Trigg Minerals (TMG:AU) has announced ANTIMONY EXEMPT FROM US TARIFF POLICY
Download the PDF here.
Trigg Minerals (TMG:AU) has announced ANTIMONY EXEMPT FROM US TARIFF POLICY
Download the PDF here.
The first quarter of 2025 proved challenging for the cryptocurrency market.
Bitcoin, the bellwether of the sector world, suffered its worst first quarter performance in seven years, characterized by significant volatility and a prevailing downward trend. The top cryptocurrency’s lackluster movement was similar to price activity seen from other major coins, such as Ethereum, which also recorded substantial losses.
However, Q1 began with optimism following the results of the US presidential election.
President Donald Trump’s anticipated crypto-friendly policies initially boosted sentiment, and Bitcoin rose to its current all-time high of US$108,786 on January 20, the day he was inaugurated.
Crypto positivity was also reflected in options trading, where open interest outpaced the Bitcoin spot price.
Total Bitcoin options open interest vs. the Bitcoin price, January 2 to March 31, 2025.
Chart via Coinglass.
However, low volume provided insufficient support for high prices, foreshadowing the volatility to come.
Q1 data from Coinglass shows that Bitcoin fell 11.82 percent and Ethereum dropped 45.41 percent for the period, with February seeing the largest losses at 17.39 percent for Bitcoin and 31.95 percent for Ethereum.
Bitcoin’s price at the end of the Q1 was around US$80,000, while Ethereum — which has struggled to retake US$2,000 after dipping below that threshold mid-March — closed at around US$1,800.
Proposed economic policies, an impending trade war and poor economic data have acted as major catalysts, resulting in a turn from risky assets like crypto and tech stocks toward traditional safe havens like bonds and gold.
Despite market fluctuations, some areas of the crypto sector experienced notable growth and development in Q1.
Speaking at Benzinga’s Fintech & FODA Event in December 2024, Venable partner Chris O’Brien said that Sam Bankman-Fried’s conviction marked the end of an initial highly speculative phase for cryptocurrencies.
While cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology will persist, their future hinges on moving beyond mere speculation and focusing on practical applications that address real-world problems.
A defining feature, identified early in the quarter by Bitwise’s Matthew Hougan, is the continued and increasing involvement of institutional players in the crypto market. This trend manifested in strategic investments from companies like Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) and BlackRock, both of which accumulated substantial portions of Bitcoin’s supply in Q1.
Major banks like BNY Mellon, which have incorporated cryptocurrency services to allow transactions between certain clients using Circle’s USDC, also began expanding their crypto services.
Earlier this year, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin that the US banking industry is eager to integrate crypto into traditional banking if — or, more likely, when — regulation allows for it.
Alongside institutional interest, stablecoins saw significant growth in Q1. The total market cap for stablecoins surged past US$200 billion, outpacing Bitcoin’s price trajectory for the period.
Total stablecoin market cap vs. the Bitcoin price, Q1 2025.
Chart via Coinglass.
A key crossover occurred in February after the US announced tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico. The move resulted in a downturn in both cryptocurrencies and traditional markets.
Amid these developments, lawmakers turned their focus to passing stablecoin legislation, specifically Senator Bill Hagerty’s (R-Tenn.) GENIUS Act, which is currently awaiting a full House vote. Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, said during Blockworks’ 2025 Digital Asset Summit in New York that lawmakers are on pace to pass legislation establishing rules for stablecoins and cryptocurrency market structure by August.
Divestitures into altcoins continued from Q4 2024, although momentum slowed comparatively, a shift exacerbated by speculative meme coin trading and the controversies surrounding projects like TRUMP, MELANIA and LIBRA.
Bitcoin retook its dominant position, but notable interest in SOL and XRP remained, as multiple firms sought to offer spot ETFs; their approval is all but guaranteed by former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler’s exit. Applications have also been filed to offer ETFs tracking SUI, AVA and DOGE.
Ethereum’s Q1 presented a complex picture, marked by both progress and setbacks.
The network increased its gas limit to enhance throughput and enable complex DeFi applications; however, competition from other blockchains — particularly Solana — caused it to underperform. Additionally, the upcoming Pectra upgrade ran into testing issues on the Holesky and Sepolia testnets, causing delays.
Declining network activity contributed to price suppression, but the tripling in total value for BlackRock’s BUIDL fund in the weeks leading up to the end of Q2 signaled continued confidence in Ethereum’s long-term potential and a broader trend toward tokenization, mirrored in the growth of the real-world asset (RWA) market.
