There’s never a dull moment on the blockchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:

Bitcoin

$82,076.46



3.86%

Ethereum

$2,084.50



3.24%

Tether

$1.00

陋

0.02%

XRP

$2.16



4.81%

Solana

$127.35



7.29%

USDC

$1.00



0.00%

See the latest prices

MARKET BYTES

Crypto prices swing as Trump administration rolls out tariff strategy

It’s been a wild week for markets of all kinds, and crypto was no exception. A major driver of that recent volatility has been the Trump administration’s rollout of its long-promised tariff strategy (essentially targeted taxes on goods imported from specific countries).

Here’s how tariffs have impacted crypto markets so far, and more market stories you should know about…

This week’s tariff timeline — and how it impacted bitcoin: 

Over the weekend, bitcoin fell from around $105,000 to around $91,400 as the Trump administration prepared to establish a 25% import duty on goods crossing the border from Mexico and Canada, as well as new 10% taxes on imports from China. As Reuters reported, “almost a quarter of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies … lost 20% or more in value over the last 24 hours.”

On Monday, after the North American tariffs were delayed for 30 days (and President Trump signed an executive order outlining the creation of a U.S. government sovereign wealth fund), BTC rebounded above $102,000. XRP and Solana also saw significant gains.

Tuesday saw prices sink below $100,000 again as the new tariffs on most Chinese goods went into effect, and the Chinese government announced tariffs of its own on U.S. goods including coal and agricultural machinery as well as investigations into U.S. firms including Google. By Wednesday afternoon, BTC had dipped below $97,000.

• What might happen next? Some analysts suggest that crypto might be especially well suited to weathering macroeconomic volatility. “Hedge funds, asset management firms, and endowments are increasingly recognizing bitcoin’s potential as a store of value and as an effective portfolio diversifier,” noted a recent VanEck report.

What’s happening with Ethereum?

One measure of the scale of this weekend’s downturn was the amount of capital erased via liquidations of leveraged trades. According to Coinglass data, in a 24-hour period ending Monday, around $2.3 billion in crypto trades was liquidated — reportedly the biggest single-day liquidation in crypto history.

One token saw much bigger losses than the rest: Around $607 million in Ether trades was liquidated, helping drive ETH prices sharply downward. “While BTC has fallen over 8% over the weekend it was Ethereum that shocked the market with a straight 20% decline,” one analyst told CoinDesk. 

Why did ETH take such a big hit? One explanation, offered by Fortune, was that “the currency’s latest roller-coaster ride also coincides with ongoing drama among various Ethereum factions, and speculation among some in the crypto industry that the token is ceding ground to rival Solana.”

• Silver lining… After prices sank as low as $2,300, ETH got a boost in the form of an endorsement from presidential son Eric Trump, who tweeted “In my opinion, it’s a great time to add $ETH.” Prices climbed above $2,900 before falling below $2,800 by midweek.  

European governments explore BTC investments  

One major crypto storyline in the last year has been the potential for nations to create strategic crypto reserves similar to the strategic reserves the U.S. holds in gold and oil. President Trump has suggested that the U.S. government could create such a stockpile, and a growing number of states are looking into the possibility of creating reserves of their own.

Last week, the central bank of the Czech Republic approved a proposal to consider adding assets including BTC to the nation’s investments. “As inflation erodes fiat’s purchasing power and Bitcoin continues to grow, the question isn’t whether central banks should hold bitcoin—but whether they can afford not to,” said central bank chief Aleš Michl.  

• Norway ahead of you… Meanwhile, Norway’s vast sovereign wealth fund’s indirect exposure to BTC — via shares of MicroStrategy and other crypto-related stocks — has grown rapidly. According to K33 Research analysis, the fund’s indirect BTC holdings grew 153% in 2024 to 3,821. 

ARE WE HAVING FUND YET?

Crypto ETF applications flood the SEC, as anticipation builds for more approvals

As Washington undergoes a pro-crypto vibe shift — including new leadership at the SEC, a “crypto president” in Donald Trump, and the most pro-crypto congress in U.S. history — anticipation is building around the potential for a wide variety of new crypto investment products to hit the market in 2025.

This could be a big deal, since it was the launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January 2024 that helped spark the latest bull market — and have since attracted around $40 billion in new capital to crypto.

The SEC is currently reviewing applications, including multiple filed over the past week, for a variety of altcoin, memecoin, and other crypto-related ETF products. If the momentum continues, at least one analyst predicts that dozens of new crypto-focused funds could hit the market this year.

So what does Wall Street have planned for crypto? Let’s break it all down…

A DOGE ETF could be coming soon

Dogecoin is known for being the original memecoin. Now, digital asset manager Grayscale, along with a slew of other issuers, is aiming to turn it into the original memecoin ETF. 

DOGE, the eighth largest cryptocurrency on the market, began as a joke but has ballooned into a popular digital asset with a nearly $40 billion market cap. It’s been boosted by celebrities like Elon Musk, Snoop Dogg, and Mark Cuban over the years, and even shares a set of initials with the new, Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency. 

