Bitcoin will "bore you to a million dollars" was just one of the quotes circulating Crypto Twitter (aka X) this week as traders and influencers in the space bemoaned sideways price action.
The biggest and oldest digital coin barely budged until Friday, when it dipped following a hack of crypto exchange Bybit that resulted in over $1.4 billion worth of Ethereum and related tokens being swiped—the biggest crypto hack ever based on the value of the assets at the time of the incident. On top of that, U.S. inflation concerns prompted a risk asset selloff.
CoinGecko shows that Bitcoin is now priced at $96,750 per coin after having reached as high as $99,262 Friday morning, then plunging under $95,000 after the Bybit hack rocked markets. But over the last seven days, Bitcoin is nearly flat, falling just 0.7%.
Is the bull run over? Maybe not, but the coin is now 11% below the all-time high price of over $108,000 it touched in January.
ETF flows
Investors continued to pull cash out of the new American exchange-traded products, Farside Investors data shows, with money exiting the new funds every day of this week after U.S. markets were closed Monday. Nearly $365 million left the 10 funds on Thursday alone, marking the week's worst day for flows. The other three days saw between $60-$65 million each in outflows.
“Bitcoin is going to bore you to a million dollars” - @BitcoinTina
Kinda starting to feel like he was right, but ironically too early to his own prediction.
— AMERICAN HODL 🇺🇸 (@americanhodl8) February 17, 2025
Last week, the crypto ETFs lost money after the Federal Reserve hinted that it wasn't in a hurry to cut interest rates. When new figures drop next week, we'll again lackluster numbers for the products as American investors take a more cautious approach to speculating with inflation looking like it it's here to stay—for now.
Institutions still bullish
Still, analysts at investment firm Bernstein think Bitcoin is only going up: They said in a Monday report that investors should be prepared for a further rally in the asset and equities related to it, as "the confluence of adoption by banks, institutional investors, corporates, and eventually sovereigns" pushes the price of the coin higher.
Bernstein analysts have made bullish predictions before, forecasting a 2025 price $200,000 by year end.
Bitcoin Bull Run Just Getting Started as Institutions Load Up, Says Bernstein
Bitcoin’s bull run is going to continue—thanks to the big money institutions. That’s according to a report from global investment firm Bernstein, which said on Monday that investors should be prepared for a further rally in the asset and equities related to it. Analysts Gautam Chhugani, Mahika Sapra, and Sanskar Chindalia wrote that the bull run was ignited by the prospect and later approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S., and then pushed on by the election of crypto-friendly Don...
Fold goes public
And another Bitcoin company has gone mainstream: Financial services company Fold, which has a debit card and rewards users with Bitcoin for buying through its app, began trading publicly on the Nasdaq Composite on Wednesday.
Bitcoin Rewards App Fold Goes Public, Begins Trading on Nasdaq
Bitcoin financial services company Fold began trading publicly on the Nasdaq Composite on Wednesday, joining a small group of crypto-focused companies that are selling shares on major U.S. stock exchanges. The firm, which rewards customers with Bitcoin and has a debit card, began trading under the name Fold Holdings Inc. (FLD) at $10.25 per share before climbing to over $12 as of this writing. “We are excited to list on Nasdaq and look forward to continuing on our mission to expand access to bi...
One of the few Bitcoin companies to trade publicly, the listing shows more mainstream acceptance of the industry. Surely that's bullish, right? You might think so, but FLD started trading at $10 on Wednesday, rose above $13, and then proceeded to fall under the $7 mark by the end of the day Friday amid the aforementioned markets chaos.
DOG expands to Solana
Elsewhere, the most valuable Bitcoin Runes meme coin, DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON (or just DOG), became available on Solana thanks to a bridge that lets people trade it across both chains. DOG's pseudonymous creator Leonidas told Decrypt that the token was "just following in the footsteps of BTC" in becoming more available to a larger crowd—and putting Bitcoin-related products in the hands of more people.
Why Bitcoin's Biggest Meme Coin Just Bridged Over to Solana
Say what you will about Bitcoin maximalists and die-hard Runes traders—they tend to be pretty consistent when it comes to questions of loyalty. So why, then, did Bitcoin’s top meme coin just expand to Solana? Earlier this week, the Bitcoin-based token DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON—better known as DOG— announced plans to grow beyond its native network, via a two-way bridge to Solana whipped up by Mine Labs. On Wednesday the bridge went live, meaning Solana users can now buy and sell wrapped tokens that ea...
Not all Bitcoin maxis are likely to agree with that idea, but we'll see whether it leads to a rise in the coin's price. Right now, it's up about 3% over the last 24 hours—but DOG has fallen sharply since hitting an all-time high price in December, down a whopping 72% since then.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