The market cap of RWAs grew by approximately US$5 billion in Q1 to reach almost US$20 billion as tokenization was applied to diverse assets and expanded across various blockchains.
Q1 brought various developments in cryptocurrency regulation and policy in the US.
After taking office, Trump signed an executive order establishing the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets to establish criteria for a national stockpile of digital assets and develop a dollar-backed stablecoin; meanwhile, working groups in both chambers of Congress have focused on developing regulatory frameworks for digital assets.
While key aspects of regulation are still under negotiation, lawmakers and regulators signaled a more collaborative approach to cryptocurrencies under the Trump administration in Q1. The SEC dropped several longstanding cases against crypto exchange facilitators, formed a crypto-focused taskforce led by Commissioner Hester Peirce and repealed SAB 121, allowing banks to hold crypto for their customers without assets to balance liabilities.
Industry leaders also convened at the White House on March 7 for the inaugural Digital Asset Summit, a federal initiative aimed at gathering feedback on proposed regulations for the cryptocurrency sector.
Ahead of the summit, Trump signed an executive order to establish a Bitcoin reserve of around 200,000 Bitcoin (BTC). The US government currently holds 213,246 BTC. Bills that would allow the US government to acquire and hold Bitcoin in reserve have been introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.The executive order also established a separate reserve for altcoins, although some industry analysts have questioned this strategy.
Transform Ventures CEO and Bitcoin Supercycle author Michael Terpin argued against holding anything other than Bitcoin, the only truly decentralized and consistently performing digital asset.
He likened adding other cryptos to adding stocks to traditional reserves.
State-level initiatives to establish Bitcoin reserves in Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah also advanced alongside similar measures to allow pension fund investments in digital assets in North Carolina and other states.
The first quarter of the year was marked by market volatility and corrections, with both Bitcoin and altcoins experiencing significant price swings that were not only driven by typical market data, but were also heavily influenced by current events, evolving policies and even speculative social media trends.
Another challenge for the crypto market was opposition to proposed legislation in the US; insider trading and market manipulation concerns also arose, particularly around meme coin launches.
Suspiciously timed trades occurred before Trump’s strategic crypto reserve executive order: a large deposit was made to Hyperliquid, followed by highly leveraged trades on Bitcoin and Ethereum, resulting in profits exceeding US$6.8 million. This led many, including a prominent crypto analyst, to believe it was a case of insider trading.
Analysis by Material Indicators on March 20 also identifies a manipulatory device known as spoofing by one or more whales, which it cites as a reason for Bitcoin’s failure to sustain a rally past US$87,500 in March.
Despite efforts to improve regulation and security, the crypto industry continues to grapple with hacking incidents as well. A major hack of the Bybit exchange on February 23 led to losses of US$195 million, although the firm managed to fully replenish its reserves within 72 hours thanks to a mix of loans and large deposits from other industry players.
Glassnode Insights analysts said the correction following the hack and subsequent US$5.7 billion withdrawal from user wallets pushed Bitcoin’s monthly performance down by 13.6 percent. Altcoins and meme coins suffered even steeper losses, resetting market momentum to April 2024 levels.
Moderate Bitcoin growth and price appreciation are expected in mid- to late 2025, tied to stablecoin and DeFi growth.
Bitcoin price performance post-halving.
Chart via IntoTheBlock.
Price targets for Bitcoin this year vary. Network economist Timothy Peterson has predicted that Bitcoin could peak around US$126,000 in the latter half of 2025. A meta-analysis of Polymarket estimates posted by X user Ashwin on March 26 identifies a bull target price of US$138,617 and a bear price of US$59,040.
The potential for a supply shock due to diminishing Bitcoin reserves on exchanges could fuel a rally. Factors like a weakening US dollar and an end quantitative tightening from the US Federal Reserve are seen as positive catalysts. Historical data shows April is often a turning point for the market.
Stablecoins and RWAs are expected to continue their role in the convergence of DeFi with traditional finance. Furthermore, initiatives like the Digital Chamber’s US Blockchain Roadmap, which proposes BitBonds (Bitcoin-backed US Treasuries), could revitalize debt markets and attract global capital.
