Bitcoin continued to slide last week as stronger-than-expected US economic data dampened the prospects of further Federal Reserve interest rate cuts this year.
US GDP data in particular saw a significant upward revision, expanding at an annual rate of 3.8% versus 3.3%, bolstering the case for the “no rush to ease” camp.
“Altcoins slid further, seeing a 10% decline in their total capitalisation. Smaller, more speculative coins recorded even steeper losses, in some cases as much as 30%, as risk aversion took hold,” said Simon Peters, Crypto Analyst at eToro.
Looking ahead, the focus this week will be on fresh labour market data from the US, including JOLTS job openings, ADP employment change, and the much-anticipated non-farm payrolls and unemployment rate due Friday. With bitcoin having re-tested its recent support of $108,000, stabilisation in the labour market could prompt further downside. Conversely, any softening in jobs data may swing sentiment back toward the bullish case for rate cuts, supporting cryptoasset prices.
Biggest Movers
Bucking the trend of the overall crypto market, $QNT is up 15% in the last week on news that UK Finance, a trade association and the collective voice of the UK banking and finance industry, has launched a pilot project to deliver the first UK live transactions of tokenised bank deposits using the Quant network.
Tokenised deposits are a digital representation of traditional sterling commercial bank money and retain the trust and regulatory protections of conventional deposits, while offering benefits such as enhanced speed and fraud protection.
The pilot will run until mid-2026 and aims to demonstrate benefits to customers, businesses and the wider UK economy.
Discover more here: https://www.etoro.com/discover/markets/cryptocurrencies/market-movers
EYE-CATCHING STORIES
Consortium of European banks to launch euro stablecoin by 2026
A consortium of nine major European banks consisting of ING, UniCredit, DekaBank, CaixaBank, SEB, Danske Bank, KBC, Banca Sella, and Raiffeisen Bank International announced last week plans to launch a new euro stablecoin.
Regulated under the EU’s MiCA Markets in Cryptoassets framework, the new stablecoin is expected to launch in the second half of 2026.
The initiative will provide a real European alternative to the US-dominated stablecoin market, contributing to Europe’s strategic autonomy in payments. Individual banks will be able to provide value added services, such as a stablecoin wallet and custody, a press release from ING went on to say.
The market capitalisation for euro stablecoins is currently $560 million, 0.2% of the US dollar stablecoin market capitalisation, which stands at $290 billion.
Vanguard reportedly planning to offer brokerage customers access to crypto ETFs
Vanguard, the world’s second largest asset manager, is reportedly preparing to allow its brokerage customers access to crypto ETFs, although most likely those provided by third-parties rather than creating and offering its own.
Even so, if confirmed, it would represent a soft-shift away from the asset manager’s long held stance of ‘no crypto products allowed’, and further signs of a maturing industry.
Vanguard has around $10 trillion in assets under management and last year appointed Salim Ramji as its CEO. Ramji was previously BlackRock’s Global Head of iShares and Index Investments and oversaw the launch of the IBIT bitcoin spot ETF.
