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

Bitcoin

$95,829.06



1.77%

Ethereum

$3,319.33



1.82%

Tether

$1.00



0.04%

XRP

$2.24



0.64%

Solana

$182.29



0.91%

Dogecoin

$0.32



2.10%

See the latest prices

MARKET BYTES

Crypto’s post-election rally resumes after breather

After racing towards an unprecedented six-figure value following the U.S. election — with a peak just above $99,800 last Friday — bitcoin pulled back slightly this week.

On Tuesday, BTC fell below $91,500 before recovering past $95,000 on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, the Coinbase 50 Index, which tracks the top 50 digital assets listed on Coinbase (that meet the criteria for inclusion), was up 9% over the last week.

Market watchers suggest that the early-week dip was caused by some longer-term crypto holders selling for a profit.

“The $100,000 mark remains a formidable psychological barrier,” Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics, told CNBC. “A brief pullback may be needed to gather momentum before the next attempt.”

Here’s three more market stories to know…

MicroStrategy added $5.2 billion to bitcoin stash 

In its third major purchase in a month, the publicly-traded software firm MicroStrategy added a record $5.2 billion in BTC to its corporate treasury over the last week. As of Monday, the company’s bitcoin holdings were worth around $38 billion.

The company’s BTC-buying strategy has been a huge hit on Wall Street, with MicroStrategy shares outperforming virtually every other stock this year.

• Let’s get volatile… The firm hugely amplifies its BTC purchasing power with the use of leverage, or borrowed capital. One potential side effect of that strategy is increased volatility, which the firm’s chairman Michael Saylor firmly embraces. “When you embrace volatility, then you’re outperforming the S&P,”  he said on a recent earnings call.

Solana hit a new all-time high around $265

Just two years ago, following the collapse of FTX, Solana’s value was rapidly crashing. The smart-contract compatible token, which was held in vast quantities by FTX, saw values plummet from around $260 all the way down to around $8 in late 2022. 

After spending much of 2024 surging and ebbing, Solana finally notched a new all-time high, peaking at around $265 on Thursday (up more than 386% for the year) before dipping to around $230 this week.

Helping boost the recovery has been post-election optimism that crypto regulation in the U.S. will finally begin to take shape, making it easier for onchain technologies using blockchains like Solana’s to thrive. 

• Meme theme… Solana’s fast and cheap blockchain also makes it one of the most popular homes for memecoins, which are speculative assets that can attract attention online and spike in value. In recent weeks, a wide range of Solana-based memecoins, including Bonk and Dogwifhat, have seen their prices jump.

SEC chief to step down in January

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler announced that he’ll be stepping down on January 20, the same day Donald Trump will be sworn in as president.

A wide range of tokens — including XRP, Cardano, and Solana — rose on the news, with market watchers hopeful that the next SEC head will help create clear rules for the industry.  

“Under his tenure, the lead U.S. securities regulator led a wide-ranging campaign against digital assets companies that was both damaging and frequently unfair,” noted CoinDesk. “Meanwhile, Gensler offered no clarity to crypto companies wanting to do business the right way.” 

• Who’s next? According to Reuters, Trump could appoint one of two current SEC commissioners — Hester Peirce or Mark Uyeda — as interim chair. Longer-term, the president might retain the interim chair or appoint someone from outside the agency. Notes Wired, “Trump’s shortlist is filled with former government officials, crypto executives, and lawyers who support the crypto industry.”

ETH SPOTLIGHT

Why is ETH lagging while the crypto market rallies?

In 2024, bitcoin has surged again and again to new all-time highs as its fortunes have been boosted by factors ranging from the arrival of spot BTC ETFs to optimism over crypto’s future following election victories for Donald Trump and the most pro-crypto Congress in history. 

For Ethereum, it’s been a different story. 

Despite the arrival of spot ETH ETFs a few months after bitcoin ETFs began trading, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap remains well below its all-time high of $4,721 set in 2021.

This week, however, ETH showed some signs of life. Even as BTC was losing momentum, ETH prices briefly spiked on Monday to a four-month high around $3,500 before marching slightly higher on Wednesday morning.

Here’s everything you need to know about why ETH has been struggling — and why that could change.

