This Week in Coins: Bitcoin and Ethereum Hold Stable Amid Frantic News Cycle

Ethereum and XRP both saw depreciation despite many positive developments.

This Week in Coins: Bitcoin and Ethereum Hold Stable Amid Frantic News Cycle

Ethereum and XRP both saw depreciation despite many positive developments.

It was a week full of headlines in crypto, but they weren't being made by market stalwarts Bitcoin and Ethereum.  Their stable values suggest cryptocurrencies are less reactive to the current news cycle than they were during its heady 2021 bull run and subsequent 2022 crash. 

Market leader Bitcoin (BTC) grew a modest 2.7% over the seven days and now changes hands at $27,952. It briefly hit a two-month high on Sunday night when it crossed the $28,000 threshold. 

The closest contender Ethereum (ETH) had a comparably harder week and lost 2.1% to trade at $1,636 at the time of writing. Its weak performance comes despite several positive announcements, including a UBS asset tokenization trial supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the launch of nine Ethereum Futures ETFs in the U.S. on Monday.

Grayscale announced on Monday that it hopes to convert its Ethereum trust into a spot ETF. The crypto asset manager’s application stems from its courtroom victory back in August when it won an appeal against the Securities and Exchange Commission after the latter rejected its application to convert its Bitcoin trust into a spot ETF. 

The SEC also lost an appeal in its lawsuit against XRP progenitor Ripple this week. The SEC had hoped in vain that Judge Torres would reconsider her ruling that selling XRP to retail consumers doesn’t constitute a breach of American securities laws. 

Ripple also secured a Major Payments Institution license from the MAS this week. However, the good news gains were reversed by the weekend. XRP fell 1.6% over the last seven days to hit $0.5224 by the weekend.