Stablecoins are getting some extra attention after President Donald Trump told a crypto conference Thursday that he’s called on congress to pass “simple, common-sense rules for stablecoins.” Plus, what’s next for Bitcoin in 2025? Betting markets seem to think that the leading cryptocurrency is unlikely to go much higher this year than its January peak of roughly $109,000.
Here are some cryptocurrencies to watch this week.
Legislation moving through the House and Senate have Tether (USDT) and other stablecoins in the spotlight. On Thursday, President Donald Trump seemed to endorse the stablecoin bills in a crypto conference video address, during which he said he’s asked congress to make “simple, common-sense rules for stablecoins and market structure.”
Stablecoins are tokens pegged to another currency or asset, such as the U.S. dollar. Tether is the largest stablecoin today, and Coinbase (COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong has said the popular exchange would probably delist Tether in the U.S. if it didn’t comply with new legislation. (Coinbase — which has ties to a stablecoin called USDC — has already delisted Tether in Europe.) Tether’s compliance may hinge on the state of its reserves, which are not independently audited — though that reportedly may change.
While the name implies stability, stablecoins can and do become unstable when they’re unpegged from their target asset or currency. In February, Consumer Reports and other groups asked lawmakers to vote against the brewing House and Senate bills, saying they “represent a crypto industry wish list, not an adequate regulatory regime that provides necessary oversight, customer protection, and stability.”
After declaring victory in a four-year clash with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ripple’s cryptocurrency (XRP) rose about 10% on Wednesday to $2.55. XRP shed some of those gains later in the week; it was around $2.45 as of Sunday evening. XRP is still down from its peak of about $3.29, which it hit just before Trump’s second inauguration.
Meme coins are famously volatile, and the SEC stated in February that it sees them as “akin to collectibles” that “typically have limited or no use or functionality.” That in mind…
A memecoin called Fartcoin has been on the rise since Thursday; its market cap was north of half a billion dollars as of Sunday night. Still, its recent recovery path isn’t much relative to its peak market cap of around $2.3 billion, which it hit a day before Trump’s second inauguration.
The president sent the TRUMP memecoin up more than 10% on Sunday after calling his family’s token “SO COOL!!!” and “The Greatest of them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” on his social media platform. Similar to Fartcoin, TRUMP remains down significantly from its high just before the inauguration.
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