The Daily: Trump team files trademark for 'TRUMP' metaverse, bitcoin slipped under $80,000 and more

The following is adapted from The Block’s newsletter,  The Daily , which comes out on weekday afternoons.

It's Friday! The end of the week hasn't offered solace for a bleeding crypto market, but at least you can think of what job you'll work in Trump's virtual world (as long as you don't get fired).

In today's newsletter, the team behind President Donald Trump filed a trademark application to create a Trump-branded metaverse, bitcoin falls beneath $80,000, MetaMask adds Bitcoin and Solana support and more.

Meanwhile, bitcoin mining firm TeraWulf saw 102% year-over-year revenue growth.

Let's get started.

Trump files trademark for 'TRUMP' metaverse

The Trump team is exploring a Trump-branded metaverse, according to a recent trademark application.

• This marks Trump's latest move into the crypto world following previous involvement in NFTs, DeFi and memecoins.
• The trademark filing was submitted on an "intent to use" basis, indicating plans for commercial use.
• The metaverse will include virtual experiences like restaurants, music, retail stores and luxury digital items.
• Trump's proposed metaverse also plans to restrict content to images, texts and media authorized by Donald Trump, raising questions about user-generated content.
• Beyond the metaverse, Trump Media and Technology Group applied earlier for trademarks related to bitcoin investment products.

Bitcoin slips under $80,000

Bitcoin had dropped 7.6% in the past day to $79,390, marking a new yearly low and persistent bearish sentiment among investors. At publication time, the price of bitcoin has parred some of its losses and trades around $84,200.

• The decline in bitcoin and ether is linked to global economic concerns, including renewed tariffs, slowing economy and equity market struggles.
• Institutional repositioning and the unwinding of basis trade positions have deepened bitcoin's price drop, along with record outflows from U.S. bitcoin ETFs.
• Market pessimism is reflected in the Crypto Fear Greed Index, which shows "extreme fear," and concerns over Michael Saylor's Strategy add to bearish sentiment.

MetaMask wallet to add support for Solana and Bitcoin

MetaMask will add support for Bitcoin and Solana this year, allowing users to access these ecosystems without other wallets or wrapped tokens.

• Bitcoin support is expected to begin in Q3, while Solana support will launch in May, marking the first non-EVM chain integrated into the crypto wallet.
• MetaMask intends to overhaul its app's UI/UX to include features like gas-included swaps and multiple Secret Recovery Phrases for easier wallet management.
• The company also introduced a MetaMask card for real-life crypto payments, and it reached an agreement with the SEC to resolve its enforcement case over MetaMask staking services.

US spot bitcoin ETFs see eight-day negative streak

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs experienced $3.2 billion in net outflows over the past eight days amid a broader market sell-off.

• Bitcoin ETFs have recorded a monthly net outflow of $3.65 billion, with only four days of inflows this month.
• On Tuesday, spot bitcoin ETFs saw a record $1.14 billion in net outflows, with BlackRock's IBIT leading the way with a $418 million outflow.
• Spot ether ETFs also saw significant outflows, reaching $315 million over six days, coinciding with a broader crypto market downturn driven by negative economic sentiment.

Patrick McHenry joins Ondo Finance as advisory board vice chairman

Former Congressman Patrick McHenry has joined Ondo Finance as vice chairman of its advisory board.

• McHenry will assist Ondo in building relationships in Washington and beyond, leveraging his past legislative experience.
• Ondo Finance, a decentralized finance platform for tokenized real-world assets, recently launched its own Layer 1 network called Ondo Chain.

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