Key industry figures like Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz and 10T Holdings’ Dan Tapiero, anticipate new crypto companies listing on major exchanges like the NYSE and Nasdaq in the second quarter. This sentiment is supported by reports of initial public offering filings from companies like eToro, Circle, Gemini, Bullish and BitGo.
However, this positive outlook is set against a turbulent economic backdrop, including a possible slowdown in US growth and uncertainty around inflation and trade policies, which could influence sentiment and capital flows.
Speaking virtually at the Digital Asset Summit in New York on March 18, Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, expressed concerns about a potential recession, citing a significant slowdown in the velocity of money.
“I think what’s happening, though, is that if we do have a recession, declining GDP, that this is going to give the president and the Fed many more degrees of freedom to do what they want in terms of tax cuts and monetary policy,” she said.
However, Wood also said she believes that ‘long-term innovation wins,’ despite the recent market correction, describing crypto assets as a pillar of ARK’s investment approach.
Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Iran’s president has fired one of his deputies for taking what he described as a “lavish” recreational trip to Antarctica.
President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered the removal of Shahram Dabiri from his position as vice president of parliamentary affairs in a decree on Saturday, describing the trip as both extravagant and indefensible.
“In a government that seeks to follow the values of the first Shia Imam (Imam Ali), and amidst significant economic pressures on our people, the lavish travels of government officials, even when personally financed, are indefensible,” Pezeshkian wrote.
The president added that Dabiri’s long-standing work in government should not preclude him from committing to what he called “honesty, justice, and the promises we made to the people,” according to the state news agency IRNA.
Dabiri denied wrongdoing but said he accepted the president’s decision.
Pezeshkian also said Dabiri’s actions contradict the principles of “simple living” that he says all officials should adhere to, especially during economic challenges.
Iran’s economy has been strained for years in part by US sanctions imposed in response to Tehran’s nuclear program.
Last week, the Iranian currency dropped to a record low of 1,039,000 rial to the US dollar, according to Reuters, citing data from Bonbast.com.
Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani was quoted by IRNA as saying that the president’s decision to fire Dabiri shows that “he has no pact of brotherhood with anyone, and his only criteria are efficacy, justice, honesty, and public interest.”
Editor’s Note: Join Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, April 6 at 8pmET/PT as he examines the long history of the conservative movement’s struggle to roll back government in “The War on Government: A Fareed Zakaria Special”.
When Donald Trump announced that he was creating the Department of Government Efficiency, I welcomed the initiative. Streamlining the federal government by having outsiders take a look was an excellent idea. And Elon Musk’s stated objective, to cut the budget by $2 trillion, while ambitious, would be a useful yardstick.
But DOGE began its work not by taking on the most logical targets if you were really looking for waste, fraud and abuse – places like Medicare and the Defense Department with their gigantic budgets. No, its first major target was a tiny agency most Americans had probably never heard of. The US Agency for International Development, whose total budget, around $40 billion, was less than 1% of federal spending. DOGE went after it with a brutality and glee that was stunning. Musk called it a “criminal organization.” Government officials who had spent years in foreign countries providing assistance to the poor were summarily fired and asked to return home. Medical and nutrition programs were cut off, with the likely consequence that, by some calculations, millions would get sick or starve.
What could explain this cruelty directed at people and programs that in budgetary terms were insignificant? DOGE seemed to understand the central challenge the right faces in its war on government. The real money is in the large programs that the public supports. So DOGE began its war by choosing a broadly unpopular item of government spending – on foreigners.
Musk and Trump delighted in listing all the fraud that they found, even though none of the projects they listed have shown any evidence of large-scale corruption. They were simply programs they knew many Americans would not want to fund – especially when they were mischaracterized.
DOGE did take on Social Security, but in a rather strange way. It claimed to find millions of dead people on its rolls. The implication was that these people were still getting payments. Actually,all they appear to have found were old personnel files in which dead people’s names had not been deleted – much like your rolodex or contact folder probably still has the names of people who are deceased. Almost none appear to be getting benefits. But again, it was a revealing strategy. Rather than talk seriously about changing Social Security – by means testing benefits or raising the retirement age – DOGE was promising that it could save billions by just cleaning up the personnel files.
Of course it’s possible to find savings in Washington. Former Vice President Al Gore’s Reinventing Government Commission saved the federal government around $140 billion dollars. But it worked in a manner that was almost the opposite of DOGE. It partnered with the agencies to identify redundancies, worked with Congress to change laws, and used a scalpel to trim fat. DOGE, on the other hand, has been doing mass firings without much consultation, so much so that its large-scale IRS firings could result in significantly lower tax revenues collected – which would raise the deficit.
