Crypto news

Ripple Tried to Buy Circle, Got Laughed Out, and Bitcoin’s Boring Price Drama

BBG News
  • BTC looked about as lively as a housecat in a sun patch, consolidating around $95K ahead of the U.S. Jobs report. 😼
  • Ripple, apparently bored and with $5 billion burning a hole in its metaphorical pocket, put in an offer for Circle. Circle rejected it like an undercooked soufflé. 🥧

Bitcoin [BTC], that age-old digital glitter, remained wedged awkwardly between $92K-$95K after the U.S. dropped some “cool” inflation numbers on April 30th. At this point, watching Bitcoin’s price chart is about as exciting as monitoring the growth of moss—slow, subtle, and er… yes, still mossy.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (let’s be honest, the real action heroes of statistical tables) showed the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Index jogged down to 2.3% annually in March. That’s the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge, for reasons only they (and perhaps their pet economists) fully understand.

Not satisfied with confusing mere mortals, we get the Core PCE Index—stripped of those pesky things like food and energy, which we totally don’t need anyway. This rose to 2.6%, exactly as the analysts predicted—not that anyone’s popping champagne over that synchronized dance.

With inflation poking along at an “unsticky” pace, all eyes are now on the U.S. Jobs report coming out on May 2nd. (Nothing says “fun Friday” like parsing labor participation percentages.) If the job numbers flop, the odds of a Fed rate cut go up, and suddenly crypto traders everywhere will discover their risk appetite again… or at least that’s the theory.

Despite all this, the market’s betting—95% of interest traders, because apparently we are all about precision these days—that the Fed will leave rates “right where we like ’em,” between 4.25% and 4.50% on May 7th. (Someone probably has a novelty hat for the occasion. If not, they really should.)

Ripple Waves, Circle’s Rebuff, and the Dance of the Altcoins 💃

In the Reality TV segment of crypto news, Ripple made headlines by attempting to buy Circle, everyone’s favorite stablecoin-slinger, with an offer in the $4-$5 billion range. Bloomberg broke the story, and Circle responded the way you’d expect from someone who just got offered a used bicycle for their vintage sports car: “That’s cute, but no.”

Circle seems to fancy itself the most compliant stablecoin mob boss in both the U.S. and E.U., with rumors of an equity valuation hovering between $4 billion and $6 billion. Whether someone slipped them a compliance handbook or they simply enjoy paperwork, who’s to say?

In 2025, the USDC market got positively swole, bulging from $43 billion to $62 billion. Circle, smelling opportunity (like plain toast—dependable, if unexciting), launched a cross-border payment network and convinced enough merchants worldwide to play along.

Some analysts say this pokes a hole (possibly a large one) right through Ripple’s business model. Think of it as a polite, regulatory pie fight.

Whether Ripple will wander back with a slightly larger suitcase of cash before Circle’s rumored IPO remains, in typical crypto fashion, as clear as the rules for Monopoly money.

Not to be upstaged, Solana [SOL] and Ethena Labs have been busy. Solana filed “Project One” with the SEC, proposing to sling U.S. stocks right onto the blockchain, presumably so you can lose money even faster from anywhere on Earth.

Meanwhile, Ethena Labs joined hands with Telegram, letting the messenger’s bazillion users (actual number: one billion, but who’s counting) dive into yield-bearing stablecoins (USDe). From May, Telegram Wallet users can stake USDT or USDe, and—cue the drumroll—earn rewards from inside the app, so you never even have to get dressed. 🚀

“This unlocks dollars held by the hundreds of millions of users in Wallet in Telegram to dollar savings functionality without having to leave the application.” 

If you’re a fan of yields, apparently TON users could see up to 10% annualized, paid weekly. Which, in today’s world, is probably only slightly more absurd than watching people argue about the definition of money.

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2025-05-01 23:09

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