This Week in Coins: Bitcoin and Ethereum See Fourth Flat Week as TRON and Tether Surge

By Tim Hakki

It was the fourth consecutive week of flat prices. A generally slow news cycle meant that market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum remained where they were last weekend. 

Bitcoin depreciated a nominal 0.5% and currently trades at $26,815, while Ethereum rose 1% over the seven days and now enters the weekend at $1,829. 

On Monday, an AI-generated photo depicting a fabricated explosion at the Pentagon briefly caused a selloff in stocks and Bitcoin. 

Markets were decidedly flat across the board, with no top thirty cryptocurrency posting significant gains except TRON, which rallied 8% to $0.076778. 

TRON’s rally this week appears to have been driven by the climbing market capitalization of the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin Tether (USTD), as the latter inches towards overtaking its all-time high of $83.2 billion, set in May last year. 

According to CoinGecko, Tether may set a new high watermark any day now. 

TRON and USDT’s joint rally appears to be linked to the fact that the majority of USDT, approximately $46 billion, is issued on Tron, surpassing the $36 billion on Ethereum. Recent data shows a steep rise in USDT on the TRON network throughout 2023 so far. 

The biggest losses among cryptocurrencies this week were posted by Internet Computer (ICP), which fell 6% to $4.88, and Lido DAO (LDO), which dropped 7.1% to $1.96.

Coin politics

Crypto is already a major talking point in Bitcoin-friendly Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s campaign as he gets ready to run as the GOP’s candidate in next year’s U.S. presidential elections. 

DeSantis headlined an otherwise disastrous Twitter Spaces the day he announced his candidacy and told his host, Twitter/Tesla CEO Elon Musk, that Biden’s administration “[has] it out for Bitcoin, and if it continues for another four years, they’ll probably end up killing it.”

On Tuesday, The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) released a report outlining policy recommendations for global crypto regulation as part of the public consultation process. 

In a nod to the fall of FTX, the IOSCO recommendations warn regulators about crypto companies "combining certain functions in a single legal entity or group of affiliated entities,” such as one entity running exchanges, trading firms, and custody businesses under one roof. 

On Thursday, watchdog the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) released a report concluding that the industry’s economic impact is minimal, but advising vigilance and policymaking that monitors leveraged trading and the industry’s financial contagion risks.

That same day, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and National Competent Authorities (NCAs) issued a statement saying that cryptocurrencies must be clearly labeled as unregulated and both investors and investment firms should understand the financial risks involved in trading them.

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