{"id":128472,"date":"2025-05-02T15:15:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T15:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=128472"},"modified":"2025-05-02T15:15:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T15:15:28","slug":"ether-more-like-a-memecoin-says-trading-firm-as-eth-drops-45-ytd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=128472","title":{"rendered":"Ether more \u2018like a memecoin,\u2019 says trading firm as ETH drops 45% YTD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsAs Ether\u2019s price has struggled in the first quarter of 2025, a US-based investment adviser firm, Two Prime, has dropped support for ETH and adopted a Bitcoin-only strategy.
\nAfter lending $1.5 billion in loans both in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) over the past 15 months, Two Prime decided to ditch ETH to focus solely on BTC asset management and lending, the firm announced on May 1.
\n\u201cETH\u2019s statistical trading behavior, value proposition, and community culture have failed beyond a point that is worth engaging,\u201d Two Primes stated.
\nThe firm\u2019s shift to a Bitcoin-only approach comes as ETH has lost 45% of its value year-to-date, with some optimists speculating that\u00a0ETH is potentially close to\u00a0the\u00a0bottom\u00a0and reversing its negative trend soon.
\n\u201cEther no longer trades predictably\u201d
\n\u201cAs an algorithmic trading firm, we value data more than narratives,\u201d Two Primes said, adding that the \u201cdata suggests ETH has fundamentally changed.\u201d
\nIn addition to de-correlating from Bitcoin, Ether has become no longer predictable, Two Primes argued, adding:
\n\u201cIt trades now like a memecoin rather than a predictable asset. Even during the turbulence of Q1 2025, Bitcoin remained within its fundamental behavior, whereas ETH saw several multi-standard deviation moves.\u201d
\nTwo Primes then went on to say that such conditions \u201ccreate a headache\u201d for both algorithmic trading and ETH-back lending as the asset no longer behaves predictably, \u201ceven by the high volatility expectations of digital asset markets.\u201d
\nFounded in 2019 by Alexander Blum and Marc Fleury, Two Prime is an investment advisory firm registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm has been offering trading and lending services for both BTC and ETH for the past six years.
\nCommunity fires back: ETH bottom signal
\nTwo Prime\u2019s critical remarks about Ether were quick to trigger responses from the community, with many seeing the message as another bottom signal for the cryptocurrency.
\n\u201cWhat a retarded essay statement,\u201d one market observer wrote on X, citing the high volatility of the S&P 500, which dropped 4.7% YTD.
\nSource: SEMB\u201cNever even heard of them. Seems irrelevant,\u201d another commentator said, expressing doubt on whether the community should rely on Two Prime\u2019s shifting approach to Ether.
\n\u201cIf this isn\u2019t a bottom signal for ETH idk [I don\u2019t know] what is,\u201d another poster speculated, joining the many expecting ETH price to bounce following a downtrend cycle.
\nWho else ditched ETH in the past months?
\nTwo Primes also mentioned the weak performance of Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), highlighting that BTC ETF buying has outpaced ETH by almost 24 times.\u00a0
\n\u201cThe failure of ETH\u2019s ETF creates a reflexive loop whereby institutions like BlackRock dedicate fewer resources to their promotion and sale. BTC has found the mainstream while ETH has floundered,\u201d the firm stated.
\nRelated: Vitalik Buterin outlines vision as Ethereum ecosystem addresses hit new high
\nDespite Ether ETFs seeing low performance, Ether is still the biggest altcoin for crypto ETFs in terms of assets under management (AUM), far outpacing others like Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP).
\nAccording to the latest update from CoinShares, Ether-based exchange-traded products had $9.2 billion in AUM by the end of last week, while Solana and XRP followed with $1.4 billion and $1 billion, respectively.
\nCrypto ETP flows by asset (in millions of US dollars). Source: CoinSharesFollowing approval from the US SEC in May 2024, spot Ether ETFs saw a slow start in 2024, with performance losing ground compared to the massive spot Bitcoin ETF debut.
\nAmid low investor demand, some issuers like VanEck ceased trading futures Ether ETFs, while WisdomTree withdrew its Ethereum Trust ETF proposal in September 2024. In March 2025, ARK liquidated its futures ETFs for both Ether and Bitcoin.
\nMagazine: Ethereum is destroying the competition in the $16.1T TradFi tokenization raceRead More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsAs Ether\u2019s price has struggled in the first quarter of 2025, a US-based investment adviser firm, Two Prime, has dropped support for ETH and adopted a Bitcoin-only strategy.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128472"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}