This Week in Coins: Bitcoin Is Boring But Bizarre Meme Coin Antics Continue

Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt.

Most cryptocurrencies are down this week, as the price of Bitcoin and other major coins and tokens struggled to gain ground for another depressing week.

Bitcoin is now trading for $61,275, according to CoinGecko—a seven-day drop of more than 3%.

For a market known for its rollercoaster volatility, things are… well, boring. That’s the verdict of analyst and Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards, who said on Twitter Thursday that the lack of movement for the top cryptocurrency is part of the normal cycle.

Bitcoin is in the “Bore you to Death” Phase. This lasts between 1-6 months and is designed to bore you to death. When you are sufficiently bored from sideways chop, common symptoms will include thinking the halving is priced in, the bull market is over and selling to buy stocks…

— Charles Edwards (@caprioleio) May 9, 2024

The biggest digital asset, which exploded in value following the historic approval of U.S. exchange-traded funds (ETF) on stock exchanges, has struggled to gain ground after plunging below its 2021 record high of $69,044 in early April.

The exhaustion of ETF hype fears that the Federal Reserve won’t cut interest rates stunted the coin’s seemingly unstoppable rise.

Things might be picking up, though: for three days this week, money flowed into the Bitcoin-based TradFi products.

It might be a while until Bitcoin touches its all-time high again. A Friday report by CoinShares said that, ultimately, it will come down down to what the U.S. central bank does.

Meme coin mania continued, as developers continued to do weird and wacky things to get their assets noticed, but more established cryptocurrencies that made big gains last week still suffered, the frothy activity ultimately not lifting the needle. Solana-based Bonk, for example, is down nearly 15%, trading for $0.00002342.

Dogwifhat, which also runs on Solana, took a dip of more than 7% over seven days. It’s now priced at $3.12.

Finally, Dogecoin—the Elon Musk favorite and 10th biggest cryptocurrency by market cap—enters the weekend down over 10% at $0.145. But It isn’t all bad news: the original meme coin looks set to reward long-term holders as it approaches a “golden cross.”

Elsewhere, Ethereum, the second biggest cryptocurrency, struggled more than other major cryptocurrencies, dropping by close to 7% over the week. It’s now priced at $2,927.

The asset has been gradually declining since a high-profile lawsuit by software company Consensys alleged that the SEC was deliberately trying to make things difficult for those in the Ethereum sphere.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.