Following a robust April and an early May that brought widespread advances throughout the digital asset sector, the crypto market last week settled into a period of consolidation, trading mostly sideways.
After an initial macro-driven rally, a slight cooling of investor enthusiasm turned the backdrop into a almost-stable one for several significant token releases and project progressions. There has been no obvious mandate from the market for why this has been happening, except for the notion that sideways price action typically resolves itself either in the bullish direction or in a downward-breach direction.
As noted in the Weekly Unlock Digest for the week of May 15, 2025, the market absorbed fresh emissions of tokens with minimal disruption.
Ethereum was the most significant of these major assets, showing real strength and moving well ahead of the pack as it fought to reclaim previously lost ground after a recent period of underperformance.
Meanwhile, several new product introductions and some really strong-looking new tokens captured our attention over the past week, including $ETHFI, a newly launched EFi token that is the first of its kind to go live on the Ethereum blockchain.
Tariff Delay Baked In: Ethereum Pulls Ahead Amid Flat Market
Last week in cryptocurrency was defined by a calming in the volatility department. The markets had already taken in the bullish effects of the U.S. and China moving to put off new tariffs for 90 days until December. This was a nice short-term boost, because we were headed for a possible trade deal; but still, it was nice to see the markets not worrying too much about this part of the global macroeconomic setup. While it was in relief-rally mode earlier this month, last week, it appeared risk assets were back to the good old grind, with most of the major cryptocurrencies taking it easy and mostly flat for the week.
Nonetheless, Ethereum followed a completely different path. After underperforming in the first part of the quarter, it broke out in the second half to record an impressive run, notably rising throughout most of September and October. Market commentators have linked this shift directly to much healthier institutional flows into Ethereum. The trend has also been attributed to increased adoption of Ethereum layer-2 solutions, such as Optimism and Arbitrum, at a time when some major Internet companies, like Amazon, have begun focusing on these solutions in their own infrastructures.
Stable price action also created a good atmosphere for unlocks of tokens. Fresh emissions usually harm the market, but investors seem able to absorb most of what would have otherwise caused a major selloff. Overall, the market seems capable of handling any new supply without much fuss.
$ETHFI Leads Performance Charts Amid Ecosystem Growth
In terms of price performance among the tokens that are undergoing significant unlocks and supply expansions, $ETHFI seems to be the clear standout. In the past month, the token commonly referred to as $ETHFI has nearly doubled in price, touching $51. It has reached as high as $60 in that time span. It’s a new tool from the World Wildlife Fund, helpfully denoted with the ‘WWF’ logo right on the front, which allows users to donate directly to wildlife conservation across a range of species.
After a strong month of gains driven by macro relief, the crypto market traded mostly sideways this past week.
Weekly Unlock Digest – Week 3, May 2025 👇
Investors appear to have already priced in the impact of the U.S. and China tariff delay. Despite this, Ethereum showed… pic.twitter.com/2ECrD8kjFH— Tokenomist (prev. TokenUnlocks) (@Tokenomist_ai) May 19, 2025
Some of this rally can be linked directly to Ethereum’s resurgence in the past few months. However, $ETHFI’s surge is also being driven by several fundamental catalysts that are taking its value proposition to a whole new level. One of the most exciting developments is the recent launch of the ETHFI crypto credit card, which offers 2–3% cashback to users. This brings a real layer of world utility to the token’s ecosystem.
Furthermore, a sustained source of demand has been created with the implementation of a token buyback and burn program. By actively decreasing circulating supply over time, the program has added deflationary pressure to the token. In turn, this has served to boost investor confidence.
Even with the recent increases, $ETHFI is still significantly below where it was at its all-time high, with the price more than 80% lower than its peak valuation. This shows how serious its prior correction was — part of a broader crypto winter — and how much opportunity there is for it to recover, especially if it can keep favorable momentum going.
Upcoming Unlocks to Watch Amid Growing Market Maturity
Although the current market backdrop has permitted recent token unlocks to take place without major price disruption, this could change. It might change based on the direction that investor sentiment takes. One key factor to pay attention to is the percentage of the total token supply that is unlocked. With $ETHFI, only about 29% of the total token supply is actually unlocked right now. So, what does that leave us with? It leaves us with a lot of the tokens still locked up and some of them to be gradually released into the wild, i.e., into the hands of the market, i.e., onto exchanges, for trading.
In the near future, upcoming schedules for unlocking will be very important in determining whether the prices will go up or down over the short to medium term. If people want the tokens and if they’re being used in a really useful way, then the newly unlocked tokens could just get taken up without any problems. But in a more uncertain or just plain volatile situation, the unlocking could add a little bit of downward pressure on the prices, especially for the tokens that are already having a tough time finding buyers.
Simultaneously, fresh token generation events are gathering momentum yet again, with rebranded undertakings such as Solana Name Service ($SNS) reestablishing themselves in the marketplace. These circumstances underscore the evolution of the crypto space, in which would-be projects are beginning to adapt, evolve, and re-launch themselves with a greater deal of sophistication.
All in all, the third week of May might not have given us any sensational stories, but it was a week that underscored stability and resilience, and even some selective outperformance, for the crypto markets. That dynamic could carry us through the summer of 2025.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.
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Source: https://nulltx.com/crypto-market-stays-flat-in-may-week-3-as-unlocks-proceed-smoothly-and-ethfi-shines/