On Feb. 25, Aya Miyaguchi announced her transition from Executive Director to President of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), a decision she made a year ago.

“These past few weeks have illuminated something profound about Ethereum — a truth that becomes clearest in moments of tension when debates arise over the network’s performance or ETH’s market value,” she said.

She added that teams and individuals across the globe have been speaking of Ethereum as if it were their own, but this tension is where the greatest strength lies:

“Ethereum belongs to everyone precisely because it belongs to no one.”

Today, I’m excited to turn the page and share that I will be closing this chapter as Executive Director of the @ethereumfndn soon and stepping into a new role as its President.

Let’s continue building in the garden.

Read my full statement :https://t.co/sn3Rpsatqy https://t.co/4Gz3WdLPLD

— Aya Miyaguchi (@AyaMiyagotchi) February 25, 2025

New EF President

She emphasized Ethereum’s core philosophies, which include decentralized ownership, a “Pace Layering” framework, and credible neutrality. She also reiterated the Foundation’s role: It doesn’t control all domains but works to identify gaps and uphold Ethereum’s core values.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin congratulated Aya, adding that the role of the executive director is to create an environment where others can shine and do their best work:

“So every success of the EF – the steady execution of Ethereum hard forks, client interop workshops, Devcon, Ethereum’s culture and steadfast commitment to its mission and values, and more – is in part a result of Aya’s stewardship.”

Miyaguchi reflected on her seven-year journey with EF, noting how Ethereum has grown from having fewer voices to becoming a diverse ecosystem that grows “like a garden, strengthened by its biodiversity.”

Tensions escalated at the EF in January when there was backlash against Miyaguchi and accusations of inefficiencies during her tenure. Buterin asserted his authority, but some core developers, such as Eric Connor, jumped ship and have since started fuelling more negative sentiment against Ethereum.

ETH Price Hammered

Those tensions have been amplified by the underlying asset’s dire performance in recent months. Despite Bitcoin reaching a record peak in 2025, Ethereum got nowhere near its all-time high and remains 50% down from it, wallowing at the same price levels it was at this time last year.

More recently, ETH tanked to $2,337 in the latest crypto market rout, its lowest price since early November, wiping out all post-US election gains.

The asset is currently hovering just below $2,500 and has lost 25% since the beginning of this year despite the bullish fundamentals such as a potential staked Ether ETF, purchases by the Trump family DeFi platform, and the upcoming Pectra upgrade.

After losing over ten grand within a day, bitcoin’s price movements have calmed in the past several hours, and the asset stands at around $89,000.

Many altcoins have turned green now but are still deep in the red compared to the valuations since this weekend.

BTC Calms at $89K

It was less than a week ago, on Friday when the primary cryptocurrency was preparing for a charge of $100,000 after gaining over five grand since the Tuesday dip. However, no such challenge actually occurred as Bybit was compromised in what became the largest crypto hack ever, with $1.4 billion stolen.

BTC reacted immediately with a drop to $95,000 within hours. After recovering some ground during the weekend to around $96,500, the landscape changed for the worse on Monday and especially on Tuesday.

Within the span of just 24 hours or so, the cryptocurrency went from $96,000 to $86,000, losing ten grand in the process. This became one of its most violent price corrections and pushed its valuation to the lowest levels in over three months – erasing lots of the gains charted after Trump’s presidential victory. You can check some of the potential reasons behind this crash here.

Since then, BTC has been able to rebound slightly and now sits quietly at $89,000. Its market capitalization, which shed over $150 billion in a day, is now at just over $1.760 trillion on CG. Its dominance over the alts has shrunk by almost 1% to 57.9%.

Alts Bounce-Off

The alternative coins suffered even more yesterday, but many have bounced off on a daily scale now. Ethereum, which dumped to $2,300, is up challenging $2,500 after a 4% daily increase. BNB is up to $630, while SOL is above $140.

Even more impressive daily gains come from the likes of XRP, which has added 8.5% and sits north of $2.3, DOGE, ADA, LINK, XLM, AVAX, LTCO, SUI, TON, SHIB, HBAR, HYPE, and many others.

The total crypto market cap, which went down by over $300 billion within a day, is now above $3.050 trillion after recovering $100 billion.

The United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) market has crowned its six-day negative flow streak with the largest-ever single-day outflow of nearly $938 million. This record came as bitcoin (BTC) dumped below $87,000 to its lowest level since mid-November.

Data from Farside Investors shows that almost every single spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. witnessed outflows on Tuesday, February 25. The only fund that was exempted is Ark Invest’s ARKB, which still saw no inflows.

Bitcoin ETFs See Largest Daily Outflow

Fidelity’s FBTC saw the largest outflows, with $344.7 million BTC leaving the fund – this is its largest daily outflow since it was launched over a year ago. BlackRock’s IBIT followed suit with withdrawals totaling $164.4 million, while Bitwise’s BITB recorded the third-highest outflows of $88.3 million.

Notably, BlackRock’s ETF saw its largest daily outflow of $332.6 million on January 2 amid a lack of momentum in bitcoin’s price.

Meanwhile, the fourth-largest outflow for February 25 came from Franklin Templeton’s spot Bitcoin ETF, EZBC, and Grayscale’s GBTC, which accounted for the fifth-biggest outflow at $66.1 million. The Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF, CoinShares Valkyrie’s BRRR, and WisdomTree’s BTCW also saw negative flows totaling $62 million, $25.2 million, and $17.3 million, respectively.

VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF, HODL, recorded the lowest outflow from Tuesday, totaling $10 million.

It is worth mentioning that these spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a similar pattern of outflows on Monday, with only ARKB, BRRR, and EZBC recording no flows at all. In fact, only three ETFs, including IBIT, BITB, and HODL, have recorded inflows in the last six days.

February, The Worst ETF Month So Far

Earlier this week, CryptoPotato reported that February has been a negative month for Bitcoin ETFs, with outflows dominating most days. Between February 6 and 25, the market recorded only two days of net positive inflows. Over $3 billion has exited the funds this month, making February the worst since their launch in early 2025.

The state of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market shows a lack of demand for BTC from institutional investors. In reaction to several macroeconomic changes and broader market conditions, investors have been less bullish on BTC and reluctant to inject their funds into the cryptocurrency and products tied to it.