This Week in Coins: Ethereum ETFs Up, ETH Price Down as Bitcoin and Trump Take

Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt.

After an eventful week, with the launch of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Bitcoin 2024 kicking off, prices are surprisingly flat over the seven-day period.

Most surprisingly—or probably not that much of a shock—is Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap: it’s down 7% over the week, despite the sought-after funds finally launching.

On Tuesday, the funds had a successful start, with over $1 billion in trading volume and inflows of more than $107 million.

But it hasn’t been enough to push the price of the coin up, which is now trading hands for $3,250, per CoinGecko. This is probably because investors have been cashing out of the main Grayscale ETF. They couldn’t previously because it operated like a closed-end fund.

The same thing happened when Grayscale converted its Bitcoin trust into an ETF in January, putting downward pressure on the asset’s price.

In other news, Solana rose nearly 8% to enter the weekend at $183.80. Meanwhile, a formerly dead Solana-based meme token Brat Summer (BRAT) shot up in value after pop star Charli XCX endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Otherwise, the meme coin trading world has been pretty lackluster, with only Dogecoin making significant gains over the week of 6%.

Bitcoin fared better. Over the week, BTC is up close to 2% and trading hands for $67,920. Thousands of people are in Nashville for the annual conference dedicated to the top cryptocurrency, which has so far had Michael Saylor, Edward Snowden and Robert Kennedy Jr. as guests.

Ex-President Donald Trump has long been the talk of the town, though, and he’s expected to speak later on Saturday. Will his articulation of his new, pro-crypto stance push the price of “digital gold” up even higher?