DOGE has also been firing masses of workers. But the federal bureaucracy is small compared with other rich countries and is about the same size as it was 50 years ago.
It’s worth remembering where the money is. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other mandatory spending like veterans’ benefits – along with defense spending and interest payments – make up around 85% of the budget. Much of this is efficient check writing, which doesn’t require much bureaucracy. The Department of Defense could be massively reformed, as the Trump administration has begun to do a little bit. But why does it have four air forces – the Army’s, Navy’s, Marines’, and Air Force itself?
If DOGE approached the problem as one does in the private sector, it would recognize there are two components to any deficit – how much you spend and how much you take in, in this case through taxes. America’s bloated national debt has a great deal to do with a series of tax cuts that began in the Reagan administration. By one estimate from a progressive think tank, the Bush and Trump tax cuts alone have added $10 trillion to the debt and account for 57% of the increase in America’s debt-to-GDP ratio since 2001. Bear in mind, that compared to other rich countries, the United States still has close to the lowest tax revenues as a percent of its GDP.
In that context, the simplest way for DOGE to achieve maximum success would be to recommend that the Trump tax cuts be allowed to lapse as they will under law, which would then reduce the debt by about $4.5 trillion over the next 10 years, vastly more than any plan the GOP seems willing to go through with to cut spending. That would take America back to the tax rates under former President Barack Obama, when the stock market more than doubled, and America grew faster than almost every European country. And it would put the US on a much more stable debt trajectory.
But don’t hold your breath on that happening. Far more likely, DOGE will announce some new stunning finding, something like software duplication in the Environmental Protection Agency, which might save the federal government $100 million – or .001% of the 2025 budget.
It’s eaten with almost every meal, used to make sushi, made into sweets, fermented into alcohol and offered to the spirits at religious ceremonies.
Rice is everywhere in the diet of Japan – there are at least six ways in Japanese to describe the grain, from unhusked to ready to eat. It’s so popular that McDonald’s there added a burger bun made of rice to its menu.
But being so reliant on the staple leaves the country – the world’s fourth-biggest economy – vulnerable to the slightest supply glitch.
In recent years, a combination of bad weather, heatwaves and the threats of typhoons and earthquakes have sparked bouts of panic-buying in the nation of 124 million people.
The average price of a 60-kilogram bag rose to around $160 last year – up 55 per cent compared to two years ago, according to government figures.
The situation has become so dire that the government announced in February that it would release 210,000 tons of rice – more than a fifth of what it holds in its contingency reserve – for auction. The first bags of the reserve rice have now gone on sale in supermarkets.
The government built its rice reserve in 1995, two years after an unexpected cool summer crippled rice harvests forcing it to import overseas grains.
It dipped into the store following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in which 20,000 people died or went missing, and again following the deadly Kumamoto earthquake in 2016.
Other countries across Asia where rice is a staple, such as India, Vietnam and Thailand also hold rice stockpiles to shield their populations against shortages and price rises – which can spill into politics, like a recent surge in egg prices in the United States.
China also has a strategic reserve of the country’s favorite meat, pork, to deal with emergencies and stabilize prices when necessary.
In Japan, the first batch of 150,000 tons of rice went under the hammer last month, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
“Prices now are exceptionally high,” Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Taku Eto said ahead of the auction.
“But I urge everyone not to worry,” he added, saying that he expected the injection of rice into the market would mean prices “eventually come down.”
Eto also attributed the recent price hikes to a supply chain issue, saying that there was sufficient rice in the system, only that it has failed to reach the shelves in supermarkets, without specifying why.
But, in a country that is particular about its rice – with various prefectures competing against one another for the title of best rice in the country – some said they would rather sit this batch out, skeptical of the grain’s quality.
Uchibori said she stocked up on supplies in early March after reading about prices going up and hoped what she had would last until prices ease.
“But it doesn’t look like it will go back to its original price,” she said.
Yuko Takiguchi, 53, a part time worker, said she would pass on the auctioned rice unless it became significantly cheaper.
She said she wouldn’t mind forking out more for quality rice as the price of flour had also gone up, driving up costs for other staples such as bread, udon and pasta.
“I prefer rice as a staple food since it is more filling. Also, since I have school-age children, rice is essential for their lunch boxes,” she said.
Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian American teenager and wounded two others in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, according to Palestinian officials.
