Polygon’s token leads early gains on Friday, nearing a 2-month high

Crypto assets and crypto-adjacent companies are catching a bid and rebounding off recent lows, with stablecoin issuer Circle soaring after reporting strong earnings before the bell. The company beat on revenue and reported that USDC in circulation has grown to $75.3 billion, up 72% year over year.

The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has increased 4.5% in the last 24 hours, and both tokens and companies close to crypto are enjoying a boost:

• Altcoins ethereum, XRP, solana, dogecoin, hype, chainlink, and avalanche are all in the green.

• Bitcoin treasury firms Strategy and Strive Inc. are rising along with bitcoin.

• Bitcoin miner Hut 8, which reported Q4 earnings that beat on earnings per share while missing on revenue, is up in early trading, as are miners MARA Holdings and Riot Platforms.

• Ethereum treasury firms BitMine Immersion Technologies, SharpLink Gaming, and Bit Digital are up.

• Solana treasury firms Upexi and DeFi Development Corp. are also both rising.

• Crypto trading platform Coinbase and Robinhood are both enjoying a boost from the rise in crypto sentiment.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Despite the relief bounce, some are still uneasy. “The whole market still seems very heavy to me,” Glenn Rosenberg, managing partner at Persistent Trading, told Sherwood News. “Jokingly, BTC feels like it’s now 100% correlated to any asset or news that’s negative! I think we test 60,000 — that’s a big long-term channel and could push lower from there,” he said. “The whole [space] looks risky right now.”

The price of ethereum remains under pressure as ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin selling a tranche of his holdings and sustained spot ETF outflows act as headwinds for the second-largest cryptocurrency. 

Buterin sold $5.9 million worth of ethereum over the past several days after withdrawing 3,500 tokens from lending protocol Aave, on-chain data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence shows. Since the beginning of the month, Buterin has reportedly sold 8,000 tokens.

“Historically, his sales have funded ecosystem development or philanthropy rather than signaling reduced conviction,” per Kelly Ye, deputy chief investment officer of Avenir Group. “It may create short-term sentiment pressure, but it’s not necessarily a structural negative — especially given his continued active role in building ethereum,” Ye told Sherwood News.

Meanwhile, spot ethereum ETFs recorded $123.4 million in outflows last week, marking the fifth consecutive week of outflows. In total, nearly $1.4 billion has exited from the funds during the stretch, data from SoSoValue shows. “ETF outflows reflect positioning and liquidity conditions more than protocol fundamentals. ETH is still being treated tactically by many allocators rather than as a core allocation,” Ye added.

The longest outflow streak for the investment vehicles is eight weeks, occurring between February and April 2025, when the cryptocurrency dropped from $2,200 to under $1,600. 

Still, pockets of demand persist. BitMine Immersion Technologies, the leading ethereum treasury firm, acquired roughly $100 million worth of tokens last week, according to a press release. 

“In the midst of this ‘mini crypto winter,’ our focus continues to be on methodically executing our treasury strategy and steadily acquiring ETH and in turn, optimizing the yield on our ETH holdings,” BitMine Chairman Tom Lee said in a statement.