This Week in Coins: Bitcoin Battered But Rebounds As Meme Coin Mania Abides

By Mat Di Salvo

Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt.

It was a rough week for Bitcoin—and the wider crypto market—but as of yesterday, things were looking brighter. 

The price of Bitcoin is now at $63,107. It’s effectively where it was seven days ago, barely down a fraction of a percent, according to CoinGecko data. That's an improvement from when it was trading for below $57,000 per coin earlier in the week. 

Bitcoin’s mid-week plunge was exacerbated by spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) posting their worst day on record on Wednesday. And that was after a bad week last week, too.

Even BlackRock’s hugely successful iShares Bitcoin Trust experienced outflows for the first time since its January launch, putting downward pressure on Bitcoin’s price.

The sell-off came as investors were spooked by news that the Federal Reserve was not in any rush to slash interest rates. On Wednesday, the central bank’s chairman confirmed just that—saying there wouldn’t be another hike even though inflation was proving sticky. The Fed decided to keep its key interest rate steady.

It wasn’t all bad news, though: on Friday, the U.S. government’s Nonfarm Payrolls report showed that the unemployment rate for April was higher than expected, leading to a jump in Bitcoin’s price. 

When unemployment is high, the Federal Reserve is more likely to cut interest rates. Low unemployment typically means people spend more, leading to increased prices—or inflation. Lower inflation could lead to a cut in interest rates, whetting investor appetite for risk assets like crypto.

The jobs figures may have been what lifted BTC back out of its trough. Investors who were betting against the top cryptocurrency saw their short positions liquidated to the tune of $100 million yesterday.

Elsewhere, meme coins continued their run, with Ethereum-based PEPE striking big gains and Solana-based BONK having a good week too. Despite a bumpy seven days, they are up over 20% and 15%.

Other alts, like Ordinals-based ORDI and Toncoin, started a rally on Friday. ORDI is now priced at $41, a 24-hour jump of 10%, and Toncoin at $5 is up 9%.

Perhaps more newsworthy—certainly more shocking—was when a young boy and his mother performed a sordid live spectacle to pump Solana-based meme token LIVEMOM to a $300,000 market cap before disappearing in what looks like a classic rug-pull scam.

Even after the duo ghosted, the coin's market cap surged past $500,000. Never a dull moment in the crypto world. 

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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