This Week in Coins: Bitcoin Flashes and Fades as ETFs Launch—But Ethereum Soars

The historical and hotly anticipated approval of Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETF) this week basically blocked out the sun for the rest of the crypto solar system, and frankly fueled a flood of headlines at Decrypt.

All the theories and analysis over what the approval would mean for the value of the top cryptocurrency was finally put to the test. Up or down? Priced in or not? Would Bitcoin enter the next phase of its evolution, or simply shrug? After all, Bitcoin spot ETFs aren’t exactly new outside the U.S.

On the question of up or down, the answer is so far both: The price of Bitcoin flirted across a crowded room with $49,000 when the ETFs were approved. One day later, though, and it plunged back to $43,000—a neighborhood where it’s been hanging out for quite a while.

Trading just below $43,000 now, Bitcoin is down about 2% from where it was seven days ago. Over the past month, BTC is totally flat. But hodlers are still happy to see Bitcoin up over 120% since this time last year.

Perennial “distant second” Ethereum saw more green candles, by comparison, buoyed in part by a rise in “wen ETH ETF?” speculation now that the Bitcoin version exists. Ethereum hit an 18-month high of nearly $2,700 yesterday.

ETH is changing hands at $2,568 today, a rise of about 1% from this time yesterday. But over the last week, it’s up over 14%, and up more than 12% for the last month. The one-year return is about 80%. Ethereum scaling networks also had a strong week, with Arbitrum (ARB) up 22% and Optimism (OP) popping 16%.

Elsewhere in the top 5, Binance Coin (BNB) is down just under 2% this week while Solana has posted a 2% gain. Some other crypto bright spots include Tezos (XTZ) and Stacks (STX), both posting double-digit percentage gains over the past week.

Interestingly, the Ethereum Name Service and its ENS token—at the very back of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap—had the best week, up nearly 75% over the last seven days.

Edited by Andrew Hayward