BTC Steady Above $100K, Fed Maintains Interest Rates, ETF Filings Pile Up: Your Weekly Crypto Recap

It was another eventful week in the cryptocurrency space and it all began on Monday morning as a Chinese AI company splashed the waters. DeepSeek arrived at the scene with a bang, indicating that it can do everything ChatGPT does but is faster and cheaper, which put into question the need for highly powerful chips from giants like Nvidia.

Aside from the market-wide crash in stocks, including NVDA’s double-digit dump, the news sent shockwaves across crypto as well. BTC stood around $105,000 ahead of the Monday morning Asian trading session but slumped in hours by several grand to a multi-week low of under $98,000.

The altcoins followed suit, but this otherwise violent correction didn’t last long. By Tuesday morning, the asset had reclaimed the coveted $100,000 mark despite another brief slip below it. The markets calmed for the next few days or so in anticipation of the first FOMC meeting of the year and the first under Trump.

Once that took place and it became known that the US central bank will not change the key interest rates, BTC headed south immediately by $1,500. However, it bounced off on Thursday and spiked to $106,500 where it faced another reaction. After another correction to $104,000 earlier today, bitcoin’s price movements have calmed, and the asset stands at around $105,000 as of press time.

The weekly charts are predominantly in the red, with SOL emerging as the poorest performer within this timeframe. It’s down by 11% after last week’s all-time high amid the TRUMP token mania. DOGE, HBAR, SHIB, and XLM are also deep in the red, while OM has soared by nearly 50% since last Friday.

Market Data

Market Cap: $3.744T | 24H Vol: $120B | BTC Dominance: 55.6%

BTC: $104,830 (-0.85%) | ETH: $3,352 (-1.5% ) | XRP: $3.09 (-3%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Nvidia Stock Crashed 17% as DeepSeek OpenSource AI Revolution Slaps Down US Stocks. The week started with some big AI news from China as DeepSeek emerged as a cheaper and simpler alternative to ChatGPT. This sent shockwaves across Wall Street and crypto, with BTC tumbling below $100,000 briefly and Nvidia’s stock crashing by double digits.

CBOE Restarts US Solana ETF Race With Filings for 4 Asset Managers. The seemingly more favorable regulatory environment in the US toward the crypto industry has propelled many asset managers to submit filings for locally-based digital asset ETFs. Solana is among the leaders, as CBOE filed applications for SOL ETFs from four leading asset managers.

Bitcoin Price Drops by $1K as US Federal Reserve Maintains Interest Rates. BTC’s aforementioned drop from $103,000 to $101,500 after the US Federal Reserve’s move to keep the interest rates as is was short-lived. Nevertheless, the uncertainty about the US economy, inflation state, and future Fed decisions remains with Trump at the helm.

5 Reasons to Be Bullish on Ethereum (ETH) Despite January Drop. ETH is among the most underwhelming performers during this bull cycle, with its price failing to come anywhere near its 2021 all-time high of over $4,800. However, Etherealize founder Vivek Raman outlined five reasons why investors should feel bullish on ETH, but the apparent lack of whale activity suggests otherwise, at least for the short term.

Elon Musk-Led Tesla Reports Massive $600M Bitcoin Gain in Q4, 2024. A new rule in the US reporting book that allows firms to adjust digital asset valuations quarterly based on market prices allowed Elon Musk’s Tesla to report a substantial $600 million paper profit on its BTC investment that was made nearly four years ago.

Litecoin ETF One Step Closer to Approval: Will the SEC Finally Say Yes? Aside from SOL, the other larger-cap altcoins that have seen some movements on the ETF front include LTC and XRP. The former even surged by double digits this week as the US SEC officially recognized Canary Capital’s proposal for a Litecoin ETF and the review process has not begun.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Solana – click here for the complete price analysis.