GM frens, and welcome to another edition of The Castle Chronicle.

Have you been thankful in the last week?

What a crazy week this was! Last week’s “reciprocal” tariffs sparked mostly bearish market reactions. This week Trump announced a 90 day pause on higher tariffs for most countries that have not retaliated which led to a market rebound.

Despite the pause, the situation remains uncertain. The markets are all over the place and no one really knows what to expect.

Here’s what we got for you today:

• 🔍 Market Watch – Price action & Relevant metrics across the sector

• ✈️ Travala - An introduction to the Crypto x Travel Space

• 🏰 Castle Round Up – The best reads you might have missed

🔍️ MARKET WATCH

PRICE ACTION

Despite the recent events, BTC remained relatively stable. The weekly chart keeps going sideways in what I assume to be a re-accumulation. At one point it looked like price might break down and start a new bearish direction, but so far demand is holding up.

• Healthy uptrend

• Re-accumulation

If price does happen to break down violently here, I’d say we might see some longer-lasting bearishness. Either way, this is currently a market that is not ready to be traded in any direction in my view.

Not following what I’m talking about? Check out my quick cheat sheet to understand how I approach a chart.

TOP PERFORMERS

Although BTC didn’t react too violently to the recent market events, the initial dump was met with a rebound. And with that, some cryptos rebounded harder than others. This week’s winner is $FARTCOIN pumping almost 90%.

Taking a closer look at the daily chart, we can see a preceding downtrend that eventually started going sideways and accumulating. Price then broke out higher - at this point I wouldn’t be bullish just yet, because any bullishness in a downtrend should always be viewed as a re-distribution. That thesis was just invalidated though, as price broke out higher again, confirming a re-accumulation and with that a new trend direction.

• Trend reversal

• Re-accumulation

• New uptrend

This is a good-looking bullish chart. In an isolated environment, I would be interested in trading this. But given the overall situation of market uncertainty and crypto not being in the most bullish context, I will skip. Had this happened in an overall market-wide bullish context, I would be all over this chart.

BTC FEAR AND GREED INDEX

While nothing much has changed in the recent weeks, the Fear & Greed index is showing better numbers moving from extreme fear to almost neutral. I guess even emotions have their lifespans.

CAPITAL FLOW

This week we see a tug-of-war between inflows and outflows in Ethereum, resulting in an overall slight net inflow. Berachain on the other hand continues seeing capital flowing out of it week by week after it has taken a major beating recently.

NARRATIVE PERFORMANCE

Although we have seen some individual cryptos rebound more than others, the overall aggregate situation doesn’t look too good. Most narratives are down anywhere from 1% to 17% with DeFAI getting rekt the most once again.

Courtesy of 0x_Vlad - Chief Male Astrologist at Castle Labs

✈️ AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CRYPTO X TRAVEL SPACE

What's up in the Travel X Crypto space?

There are a lot of folks who keep claiming there are no REAL use cases for crypto and that it's only built on speculation.

But in the coming years, IMO, we will see many applications involving real-life economies that learn how to leverage on-chain tech to increase their efficiency and users' acquisition/retention.

One of the sectors that will experience much growth in the future is the Travel space.

Last week, while I was peacefully scrolling on X, I got hit by this tweet from Travala.

These stats are impressive:

• Close to $10 million in sales for March

• Over 190k monthly users who are buying real-life products using crypto assets at a rate of around 74% for all of those In Real Life sales.

• Travala also boasts around 57k Smart Members, who stake tokens on the platform to receive different perks such as discounts on flights, hotel nights, and activities.

It caught my attention because it clearly shows that you now have crypto-native applications that are being built at the juncture of Blockchain and real-life activities. Not only using a financial onramp based on blockchain tech (paying with stablecoins or crypto assets) but also leveraging the concept of token staking ($AVA being the native Travala token) to increase customer retention with unique perks and discounts.

So I decided to investigate further and found that a nascent ecosystem was being built around Travala

First, they integrated Viator, one of the biggest digital tour operators worldwide, into crypto on-ramping in 2021.

This opened up a whole new niche of crypto users to all the tours offered by Viator.

There is also Concierge a tailored agency for high-net-worth crypto users who are looking for a unique Travel experience.

Another project that has been built around the Travala ecosystem & that I found interesting is Dtravel.

They already conducted an airdrop of a % of their token supply to $AVA stakers in 2021.

This app positions itself as a decentralized version of Airbnb or Booking.com, connecting rental vacation owners with travelers without the high fees charged by centralized parties and the possibility of being de-platformed.

DTravel is built on Base chain and has its own token, $TRVL, with some traction and usage for its product (in the picture below, you can see that there were 5 offerings in around NYC for mid-April).

If we look at Dubai in mid-May we find 11 rental properties:

Currently, it's a very early product with limited network effect, but it has much potential to grow in the coming years. I recommend having a look at this post for a deeper introduction to the product and the solution DTravel is trying to be.

The crypto x travel is an early space, but Travala has good traction at the moment, with different protocols building around it for the creation of an ecosystem of services for travelers. This should be watched closely as one of the most interesting intersections between crypto and real life.

Courtesy of C-L - Contributor at Castle Labs

🏰 CASTLE ROUND UP

THE AI DISPATCH

NAVIGATING THE COMPLEXITIES OF ON-CHAIN DEVELOPMENT WITH ENSO

GTE: THE VERTICAL EXCHANGE ON MEGAETH

SOLANA PERPETUAL POWERHOUSES: AN OVERVIEW OF GMX-SOLANA, JUPITER, AND DRIFT

And that’s all for this week! Remember, the markets remain uncertain. The best thing to do during moments like these is to simply stay on the side lines and watch it from afar. Once the situation calms down a bit there will be new opportunities.

Risk responsibly and we’ll see you next time!

In our newsletter, we may discuss projects or tokens in which we hold positions. While we aim to provide informative content, our views are not financial advice. Please conduct your research and consult professionals before making investment decisions. Crypto markets are volatile, and past performance doesn't guarantee future results. Invest responsibly, and be aware of the risks. Your capital is at risk, and we do not accept liability for any losses.