Bitcoin miner Bitdeer is reportedly expanding its self-mining operations and investing in United States-based production as looming trade wars rock global supply chains and cryptocurrency markets. 

Bitdeer has begun prioritizing mining Bitcoin (BTC) itself in response to cooling demand for its mining hardware from other miners, Bloomberg reported on April 15.

“Our plan going forward is to prioritize our own self-mining,” Jeff LaBerge, Bitdeer’s head of capital markets and strategic initiatives, reportedly said. 

Additionally, Bitdeer plans to scale US hardware manufacturing in the second half of the year as US President Donald Trump touts plans to penalize foreign imports and promote domestic manufacturing, Bloomberg said.

“This is something we’ve been planning for a long time,” LaBerge said about the manufacturing plans. “We want to bring jobs and manufacturing back to America.”

In April, Trump tipped plans for sweeping tariffs on US imports. The Bitcoin network is especially vulnerable to trade barriers since mining hardware involves complex global supply chains.

Bitcoin’s hash price is near all-time lows. Source: Hashrate Index

Related: Tariffs, capital controls could fragment blockchain networks — Execs

Sector-wide struggles

Bitcoin miners — including Bitdeer — have struggled in 2025 as volatile crypto markets worsen the impact of the Bitcoin network’s April 2024 halving. 

In February, Bitdeer’s stock dropped by roughly 28% after the Bitcoin miner announced lower-than-expected earnings and revenues for the fourth quarter of 2024. 

Bitdeer’s “lower performance compared to Q4 2023 was primarily driven by the impact of the April 2024 halving,” among other factors, Harris Bassett, Bitdeer’s chief strategy officer, said during Bitdeer’s earnings call. 

Every four years, the amount of BTC mined per “block” — a bundle of transaction data stored on the blockchain — is cut in half. The April 2024 halving reduced mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block.

Bitcoin price versus stocks. Source: 21Shares

Since then, mining revenues and gross profits have dropped by an average of 46% and 57%, respectively, JPMorgan said previously in a research note shared with Cointelegraph. 

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s hash price — a measure of miner profitability — has sunk to nearly all-time lows, according to data from the Hashrate Index. 

In 2024, Bitdeer tried to offset declining mining revenues by selling its own energy-efficient Bitcoin mining rigs. However, sales growth has been limited and did not offset weakness in other business lines in Q4. 

The market turbulence comes as Bitcoin Trump family-backed crypto mining operation American Bitcoin reportedly is considering an initial public offering. 

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Synthetic stablecoin developer Ethena Labs is winding down its German operations less than a month after regulators identified “deficiencies” in its dollar-pegged USDe (USDE) stablecoin, signaling heightened scrutiny around crypto assets in Europe’s largest economy.

Ethena Labs reached an agreement with Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, also known as BaFin, to cease all operations of its local subsidiary, Ethena GmbH, according to an April 15 announcement.

Source: Ethena Labs

As such, Ethena Labs “will no longer be pursuing MiCAR authorization in Germany,” the company said, referring to the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation.

The company reiterated that Ethena’s German subsidiary has not conducted any mint or redeem activity for USDe since March 21, the day BaFin halted the stablecoin’s activities. As Cointelegraph reported at the time, the German regulator identified compliance failures and potential securities law violations tied to USDe.

“All whitelisted mint and redeem users previously interacting with Ethena GmbH have at their request been onboarded with Ethena (BVI) Limited instead and have no ongoing relationship with Ethena GmbH whatsoever,” the company said.  

Unlike popular stablecoins USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC), Ethena’s USDe maintains its dollar peg through an automated delta-hedging strategy that includes a combination of spot holdings, onchain custody and liquidity buffers.  

USDe is the fourth-largest stablecoin with a total circulating value of $4.9 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

The $233-billion stablecoin market is dominated by USDT and USDC. Source: CoinMarketCap

Related: Northern Marianas vetoes bill for Tinian to launch its own USD stablecoin

MiCA tightens the noose around stablecoin usage

MiCA is a comprehensive framework for cryptocurrency usage across the European Union, enforcing strict compliance standards and consumer protections.

To meet the new requirements, stablecoin issuers must have adequate reserves backing their tokens, ensure reserve assets are segregated from users’ assets and fulfill regular reporting obligations.

As of February, 10 stablecoin issuers have been approved under MiCA, including Circle, Crypto.com, Societe Generale and Membrane Finance.

Patrick Hansen, Circle’s senior director of EU strategy and policy, told Cointelegraph that a total of 10 euro-pegged stablecoins and five US dollar-pegged stablecoins have been approved so far.

However, notably absent from the list is USDt issuer Tether, which has decided not to pursue MiCA registration at this time.

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Ether’s (ETH) market is very close to hitting all-time lows as a classic bearish chart pattern hints at a deeper correction toward $1,100.

Ethereum’s market dominance keeps falling

On April 9, Ethereum’s market dominance, or the measure of Ether’s share of crypto’s overall market capitalization, hit a new multiyear low of 7.18%, according to Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView data. 

This value was merely a hair’s breadth above the all-time low of 7.09% reached in September 2019.

“Ethereum dominance is so very close to registering new all-time lows,” said popular crypto analyst Rekt Capital in an April 13 post on X, adding:

“Ethereum Dominance needs to hold this green area to position itself to become more market-dominant over the coming months.”

ETH market dominance %. Source: Rekt Capital

Ether’s market share is now at its lowest value since 2019-2020. Meanwhile, Ether’s closest competitor in terms of market capitalization, XRP (XRP), has seen its dominance rise by over 200% over the same timeframe.  

Its top layer-1 rival tokens, BNB Chain’s (BNB) and Solana’s (SOL), have also seen 40% and 344% increases in their market dominance since 2023. 

Several reasons for this underwhelming performance include weak institutional demand evidenced by negative ETF flows, a sluggish derivatives market, and increasing competition from other layer-1 blockchains.

More trouble for Ethereum could also be found when analyzing the total value locked (TVL) of competing blockchains.

Although Ethereum remains the leader with a market dominance of 51.7%, this metric has decreased from 61.2% in February 2024. In comparison, Solana’s dominance in terms of TVL has increased by 172% over the same period. 

Total value locked market share (%). Source: DefiLlama

ETH price “bear flag” targets $1,100

Ether price, or the ETH/USD trading pair, is expected to resume its prevailing bearish momentum despite recovering from recent lows as a classic (bearish) chart pattern emerges.

Related: Ethereum could be AI’s key to decentralization, says former core dev

Ether’s price action over the past three weeks is painting a possible bear flag pattern on the daily chart, as shown in the figure below. A daily candlestick close below the flag’s lower boundary at $1,600 would signal the start of a massive move downward.

The flagpole’s height sets the target, putting Ether’s potential price drop target at $1,100, or a 33% drop from the current price.

ETH/USD daily chart with potential bear flag. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Meanwhile, one key indicator to keep an eye on remains the relative strength index, or RSI, which is still below the 50 mark, suggesting that the market trend still favors the downside.

As Cointelegraph reported, ETH’s price may ultimately bottom out at around $1,000 based on several other factors. 

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.