This Week in Coins: Steady Week for Bitcoin and Ethereum, Toncoin Balloons 23%

It was another week of fairly stable prices for leading cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin (BTC) grew 3% over the seven days and started Saturday trading at $26,564, while Ethereum (ETH) remains more or less at the same price it was seven days ago at $1,636. 

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Ethereum’s growth may have been hobbled by reports that its supply recently turned inflationary (meaning more Ether is issued than burned) in one of few such periods since the Merge in September 2022. Last week, Ethereum’s supply increased by 4,092 ETH tokens worth around $6.6 million, per Ultrasound.money data.

The leading cryptocurrencies traded sideways all week, even after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday revealed that inflation had risen a fraction above economists’ projections last month due to rising gasoline prices. 

Only three cryptocurrencies posted any notable price movement this week. Two tokens rallied: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) grew 11.5% to $213.79, while Toncoin (TON) blew up 23% to trade at $2.20. 

TON’s explosive price movement this week was catalyzed by news on Wednesday that its parent company—Telegram—has integrated The Open Network blockchain’s Web3 wallet into its messaging app, bringing easy access to TON for the app’s 800 million users. 

The move represents a symbolic win for Telegram. Technically, the company withdrew from involvement in TON in 2020 after litigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Telegram was accused of offering unregistered securities in the form of a token called Gram. It settled with the SEC by paying a fine of $18.5 million and returning unspent funds to investors. 

One cryptocurrency notably depreciated over the week: Stellar (XLM) fell 9.3% to trade at $0.118263 at the time of writing. Its poor performance this week appears to be a correction from last week, when XLM rallied 10% off the back of a tweet that promised “something cool” in ten days.

Was it a major network overhaul? Nope, it was a big-budget commercial with Idris Elba. 

In the news: adoption!

There were more encouraging signs of crypto adoption throughout the global north this week. 

On Monday, Sony subsidiary Sony Network Communications announced it was developing a blockchain network in collaboration with crypto tech firm Startale Labs. The Singapore-based joint venture will be known as Sony Network Communications Labs Pte. Ltd. It remains unclear what Sony may use the platform for. 

American payments giant PayPal launched crypto to USD off-ramps on Tuesday. The move came after PayPal launched a crypto On Ramp integration last month, enabling direct crypto purchases to MetaMask and Ledger users. Undoubtedly, the company’s biggest move in the space this year was the announcement of its own in-house greenback-pegged stablecoin PayPal USD.  

Finally, on Wednesday, Taurus–a Swiss crypto fintech firm—announced an agreement with Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank will also use Taurus’ infrastructure to offer custody and tokenization services for its customers, according to a press release shared with Decrypt.