BTC Struggles Below $100K, US Inflation Higher Than Expected, ETF Filings Pile Up: Your Weekly Crypto Recap

The last several days have been quite interesting for the cryptocurrency industry, with numerous events impacting the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and the altcoins.

At the beginning of the business week, American President Donald Trump continued his trade war, announcing an upcoming 25% import tax on all steel and aluminum entering the US. 

His announcement triggered another round of uncertainty across the financial markets. However, the impact on the crypto sector was not as intense as the one observed at the start of the month. 

This time, BTC slipped from around $98,000 at the time of the disclosure to roughly $97,000 hours later. On February 11, the bears retook control, suppressing the price to $95K before another resurgence of over $96,000. 

The release of the US CPI data on February 12, though, brought more pain for the bulls. The latest figures showed that inflation in the world’s largest economy was higher than the previous expectations. This caused a sudden drop below $95,000 for BTC and substantial declines for most altcoins. 

The crypto market has been in a recovery mode in the past two days, with the leading digital asset rising to its current $97,000, while many alternative coins charted significant gains.

Ripple’s XRP stands as the top performer, witnessing a daily increase of over 12% and surpassing $2.75. Its revival happened shortly after the US SEC acknowledged Graysclale’s application to convert its XRP Trust into an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

While the weekly charts of the biggest cryptocurrencies – BTC and ETH – are in the red, this is not the case for many of the lower-ranked assets. XRP has soared by 11% in the past seven days, BNB is up 13% for the period, while ADA has jumped by 9%. 

Market Data

Market Cap: $3.34T | 24H Vol: $109B | BTC Dominance: 57.3%

BTC: $96,757 (-2.8%) | ETH: $2,713 (-2.4%) | XRP: $2.72 (+8%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Bitcoin Hash Rate Hits New All-time High: How Are Miners Coping? Bitcoin mining has become increasingly challenging. Earlier this month, the network’s hash rate hit an all-time high of 845 million terahashes per second, marking a 43% rise from last year. This surge enhances network security but makes mining more competitive, requiring greater computing power and energy consumption.

Strategy Resumes Bitcoin Buying Spree, Adds Another 7,633 BTC. Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, resumed its Bitcoin accumulation after a brief pause, purchasing 7,633 BTC for $742.4 million at an average price of $97,255 per coin. This brings its total holdings to 478,740 BTC, worth $46.6 billion, giving the company a paper profit of over $15 billion.

Investor Profits Millions From CAR Meme Coin While Experts Warn of Potential Scam. The Central African Republic (CAR) recently launched a national meme coin, but skepticism quickly followed after an investor allegedly turned $5,000 into over $12 million within hours. Concerns over legitimacy grew when analysts pointed out that the project’s domain was registered just days before launch. In addition, some AI tools flagged the president’s announcement as possibly manipulated.

ADA Pumps 14% as Grayscale Files For Spot Cardano ETF. Earlier this week, Grayscale officially filed for a Cardano exchange-traded fund with the New York Stock Exchange. ADA’s price reacted positively, surging by double digits after the news. As mentioned above, Grayscale also revealed its intentions to convert its XRP Trust into a spot XRP ETF. 

Binance and SEC Agree to 60-Day Pause in Legal Proceedings. Binance and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) jointly filed a motion to pause their lawsuit for 60 days, citing the SEC’s newly formed crypto task force, which could influence the case’s resolution. This move, following the appointment of Chairman Mark Uyeda, may set a precedent for other cryptocurrency firms like Ripple, Coinbase, and Kraken to seek similar delays amid evolving regulatory changes.

Huge Pi Network (PI) News for All Users: Is the Long-Awaited Moment Here? The controversial crypto project Pi Network made the headlines, scheduling the launch of its Open Network for February 20. This development (if it indeed sees the light of day) will make the Pi token publicly accessible by allowing exchanges to list it. Some of the platforms that have revealed their intentions to enable trading services with the asset on launch day include Bitget, OKX, and MEXC.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Solana – click here for the complete price analysis.