Ethereum ETFs have lagged behind BTC ETFs

The launch of spot bitcoin ETFs in January brought more than $30 billion of new capital into bitcoin. One reason institutional investors have gravitated to the asset class has been bitcoin’s widely understood narrative as a gold-like store of value due to its scarcity (there will only ever be 21 million BTC).

ETH ETFs, on the other hand, are worth around $10 billion, and saw net positive inflows for the first time since their launch in the weeks following the election.

One reason for that disparity? Ethereum’s story is more complicated. The smart-contract compatible blockchain has been billed as a “decentralized computing platform” — and even though it’s given rise to technologies like decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, and more, there hasn’t been a singular narrative for investors to grasp onto. 

“With ETH, I think the investment story and narrative is a bit less easy for a lot of investors to digest, so that's a big part of why we're so committed to the education journey that we're on with a lot of our clients,” said Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s head of digital assets.

Solana and other Ethereum competitors are gaining market share

When ETH launched, it was the first smart-contract compatible blockchain. Today, there are dozens of protocols offering similar functionality — and they’ve been steadily chipping into Ethereum’s market share.

This July, Solana surpassed Ethereum in decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume, and so far in November, Solana’s $109 billion in DEX trading volume is nearly double Ethereum’s $55 billion. 

Solana’s low fees and rapid transaction times have also helped it become the top blockchain used to launch new tokens (including memecoins). During the week of Nov. 18, nearly 90% of new token launches were on Solana, compared to less than 1% for Ethereum. All of this activity has helped Solana surge around 150% year-to-date to new all-time-highs, compared to ETH’s 50% gain. 

Meanwhile, an increasing amount of activity, like trading, token launches, and NFT mints, are happening on Ethereum layer 2 networks like Base (incubated by Coinbase) and Arbitrum rather than Ethereum itself. 

Why ETH could be poised to turn things around 

While Ethereum has lagged behind the rest of the altcoin market during the 2024 rally, the blockchain’s fundamentals and usability have been improving since it last reached an all-time high.

High transaction fees and slow transaction times plagued Ethereum in previous years, but as of this week, the average transaction fee was less than $5, a far cry from the 2021 bull market when simple transactions could cost upwards of $50.

That’s because Etherum’s code has received a number of major upgrades, including this year’s “Dencun” update, which was designed to improve the network’s scalability, lower fees, and boost security.

And upcoming upgrades, including “Pectra,” which is supposed to go live early next year, should push transaction fees even lower, and a separate proposed improvement could reduce transaction times by 50%.

The bottom line...

If you’re an ETH HODLer, it’s probably been frustrating to watch as BTC and other tokens race ahead in gains. But historically, Ethereum hasn’t seen significant rallies until bitcoin dominance — a measure of bitcoin’s share of the overall crypto market — peaks. (Of course, past performance is never indicative of future results.) With bitcoin dominance sitting near its highest levels of the year, Ethereum’s time to shine could be near.

NUMBERS TO KNOW

2.79 quadrillion

The calculations per second that the world’s fastest supercomputer, El Capitan, is able to execute — still not enough to crack blockchain encryption. “It would take more than a million of the latest iPhones working on the same calculation at the same time to equal what El Capitan can do in one second,” an expert told Decrypt. “That’s a stack of phones over 5 miles high.”

7 million

Number of adults in the U.K. that own crypto (about 12% of the adult population),  up from 5 million adults in 2022, according to new research from the U.K regulator FInancial Conduct Authority. Regarding the findings, a spokesperson for the crypto trade association CryptoUK told Decrypt that “crypto is now mainstream in the U.K.”

297

Amount of bitcoin (worth about $28 million, as of Wednesday) that California-based biotech firm Semler Scientific added to its treasury between Nov. 18 and Nov. 22, bringing its total crypto holdings to 1,570 BTC. Semler Scientific began acquiring bitcoin this summer after studying the BTC strategy of MicroStrategy, which currently holds 386,700 BTC.

SECURITY PSA

Keeping your info safe when using public Wi-Fi

Accessing private info on public Wi-Fi carries more risks than you may realize. Because most public Wi-Fi is shared widely with few safeguards, it can leave you exposed to security threats. These include hacker malware, identity and data theft, intermediary attacks, and computer worms (malware designed to spread to other devices).

Follow these quick tips to stay safe when public Wi-Fi is your only option.

TOKEN TRIVIA

Which fast food chain recently announced a collaboration with NFT collectible series Doodles?

Find the answer below.

Trivia Answer