Markets
This Week in Coins: Ethereum Stays Afloat as Crypto Market Sinks
Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt.
It’s been another uninspiring week for Bitcoin, with the leading crypto asset falling sideways to enter the weekend below $64,500, recording another 2.6% loss over the past seven days.
It’s even more disappointing given how MicroStrategy bought another $786 million in BTC this week, which the company’s founder says he never intends to sell. Still, demand for MicroStrategy was dominated by a wave of selling pressure from others long-term Bitcoin whalesincluding the German government.
CryptoQuant noted that the broader crypto market is starting to lose momentum due to lack of demand from new investors. It follows, then, that most of the momentum-based meme coins such as PEPE, DOGE, SHIB, and WIF fell 5%, 9%, 13%, and 25%, respectively, for the week.
Toncoin also lost some of its momentum from last week, falling 10% after reaching all-time highs due to enthusiasm for projects within its gaming ecosystem. It remains one of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap and is just $300 million away from being surpassed Dogecoin.
Defying market momentum to some extent is Ethereum. It is trading at $3,492 at the time of writing, hovering within a percentage of its price from seven days ago as Ethereum spot ETFs move closer to reality. Several asset managers have already disclosed the fee on their ETFs, and Bitwise even published a commercial advertise ETH to traditional TV audiences.
Solana – Ethereum’s main smart contract competitor – was less fortunate, falling another 6% this week to $134.92.
One of the highlights of the network Memecoins based on Trump, DJT, has amassed a market cap of $110 million this week and made headlines with rumors that it may have been launched by Trump’s own team. One of the former president’s legal advisors later confirmed that the coin was not launched by Trump or his descendants.
Even crypto stocks failed to maintain momentum this week. Coinbase (COIN) fell 8%, MicroStrategy (MSTR) fell 1.96% and DeFi Technologies (DEFTF) – which soared after buying Bitcoin earlier this month – fell craters 29.9% this week after crypto reports spread doubt about the company online.
All of the negative momentum in altcoins this month has many analysts claiming that the crypto bull market could it’s already over. Still, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes doubled down on his bullish thesis on Thursday that now is the time to emulate shitcoins and “buy the fucking dip” – before global money printers fail.
Prices starting at 3am ET. Edited by Ryan Ozawa.