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Ethereum unable to breach $4,800, though spot ETFs on pace to hit record

Spot ethereum ETF inflows for the week stand at $2.2 billion so far, dwarfing their bitcoin counterparts.

Sage D. Young

Despite ethereum’s rally taking a breather, the cryptocurrency’s ETFs are on track to set a new weekly inflow record. 

US spot ethereum ETFs have recorded $2.2 billion of inflows this week so far, the most these investment vehicles have ever seen and a figure multitudes higher than spot bitcoin ETFs’ weekly inflows of $331 million, according to SoSoValue. The two days with the most ethereum inflows occurred in the same week, with Wednesday seeing $729.1 million and Monday producing $1 billion. 

ethereum climbed to $4,779 in the last 24 hours, an almost four-year high, before correcting to about $4,500 Thursday morning. The token is now hovering just under the $4,700 level as of 10:50 a.m. ET.

  • As a result of the price decline, centralized exchanges liquidated more than $182.4 million ethereum long positions in the last four hours, data from analytics platform CoinGlass shows. 

  • Meanwhile, the exit queue for ethereum validators to unstake has shot up to 717,775 tokens worth $3.3 billion. The wait time for the exit line to clear is 12 days and 11 hours, which is higher than the entry queue wait of three days and 19 hours, according to blockchain explorer beaconcha.in. The total amount of tokens waiting to be unstaked is also at its highest point ever since staking withdrawals went live in 2023. 

  • TheBlock reported that a whale address (0x815) that participated in ethereum’s initial coin offering sent $5.1 million worth of tokens to a Kraken deposit address on Thursday, bringing its total transfers to the centralized exchange to $24.1 million this week. 

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Trump-connected WLFI token jumps to 3-month high on news of banking application

World Liberty Financial’s token, WLFI, is the top cryptocurrency gainer in the last 24 hours, peaking at a three-month high of 18.5 cents after the Donald Trump-backed crypto firm announced that a proposed entity has applied for a US banking charter. 

According to a press release, World Liberty Trust Company filed a de novo application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a branch of the US Treasury Department tasked with supervising and regulating national banks. 

With a national trust bank charter, World Liberty Trust can issue USD1, the dollar-backed stablecoin rolled out by World Liberty Financial last year. The trust company also plans to offer digital asset custody and stablecoin conversion services. 

Even though World Liberty Financial and World Liberty Trust Company share similar branding and names, the ownership and operating structures are different, a statement provided to CoinDesk explained. President Trump is labeled as World Liberty Financials cofounder emeritus, while his three sons, Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron, are cited as cofounders.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under the Trump administration has already approved bank charter applications from several firms, including Circle Internet Group, Ripple, and BitGo, which maintains all reserve assets backing USD1. 

With a national trust bank charter, World Liberty Trust can issue USD1, the dollar-backed stablecoin rolled out by World Liberty Financial last year. The trust company also plans to offer digital asset custody and stablecoin conversion services. 

Even though World Liberty Financial and World Liberty Trust Company share similar branding and names, the ownership and operating structures are different, a statement provided to CoinDesk explained. President Trump is labeled as World Liberty Financials cofounder emeritus, while his three sons, Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron, are cited as cofounders.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under the Trump administration has already approved bank charter applications from several firms, including Circle Internet Group, Ripple, and BitGo, which maintains all reserve assets backing USD1. 

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Zcash drops after the entire team of Electric Coin Company, a core development firm behind the token, leaves

Zcash, the privacy-focused cryptocurrency, has shed roughly $1.2 billion of its market capitalization in the last 24 hours, with the token dropping 15% after the developers of Electric Coin Company left to start a new company, though they remain focused on the same mission. 

Electric Coin Company was formed in 2015 to jumpstart the privacy-focused zcash protocol, but on Wednesday, the entire team left due to a governance conflict with several board members of Bootstrap, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit aimed at governing Electric Coin Company and supporting the blockchain network, according to Josh Swihart, former Electric Coin Company CEO.

Bootstrap board members Zaki Manian, Christina Garman, Alan Fairless, and Michelle Lai “have moved into clear misalignment with the mission of Zcash,” Swihart wrote in a social media post. “In short, the terms of our employment were changed in ways that made it impossible for us to perform our duties effectively and with integrity.” 

Despite the move, Swihart said the protocol is unaffected. The former Electric Coin Company team is now founding a new company to protect their work from “malicious governance actions” and remain committed to “building unstoppable private money.”

Last year, the cryptocurrency’s price saw explosive growth, jumping nearly 780% from under $60 in January to over $510.

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