Here’s what happened in crypto today
Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here are the latest daily trends and events affecting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation. Today’s highlights: crypto funds drew nearly $2.5 billion in inflows last week despite sharp declines in Bitcoin and Ether prices; open interest on derivatives for the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token spiked ahead of a partial token unlock; and market analyst Jordi Visser said artificial intelligence will drive investors toward Bitcoin as a store of value.
Crypto funds see $2.5B inflows despite falling BTC, ETH prices
Cryptocurrency investment products staged a strong rebound last week, attracting nearly $2.5 billion in inflows, according to data from CoinShares. That followed the prior week’s roughly $1.4 billion in outflows and suggests renewed investor appetite for digital-asset funds.
Exchange-traded products (ETPs) accounted for the bulk of the momentum, logging approximately $2.48 billion in inflows. The inflows occurred even as spot market prices for the two largest cryptocurrencies slipped: Bitcoin briefly topped $113,000 earlier in the week before falling back below $108,000, while Ether started above $4,600 and later dipped below $4,300. The divergence highlights a disconnect between capital flowing into structured investment vehicles and short-term price movements in spot markets.
WLFI derivatives see near-$1B open interest ahead of unlock
Open interest in derivative contracts tied to the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token surged to near $950 million in early trading before cooling to about $887 million, representing a roughly 45% increase over 24 hours. Trading volume on WLFI derivatives jumped more than 500% in the past day to roughly $4.5 billion, making it one of the most actively traded crypto derivatives over the period.
The token itself was trading around $0.34 on many exchanges, down from a peak above $0.40 a week earlier. The spike in derivatives activity came ahead of a scheduled partial unlock of around 5% of the token supply, and the rise in open interest signaled elevated market interest and positioning prior to that event. (Open interest is the number of active, outstanding contracts that have not yet been settled.)
AI may speed up innovation and push investors toward Bitcoin
Market analyst and investor Jordi Visser argued that artificial intelligence will dramatically speed up the innovation cycle and increase the rate of change across the economy. On a recent podcast, Visser said that if innovation moves on the scale of weeks rather than years, many slow-moving public companies may struggle to remain profitable or to get off the ground.
He suggested this rapid shift could change investor behavior: "If the innovation cycle is now sped up to weeks, we are in a video game where your company never hits escape velocity, and in that world, how do you invest? You don't invest, you trade." Visser said those dynamics would push investors to seek alternatives such as Bitcoin, which he views as a potential long-term store of value that could outlast conventional investment vehicles and public companies.