Dogecoin surges ahead while Bitcoin, Ethereum see short-lived gains

Bitcoin and Ethereum rose slightly on Saturday before dipping, erasing any gains they may have notched for the week.

But one coin is stealing the show: Dogecoin.

The ninth biggest cryptocurrency by market value and original memecoin was recently trading 11% higher over a 24-hour period, according to CoinGecko. The coin is the biggest gainer over the past day out of large cap cryptocurrencies.

Dogecoin’s price stood at nearly $0.11 per coin at 2pm in New York. The reason may well be news that X — formerly Twitter — is bringing crypto trading to its platform. Writing on the website Saturday, X’s head of product said that a new feature in the coming weeks will “enable you to trade stocks and crypto directly from timeline.”

Dogecoin has in the past made gains off the back of X-related payments news. X owner and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has frequently pumped Dogecoin over the years in interviews and on X by calling it his favourite cryptocurrency.

In the past, he has even claimed that the volatile coin — currently 85% below its 2021 record — would be a good option for transactions.

ETF action

Bitcoin’s gains on Saturday were short-lived: the biggest coin rose to $70,434 before dipping again and was recently trading hands for $69,798.

Over the past week, the coin is flat following net outflows from US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. The popular trading products saw dribbles of inflows only to be offset by investors cashing out mid-week.

Data from Farside Investors shows that investors cashed out a total of $360 million from the funds, managed by the likes of BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale.

Ethereum spiked higher than Bitcoin, briefly trading at nearly $2,100, before dipping again. It was trading at $2,080, a rise of 1% over the past day. Investors also cashed out a total of $161 million over the week from US Ethereum ETFs.

Bitcoin Bottom in?

It’s not looking good for Bitcoin since a crash last week sunk the asset to nearly $60,000. Markets have been battered since October when over $19 billion in crypto bets were wiped out in the largest liquidation event in the history of the asset class.

Then, last week, selling intensified when many more billions of dollars in leveraged bets got liquidated. Investors wanted to derisk over Trump’s Federal Reserve chair nomination last week: Kevin Warsh — who’s typically been an inflation hawk in the past and could therefore be in no rush to cut interest rates.

And Bitcoin could be in for more pain, according to experts: British bank Standard Chartered forecasted the coin could crash to $50,000 before stabilizing, and blockchain analysts CryptoQuant said $55,000 per coin was a realistic bottom.

Crypto market movers

• Bitcoin is up nearly 1% over the past 24 hours, trading at $69,428.
• Ethereum is up 4% past 24 hours and is priced at $2,051.

What we’re reading

• Ethereum Foundation co-director resigns to focus on AI — DL News
• Aave Labs proposes paying DAO all revenue from Aave-branded products — DL News
• BlackRock Just Chose Uniswap. The Market Didn’t Care. Here’s Why. — Unchained
• Small caps break out. Is crypto next? — Milk Road
• High-Conviction Bets Turn Toxic in Week of Wall Street Reversals — Bloomberg

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.