A lot can change in the cryptocurrency market within the span of a week and it indeed did in the past seven days. It was just last Friday when bitcoin was struggling to remain above $60,000 after another leg down, but the landscape is quite different now.

The changes started to happen during the weekend when BTC remained above the aforementioned level and even increased slightly to around $61,000. However, the first big move came on Monday when the cryptocurrency pumped to just over $63,000.

It failed to sustain that rally and retraced hard on Tuesday amid some Coinbase issues and perhaps due to pressure from the upcoming US CPI announcement on Wednesday. Once that came out, though, and the reality met expectations, bitcoin started climbing rapidly.

It jumped by several grand and shot above $66,500 as the inflows to the ETFs accelerated as well. The asset retraced slightly yesterday to just under $65,000 but went back on the offensive today. As a result, BTC returned to over $66,000, marking its best week since the early days of March and making investors greedy again.

Speaking of a weekly scale, some of the most impressive gainers from the larger-cap alts include Solana, which skyrocketed earlier this week, and Chainlink, which tapped a multi-month peak of over $16.

Market Data

Market Cap: $2.533T | 24H Vol: $78B | BTC Dominance: 51.6%

BTC: $66,455 (+5.35%) | ETH: $3,086 (+2.1%) | BNB: $580 (-2.61%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Bitcoin’s Fundamentals Remain Strong Amid Market Volatility: Bitfinex, Despite bitcoin’s retracement from the end of last week, Bitfinex highlighted in a report from Monday that all the network’s fundamentals have remained strong, even though the difficulty had declined slightly.

The Floppening: Ethereum Can’t Stop Losing Ground To Bitcoin. The graph above shows that ETH has failed to produce gains similar to those of BTC. In fact, the second-largest cryptocurrency has declined in value a lot compared to bitcoin in the past several months, making the so-called ‘flippening’ more of a distant dream than a potential reality.

Morgan Stanley Reveals $269 Million Investment in Grayscale’s GBTC. Publicly listed US giants had to disclose their financial activities during the first quarter of the year in separate filings to the US SEC. As such, several big names, such as Morgan Stanley, outlined multi-million dollar investments in different Bitcoin ETFs.

Wisconsin State BTC Investment Could Cause Chain Reaction From Other States. One of the other notable and perhaps surprising names on the BTC bandwagon list was the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB). Its $164 million investment in Bitcoin ETFs raises the question of whether other similar entities will follow suit.

CME Group Plans Spot Bitcoin Trading Amid Rising Wall Street Demand. CME Group, a traditional finance giant that has a rich history with the cryptocurrency industry, is reportedly looking into entering the spot Bitcoin trading market, something that the firm has avoided in the past. This could create lots of competition for established names like Coinbase and Binance.

ShibaSwap 2.0 Goes Live On Shiba Inu’s Layer 2 Blockchain. Shiba Inu’s ecosystem has been among the most active in the past year or so, and this week marked the migration of the native decentralized exchange to Shibarium in the form of ShibaSwap 2.0.

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis recently posted “Bitcoin laser eyes” on X, showing her support for laws supporting the cryptocurrency.

The move follows the passing of legislation H.J.Res. 109 in the Senate, which aims to overturn the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 121.

Senator Lummis Advocates for Bitcoin Legislation

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis, representing Wyoming, is well-known for her advocacy of Bitcoin. She views the asset as a dependable store of value and a safeguard against inflation. Serving on the Senate Banking Committee, she aims to enforce a regulatory framework that fosters crypto innovation while safeguarding consumers.

We are so ₿ack. pic.twitter.com/ckHmXMHFL8

— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) May 16, 2024

The Senate recently passed legislation targeting the dismantling of SAB 121, which imposes stringent restrictions on financial institutions, preventing them from acting as custodians for digital assets like Bitcoin. Under the Congressional Review Act, H.J.Res. 109 aims to eliminate these barriers, allowing regulated financial firms to provide custody services for cryptocurrencies.

Prior to the legislation’s passage, Senator Lummis vocalized her support for overturning SAB 121. She denounced it as a rule disguised as accounting guidance crafted and implemented by SEC staff without majority commission approval.

Recently, Senator Lummis, along with Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, penned a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland expressing concerns over the perceived divergence in the Department of Justice’s interpretation of “money transmission” regulations. They argued that this deviation from FinCEN’s established definition could criminalize fundamental aspects of crypto networks, affecting responsible financial innovation in the U.S.

White House Cites Investor Protection Concerns

Meanwhile, the White House has clearly stated its opposition to the passed legislation. A recent statement indicated that President Biden would veto the bill if it reached his desk. He might argue that overturning SAB 121 would undermine the SEC’s efforts to protect investors in the crypto-asset markets and safeguard the broader financial system.

Critics of SAB 121 believe that the rule is excessively restrictive and limits financial institutions’ ability to meet the growing demand for Bitcoin services. They argue that these institutions, with their established compliance frameworks and security protocols, are well-equipped to manage the risks associated with digital asset custody.

Despite the Senate’s approval, the future of H.J.Res. 109 remains uncertain due to the potential presidential veto. If President Biden follows through on his veto promise, it would stop the resolution’s progress, maintaining the current restrictions on financial institutions’ custody of digital assets. Biden has the option to sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action, in which case the bill would become law without his signature.

Bitcoin’s price tapped a multi-week high yesterday at around $66,600 before it was pushed down by about a grand but has reclaimed the $66,000 level as of now.

Several altcoins have continued their recent rally, with LINK taking the main stage following a massive 18% surge.

BTC Back to $66K

The primary cryptocurrency had a tough end of the previous business week when it was brought down to just inches above $60,000. Instead of going below that coveted round-numbered milestone, though, the asset bounced off during the weekend and especially on Monday.

The bulls initiated an impressive leg-up at the start of the current week that drove bitcoin to just over $63,000. It failed there at first, dropping to $61,200 amid some Coinbase issues, but went back on the offensive on Wednesday after the US announced the CPI numbers for April.

As the spot Bitcoin ETF inflows kept increasing on Wednesday and Thursday, BTC’s price soared to a three-week high of just over $66,500. The asset retraced slightly yesterday evening but has jumped back above $66,000 as of now amid the fourth consecutive day of positive flows into those ETFs.

Its market cap remains slightly above $1.3 trillion, but its dominance over the alts has taken a hit and is down to 51.7%.

LINK Skyrockets

Most alternative coins turned green yesterday in a similar fashion to bitcoin. While some, such as BNB, DOGE, TON, TRX, and SHIB, are slightly in the red now, most others have kept climbing.

Ethereum and Ripple are up by 0.5-1%, which has helped the former maintain $3,000 and the latter $0.5. More gains come from the likes of SOL, ADA, AVAX, DOT, BCH, HBAR, and ICP.

However, Chainlink has stolen the show from the larger-cap alts. LINK has skyrocketed by more than 18% in the past day and now trades above $16.

The total crypto market cap has remained relatively still on a daily scale at just over $2.5 trillion on CG.