Despite its meme status, it's clear that some financial institutions don’t see DOGE as a laughing matter — Bitwise, Rex Shares, and Osprey Funds are also vying to launch DOGE ETFs.

“Dogecoin has matured into a potentially powerful tool for promoting financial accessibility,” said Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, Grayscale’s head of product and research. 

Grayscale is also looking to launch a bitcoin miner ETF

The crypto-ETF frenzy isn’t limited to spot ETFs for tokens. Other crypto-related sectors, like bitcoin miners, are also attracting waves of interest from ETF issuers, especially as miners continue to diversify away from mining activities into using their facilities to host AI data centers.

Last week, Grayscale also unveiled the Grayscale Bitcoin Miners ETF, which will provide investors with exposure to the top mining firms, led by Marathon Digital (which will make up 16.65% of the ETF), Riot Platforms (11.92%), and Core Scientific (9.2%).  

Grayscale’s Bitcoin Miner ETF would be the first passively managed fund of its kind — Valkyrie’s WGMI ETF, which is actively managed, has been trading since 2022.

21Shares has filed for the first spot DOT ETF

The firm, which specializes in exchanged-traded funds, filed paperwork for what would be the first DOT ETF to the SEC last Friday. DOT, which is the native token of the Polkadot network, is currently the 22nd largest crypto token on the market, with an approximately $7.6 billion market cap. 

Despite the crypto bull market, DOT has underperformed over the past year, with the token down nearly 30% compared to a year ago, and it's unclear how much demand there would be for a DOT ETF. 

DOT wasn’t the only altcoin to inch closer to an ETF last week, with Grayscale also filing paperwork to convert its already existing XRP Trust into an XRP ETF. Other firms including Bitwise, 21Shares, Canary Capital, WisdomTree, and CoinShares, have also filed for spot XRP ETFs. 

Additionally, the SEC approved an ETF filing from Bitwise that would allow it to launch a joint spot bitcoin and ETH ETF, joining Hashdex and Franklin Templeton’s similar existing products on the market.

What could we see next?

As the SEC moves to clarify rules for the industry, ETF issuers will likely continue to send a flurry of applications to the commission. 

Matt Hougan, the CIO of Bitwise, says that the SEC could cross a regulatory “Rubicon” this year, and approve spot ETFs for as many as five different digital assets. The agency is already considering applications related to funds for Litecoin, HBAR, XRP, and SOL, with Litecoin expected to receive approval first. 

If that happens, Hougan says, “then the floodgates are open” for ETFs related to even more digital assets. “We don’t know how far they’re open, but I bet it’s not just a crack.”

NUMBERS TO KNOW

$17.1 billion

The all-time-high market capitalization of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) as of Feb. 1, reports the Defiant, via data from RWA.xyz. The tokenization of RWAs refers to representing things like real estate, art, bonds, stocks, and many other asset classes as a token on a blockchain. The current leading RWA categories by market cap are private credit (around $12 billion) and U.S. Treasuries ($3.5 billion).

$600 million

The gain that Tesla recently reported on its BTC holdings for the fourth quarter of 2024 after the SEC removed a controversial accounting rule called SAB 121 in January. Under the new standards, corporations can report crypto holdings at fair market value, making it easier and less expensive for companies to hold assets such as BTC.

471,107 BTC

MicroStrategy’s total bitcoin holdings after a 12-week, $20 billion buying spree that saw the largest corporate BTC holder add to its already sizable position. This week, the firm hit the pause button on acquiring more BTC.

$50 million

Amount that Tokyo-based investment giant SoftBank invested in bitcoin mining company Cipher last Thursday — a move focused on using the miner’s high-performance computing infrastructure for AI. With mining competition increasing following last year’s Bitcoin halving, multiple firms have been diversifying to meet AI demand.

CRYPTO 101

Answering frequently asked questions from crypto beginners

In this new section, we’ll periodically answer some of the most common questions we encounter from Coinbase users who are early in their crypto journeys. First up, a frequent bitcoin question:  

Question: “Do I need to buy a whole bitcoin? Is there a minimum investment?”

Answer: Bitcoin is hovering around $98,000 as of Wednesday morning, which would make buying one whole bitcoin out of reach for many investors. But the good news is, you don’t have to buy a whole bitcoin — or a whole amount of any other token — in order to own crypto. 

You can instead buy a fractional amount of BTC, meaning you can invest whatever amount you are comfortable with. In fact, you can start owning bitcoin with an investment as small as $1 on Coinbase. At Wednesday’s prices, a $1 will get you roughly 0.0000102 of BTC. (Fun fact: The smallest denomination of bitcoin — 0.00000001 BTC — is known as a satoshi, named for Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator.)

TOKEN TRIVIA

What is the ticker symbol for the most valuable spot bitcoin ETF?

Find the answer below.

Trivia Answer