This Week in Coins: Bitcoin and Ethereum Dip, Bitcoin Recovers

Bitcoin (BTC) had depressing week after the historic approval and trading of several crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap plunged hard on Monday following a sell-off from digital asset fund manager Grayscale. The virtual coin dropped below $40,000 (to $38,678) on Tuesday, but slowly recovered as the week went on. 

It is now trading for $41,830, CoinGecko data shows, a less than 1% movement over seven days. 

Before Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF started trading, it had operated like a closed-end fund where investors could not redeem their shares for BTC. However, following its conversion and subsequent trading, investors started to cash out quickly. 

This led Grayscale to send huge amounts of the cryptocurrency to its custodian, Coinbase, leading to pressure on BTC’s price. 

Grayscale’s sell-off slowed towards the end of the week—likely leading to the rebound in BTC’s price.

It’s not all bad news, though: Analysts told Decrypt that Bitcoin “could see increased appeal” in 2024—if the Federal Reserve slashes interest rates. 

But BTC’s plunge in the week hit the wider crypto market. Ethereum (ETH) was a big loser, dropping to $2,186 on Tuesday and never really recovering, logging an 8% loss over the week. It’s now trading for $2,264.

Its drop came following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to delay ETH ETF proposals from both BlackRock and Grayscale. 

Elsewhere, Solana (SOL) took a beating. It was, at the start of the week, one of the worst-performing cryptocurrencies. It has since picked up and is trading for $92.60, a more than 1% seven-day rise. 

While Dogecoin (DOGE)—the original meme coin and 11th biggest cryptocurrency—pumped at the start of the week over speculation that it might be used for payments on Twitter, it slowly drifted back to where it started. It kicked off the week at $0.08, and is back at the same spot as of writing.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.