Bitcoin is back in the hot seat this evening, and the numbers tell a clear story: sentiment is sour, fear is high, and yet pockets of the market are still quietly building for the long term.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs have now posted five straight weeks of net outflows, bleeding around $3.8 billion. That’s the longest withdrawal streak in almost a year, and it’s turning ETF flows into a kind of live scoreboard for how nervous investors are feeling about Bitcoin (BTC). With BTC about 49 percent off its peak and no real relief rally in sight, many traditional and crypto-native investors are simply heading for the exits, at least for now.
The pain isn’t confined to Bitcoin. The entire crypto market is sliding, with total market cap sinking toward the low $2 trillion range as traders digest macro stress, Trump’s proposed 15 percent global tariffs, and a packed week of US inflation and Fed updates. It’s a classic risk-off cocktail: geopolitical tension, policy uncertainty, and a broad de-leveraging that’s dragging majors and altcoins lower together.
Ethereum (ETH) is sitting right in the middle of that storm. On-chain sleuths have been tracking a string of ETH sales from none other than Vitalik Buterin, who has unloaded more than 8,800 ETH into a falling market since early February. At the same time, larger holders are heading for the door, pushing ETH below 1,900 dollars, triggering over 115 million dollars in liquidations, and reinforcing a clearly bearish backdrop. Technically, ETH is under pressure. Psychologically, Vitalik selling into weakness is fueling debate over whether these moves are simply personal treasury management or a quiet signal on how he views the current cycle.
Yet even as he sells, Vitalik is still trying to reshape how crypto works. He laid out a new human-intent–driven security framework that aims to merge UX and security rather than force users to choose between them. The idea: use redundancy, AI-based checks, and multi-angle verification so that blockchain systems actually do what users think they’re doing. In a week dominated by red candles, it’s a reminder that core protocol thinkers are still focused on making the space safer and more usable, even if prices are not cooperating.
Not everyone is running from ETH. Tom Lee’s BitMine is leaning in, aggressively buying the dip and expanding its Ethereum stash to 4.42 million ETH, even as both ETH and BitMine’s own stock are under pressure. The share price is flat on the week and down about 30 percent over the month, but the strategy is clear: treat ETH weakness as a long-term accumulation window rather than a reason to panic.
Zooming out to broader positioning, former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes gave a peek under the hood of his own portfolio. He’s gone full “hard asset” mode: commodities and defense stocks, gold and silver miners, uranium and copper producers, and a crypto basket led by Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), plus Zcash and Hyperliquid’s HYPE token. The message is consistent with his public macro views: inflation and geopolitical risk aren’t going away, and he wants assets that either hedge against that or offer leveraged upside if volatility spikes.
Government and institutions, meanwhile, are inching further into the crypto and stablecoin conversation, even as markets wobble. Missouri lawmakers have revived a push to create a state-level Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Fund via HB 2080. If it passes, the state treasurer would be able to hold Bitcoin using public funds and donations as a long-term reserve asset. A similar effort in 2023 stalled, but the idea that a US state might park part of its balance sheet in BTC no longer feels fringe.
On the fiat side of the spectrum, Standard Chartered is thinking big about stablecoins. The bank projects the stablecoin market could grow to around 2 trillion dollars by 2028 and, more importantly, drive 0.8 to 1 trillion dollars in fresh demand for US Treasury bills. That kind of demand could shift how the US funds itself, potentially reducing the need for 30-year bond issuance. Stablecoins started as a crypto-native convenience tool; they’re now being modeled as a serious player in sovereign debt markets.
Stablecoins are also becoming a geopolitical tool. Trump-aligned advisors are exploring a US dollar–backed Gaza stablecoin aimed at reviving a war-ravaged, cash-strapped local economy and enabling digital payments without creating a new Palestinian currency. Supporters pitch it as a way to bootstrap commerce; critics warn it could entrench the economic split between Gaza and the West Bank and deepen financial dependence on outside political actors. Either way, it shows how digital dollars are moving from trading pairs on exchanges to instruments of foreign and economic policy.
Closer to home, Trump’s orbit also took a hit in the markets. World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin (USD1) briefly slipped as much as 0.6 percent below its peg amid heavy trading and online chatter, while its WLFI token (WLFI) dropped about 7 percent. The team claims this was a coordinated attack that ultimately failed as USD1 quickly re-pegged, but the wobble underscores a key lesson: in a risk-off backdrop, even minor depegs can quickly test market confidence.
Regulation and compliance were another major thread running through the day. Crypto.com was widely reported to have received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter, a move that would let it consolidate custody under a federally regulated umbrella. But the OCC’s public releases so far don’t show such an approval, raising questions about timing, process, or just miscommunication. What is clear is that multiple crypto firms are still racing to secure federal charters as a way to win institutional trust and regulatory clarity.
On the enforcement front, Binance is working hard to shift its narrative. The exchange says that a quarter of its staff now works on compliance, and it reports a 96.8 percent drop in sanctions-related transaction exposure since 2024, including a more than 97 percent reduction in exposure to Iranian exchanges. Sanctions-linked flows now account for just 0.009 percent of its total volume, according to the company. That announcement lands on the same day Elliptic released an investigation revealing that at least five other exchanges—Bitpapa, ABCeX, Exmo, Rapira, and Aifory Pro—are still helping sanctioned Russian entities move money abroad, using shared infrastructure and obfuscation tricks. As the largest players tighten up, activity appears to be flowing into smaller, less transparent venues.
Amid the macro gloom, not every network is in retreat. XRP (XRP) has seen daily transactions on the XRP Ledger jump around 40 percent to roughly 2.5 million, a sign of strong on-chain activity and rising usage despite the sell-off. Price-wise, XRP is trading defensively near key support zones between 0.50 and 1.40 dollars, with traders eyeing a potential path back toward 1.50 dollars if conditions improve. For now, elevated valuation metrics, crowded long positions, and weak institutional flows are keeping the setup fragile: a clean break below support could fuel another round of liquidations, but sustained network growth offers bulls at least one solid talking point.
Pulling it all together, the market tonight looks like a clash of two forces. On one side: fear, liquidations, ETF outflows, and policy uncertainty weighing on prices. On the other: long-term accumulation by high-conviction players, states and banks modeling crypto into their balance sheets, and builders still pushing on security, UX, and new use cases.
For now, risk-off is winning the price battle. But the groundwork being laid beneath the surface suggests the real story of this week may only become obvious in the next one.
