we are committed to tackling every challenge, delivering added value to our shareholders, and making a lasting impact in this dynamic industry. We’re eager to continue this transformative journey together throughout 2025 and into the years ahead.

Best regards,

Your Advanced Blockchain Team

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