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

Bitcoin

€92,685.61

淪

0.71%

Ethereum

€2,206.38

淪

1.01%

Tether

€0.88



0.02%

XRP

€1.91

淪

0.31%

Solana

€131.60

淪

0.11%

USDC

€0.88



0.00%

See the latest prices

MARKET BYTES

BTC hovers below all-time high as traders take profits

Crypto’s spring rally rolled on this week, with BTC prices hovering around $105,000 and ETH prices around $2,600 as new jobs data seemed to pull markets in either direction. While bitcoin remains high by historic standards, prices are down slightly from May’s new all-time peak north of $111,000 after some traders likely sold to lock in profits, according to CoinDesk.

Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw outflows totalling $1.2 billion during the first three days of June — another sign of profit-taking, according to Decrypt — while ether ETFs have seen 12 straight days of inflows. 

“This flow divergence highlights growing institutional interest in ETH, while suggesting sustained profit-taking on BTC, especially as retail demand stays muted,” noted BRN analyst Valentin Fournier. (More on ETH’s rally in our second story.)

Here’s what else has been shaping crypto markets…

Major political parties embrace crypto in U.K. and Korea

In the U.K., the increasingly popular Reform party — led by Nigel Farage — is making a pro-crypto platform central to its pitch to young voters. 

Speaking at the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas last week, Farage unveiled his proposal for a “Crypto Assets and Digital Finance Bill” that his party plans to introduce in Parliament if it wins in the next general election. (Reform has been polling above the ruling Labour Party since winning a string of surprise victories in local elections in May.)

The bill would reduce capital gains taxes on crypto investments to 10%, establish a bitcoin digital reserve within the Bank of England, and enshrine the right to transact with cryptocurrency.

• Meanwhile in South Korea... Voters hit the polls on Tuesday to elect a new president, with both leading candidates backing pro-crypto policy measures. The winner, Lee Jae-myung, supports issuing a stablecoin denominated in the Korean won, legalizing spot crypto ETFs, and allowing the national pension fund to invest in cryptocurrencies. Crypto is hugely popular in South Korea, with trading on domestic crypto exchanges outpacing stock markets on some days.

Why stablecoins took center stage at this year’s Bitcoin Conference

Stablecoins, the typically dollar-denominated cryptocurrencies that are revolutionizing payments technology, were a hot topic at last week’s Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas. 

Speaking at the event last Wednesday, Vice President J.D. Vance suggested that the rise of dollar-denominated stablecoins could ensure the long-term dominance of the U.S. dollar on the world stage.

“In this administration, we do not think that stablecoins threaten the integrity of the U.S. dollar,” Vance said. “Quite the opposite. We view them as a force multiplier of our economic might.”   

• Big picture… This week, the total value of the stablecoin market hit $250 billion, a new all-time high. This development comes amid recent progress for a major stablecoin bill (the GENIUS Act) in the Senate, and as a growing list of Wall Street and Silicon Valley firms (including Stripe, Visa, PayPal, and Mastercard) pursue stablecoin integrations. According to a recent report from Citi, stablecoins could become a $3.7 trillion industry by 2030.

ETHER FEVER

Why Ethereum has been outperforming most other cryptocurrencies

For much of this year, Ether has been underperforming, with developers and users alike asking hard questions about its leadership and direction. 

In recent weeks, however, ETH has begun to stage a remarkable reversal, surging more than 80% from its April lows of around $1,400. Momentum, positive price action, and institutional adoption are all on the rise.

So, is the original altcoin really back on track? Here’s what you need to know.

ETH has been one of the best performers during the past month 

Since Ethereum’s “Pectra” upgrade went live on May 7, the second largest cryptocurrency has been on a tear. 

This was a bit of a surprise, because historically major Ethereum network upgrades haven’t usually been followed by positive price action. 

In the month since Pectra went live, however, ETH’s price has risen by more than 40%, outpacing every other token in the top 10 over that same span. Spot ETFs meanwhile, saw 10 consecutive days of inflows between May 16 and May 30, the longest such streak since December 2024. 

Market observers believe ETH’s newfound strength could be a sign of investors moving capital away from bitcoin and into ether. 

“Analysts have flagged ongoing capital rotation from BTC to ETH, supported by the contrast between outflows in BTC ETFs and consistent inflows into ETH ETFs,” said Glenn Rosenberg, an independent crypto adviser and former COO of ML Tech.

Corporations already own bitcoin. Now they’re buying ETH too.

Strategy CEO Michael Saylor started adding bitcoin to his company’s treasury in 2020, sending its stock price surging and inspiring copycats across the market. Now, some companies are moving beyond BTC and are adding ETH to their corporate treasuries. 

On May 27, sports-betting firm SharpLink announced that it raised $425 million to add ETH to its treasury. The move sent its stock price surging 2,000% from below $3 to more than $105, before correcting at the start of this week. 

Days later, the company said it planned to sell another $1 billion worth of shares, saying it would use almost all of those funds to purchase even more ETH. 

SharpLink, which is now the largest publicly-traded holder of ETH, has added Ethereum cofounder Joseph Lubin to its board of directors and plans to engage in Ethereum protocol activities like staking and DeFi.  

Corporations buying altcoins as reserve assets appears to be a growing trend, with Upexi and DeFi Development Corp. recently buying millions of dollars in Solana, and the Canadian firm Spirit announcing plans to acquire Dogecoin. 

Stablecoin growth is boosting ETH’s institutional appeal

Stablecoins have surged in 2025, and ETH is poised to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of that growth. 

More than 51% of the $250 billion-plus stablecoin market has been minted on the Ethereum blockchain, with many of the world’s biggest banks, payment firms, and tech companies embracing the technology.

According to a recent report from Bitwise, ETH is shifting from being “a retail toll road” to a “freight terminal for institutional-grade use cases” with stablecoins at the center.

It could take time for value to accrue on the Ethereum network, however. A new JPMorgan report notes that ETH’s recent upgrade may have set the network up to benefit from rising institutional interest, but there still hasn’t been a meaningful rise in actual network activity. 

The bottom line… 

Some analysts believe that ETH’s rally still has some room to run, with Armando Pantoja of The Street calling ETH the best risk-reward trade in crypto right now. “I think Ethereum is severely undervalued right now,” Pantoja said. “There’s nowhere it can go lower, so the risk is extraordinarily low, but the potential is high.”

And according to Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin, the network should also be able to scale transaction activity by 10x in the coming year or so, which could result in faster, cheaper transactions that could better compete with rivals like Solana.

NUMBERS TO KNOW

$7.2 billion

The upsized valuation that USDC-issuer Circle is now targeting when it makes its expected debut as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange later this week. (Disclosure: Coinbase has an equity stake in Circle.)

$7 billion

Approximate amount that publicly traded companies recently filed to raise in order to add crypto to their balance sheets. Over the last week, Trump Media, Strive Asset Management, and GameStop announced plans to raise $2.5 billion, $1.5 billion, and $500 million, respectively, to acquire BTC. Meanwhile, other firms publicized intentions to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to add ETH and XRP to their corporate treasuries.

$594 million

Amount of VC funds raised by crypto startups across 61 funding rounds throughout May, per Blockworks Research data. The dollar amount and number of rounds represent a modest decline from recent months, but Blockworks calls the new data “par for the season.”

19%

Increase in market cap in May for the publicly traded BTC mining firms tracked by JPMorgan, according to a new report. The rise in stock value came as gross mining profitability surged around 36% over the prior month.

TOKEN TRIVIA

What is the approximate circulating supply of USDC?

Find the answer below.

Trivia Answer