This week in Coins
Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt.

It’s been another uninspiring week for Bitcoin, with the top crypto asset chopping sideways to enter the weekend below $64,500, notching another 2.6% loss in the last seven days.

It's extra disappointing given how MicroStrategy bought another $786 million in BTC this week, which the company’s founder says it never plans to sell. Still, MicroStrategy’s demand was overpowered by an onslaught of sell pressure from other long-term Bitcoin whales, including the German government

CryptoQuant noted that the broader crypto market is starting to lose momentum due to a lack of new investor demand. It follows, thenn, that most momentum-based meme coins like PEPE, DOGE, SHIB, and WIF are all down 5%, 9%, 13%, and 25%, respectively, on the week.

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Toncoin also lost some of its momentum from last week, dropping 10% after previously rising to all-time highs on hype from projects within its gaming ecosystem. It remains a top ten crypto by market cap, and is only $300 million away from overtaking Dogecoin.

Defying the market’s momentum to some degree is Ethereum. Its trading at $3,492 as of writing, hovering within a percent of its price seven days ago as Ethereum spot ETFs inch closer to reality. Multiple asset managers have now unveiled the fee on their ETFs, and Bitwise even published a commercial advertising ETH to old-school TV audiences. 

Solana—Ethereum’s top smart contract competitor—was less fortunate, sliding another 6% this week to $134.92.

One of the network’s high-flying Trump-based memecoins, DJT, amassed a $110 million market cap this week, and made headlines on rumors that it may have been launched by Trump’s team itself. One of the ex-president’s legal consultants later confirmed that the coin wasn’t launched by Trump nor his offspring.

Even crypto stocks couldn’t retain momentum this week. Coinbase (COIN) fell 8%, MicroStrategy (MSTR) fell 1.96%, and DeFi Technologies (DEFTF)—which soared after buying Bitcoin earlier this month—has cratered 29.9% this week after crypto reports spread doubt about the company online.

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All the negative momentum from altcoins this month has many analysts saying the crypto bull market may already be over. Still, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes doubled down on his bullish thesis this Thursday that now is the time to ape into shitcoins and “buy the fucking dip” – before global money printers go brr.

Prices as of 3am ET. Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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