Ramallah Gov. Laila Ghannam said a 14-year-old Palestinian American boy was shot dead by Israeli troops in the village of Turmusaya. Two other Palestinian American boys, ages 14 and 15, were injured in the incident, according to Turmusaya Mayor Lafi Shalabi.
The Israeli military said its soldiers opened fire during a counterterrorism operation in Turmusaya when they saw three “terrorists who hurled rocks toward the highway, thus endangering civilians driving.”
The soldiers killed one and hit the other two, the military said.
The military shared a blurry video purportedly showing the incident, in which three barely visible figures appear. It said it would continue operating in the West Bank “to protect the residents in the area.”
The injured boys were shot in the abdomen, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
One severely injured boy and another with minor wounds were taken to a hospital in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority health ministry said.
The killing or detention of American citizens in occupied Palestinian territories by Israelis and concerns about a lack of accountability date back years. In 2003, American activist Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer while trying to block it from razing Palestinian homes in Gaza. Nine years later, an Israeli civil court ruled her death an accident.
In February last year, Florida-born US citizen Mohammed Khdour, 17, was killed by Israeli forces who shot him in the head while he was in his car. The teenager was taking the car out during a study break, snacking on chocolate waffles, posing for Instagram.
Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank have intensified since late January following the launch of an expanded military campaign there almost immediately after the Gaza ceasefire began. Since then, roughly 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes.
The Israeli military says it is targeting Palestinian militant groups who have mounted attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, but Palestinians and human rights groups say the expanded assault is increasingly indiscriminate – killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure in a manner consistent with collective punishment. In late February, Israel deployed tanks to the occupied West Bank for the first time in two decades.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Rats don’t always have the best reputations, but one named Ronin with a super sense of smell is working to change that.
Ronin and his landmine-sniffing rat pack are making a name for rodents everywhere by saving innocent civilians from hidden explosives.
The African giant pouched rat recently set a new world record for the most landmines detected by a rat. Between August 2021 and February 2025, Ronin uncovered 109 landmines and 15 other pieces of unexploded ordnance in a region close to Siem Reap in Cambodia, according to Guinness World Records.
“Ronin’s achievements are a testament to the incredible potential of rats,” his main handler Phanny told the Guinness publication.
Landmines are a major issue in former conflict zones. The explosive weapons, hidden in the ground, are designed to injure or kill anyone who passes over them. In Cambodia alone, they have caused more than 65,000 deaths and injuries since the fall of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, according to the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor.
Their use is controversial because of their indiscriminate nature and the threat they pose for decades after a conflict has ended, killing and maiming and hampering land development in war-ravaged areas.
They are also notoriously difficult and dangerous to detect. That’s where rats come in; their high intelligence, speed and keen sense of smell make them adept at identifying explosives. They are also too light to trigger landmines.
It’s crucial work. An estimated 110 million landmines are still buried in over 60 countries around the world, said landmine detection nonprofit APOPO. In 2023, landmines caused 5,757 casualties globally — 37% of which involved children, according to the 2024 Landmine Monitor.
Ronin is one of more than 100 rats trained by APOPO to detect the scent of the explosive chemicals and point landmines out to their handlers.
The rats are highly versatile and have also been trained to detect tuberculosis in medical settings, helping to prevent the spread of infectious disease.
The Belgian nonprofit’s team of landmine-sniffing rats can search an area the size of a tennis court in 30 minutes – something that could take a deminer with a metal detector up to four days.
Ronin, who is 5 years old and was born in Tanzania, is much larger than your average pet rat. He is more than 2 feet long – about the length of a cat – and weighs 2.6 pounds, according to APOPO.
Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province, where Ronin was deployed has one of the highest landmine densities in the world following decades of conflict in the 20th century, including heavy bombing by the US during the Vietnam War.
The US dropped 2.7 million tons of ordnance – including cluster bombs and submunitions – in a four-year carpet-bombing campaign in Cambodia. Up to a quarter of the cluster bombs failed to explode, meaning they stayed active and dangerous but out of sight, according to a 2019 report by the US Congressional Research Service.
Despite years of demining efforts, there are still an estimated 4 to 6 million unexploded landmines in Cambodia, according to APOPO.
Ronin claims the world record from Magawa, another rat trained by APOPO who identified 71 landmines and 38 pieces of unexploded ordnance during his five-years of service. Magawa passed peacefully in January 2022.