Ether has shown significant gains recently, ending the week on a high as former President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act, a landmark piece of legislation in the U.S. that regulates stablecoins. Ether’s price surged by 2%, reaching $3,506.48, its highest value since January. This price increase has turned ethereums’s performance positive for the year. Notably, for the first time ever, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking ether attracted more daily inflows than those for bitcoin, with ether funds recording $602 million in net inflows on Thursday, driven largely by BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA). Conversely, bitcoin ETFs saw inflows of $522 million.
Despite the overall positive momentum for ether, bitcoin’s price faced a slight decline, down by 1% as some tech stocks showed volatility due to geopolitical tensions, particularly with President Trump’s push for heightened tariffs on the European Union. Coinbase’s stock is noteworthy, having risen 2% and nearly reaching an all-time intraday high, marking its fifth consecutive week of gains. Robinhood also experienced a 4% increase, while the bitcoin treasury firm MicroStrategy saw a 6% dip and Mara Holdings, a bitcoin mining company, decreased by 2%.
The performance of ether has been remarkable, with an 18% rise this week alone and a staggering 43.6% increase over the past two weeks, which represents its best two-week performance since August 2021. Experts, including Wolfe Research’s Read Harvey, have noted this upward momentum, suggesting that ethereum could be undergoing a trend reversal compared to bitcoin. The recent legislation could further solidify this position, with Acheson emphasizing the implications of the GENIUS Act as a foundational regulation that could embed stablecoins more deeply within the financial fabric, making it challenging for future administrations to overturn.
The passage of the GENIUS Act, coupled with the broader crypto market structure bill known as the CLARITY Act, reflects a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrencies in the United States, paving the way for a more structured and secure market environment moving forward.