Bitcoin and Ethereum price update

Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at US$110,637 as markets closed, down 2.4 percent in 24 hours. The day’s range for the cryptocurrency brought a low of US$108,334 and a new all-time high of US$111,814.

Bitcoin performance, May 23, 2025.

Chart via TradingView.

Ethereum (ETH) finished the trading day at US$2,659.55, a 3.5 percent decrease over the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency reached an intraday low of US$2,541.09 and saw a daily high of US$2,720.92.

Altcoin price update

• Solana (SOL) closed at US$179.09, down 0.5 percent over 24 hours. SOL experienced a low of US$176.13 and a high of US$186.92.

• XRP is trading at US$2.43, reflecting a 3.0 percent decrease over 24 hours. The cryptocurrency reached a daily low of US$2.34 and a high of US$2.47.

• Sui (SUI) is priced at US$3.83, showing a decreaseof 5.0 percent over the past 24 hours. It achieved a daily low of US$3.62 and a high of US$3.96.

• Cardano (ADA) is trading at US$0.7973, down 3.2 percent over the past 24 hours. Its lowest price of the day was US$0.7717, and it reached a high of US$0.8341.

Today’s crypto news to know

Bitcoin price blasts past US$111,000

Bitcoin soared to a new all-time high of US$111,980 this week, extending its bull run on the back of rising institutional demand and increasingly vocal political support from Donald Trump.

The rally came as Trump hosted a private dinner at his Virginia golf club for top holders of his $TRUMP memecoin, an event that underscored his pivot to becoming crypto’s most visible political backer.

Analysts pointed to surging interest from entities like Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), which just filed to sell US$2.1 billion in stock to buy more Bitcoin, as a key driver.

The rally is also fueled by expectations of clearer crypto regulation, with the Senate advancing a pro-stablecoin bill that Trump allies have framed as a pro-growth measure.

Major US banks bill unified Stablecoin

Several of the biggest US banks — including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup — are in early discussions to jointly launch a stablecoin, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

The goal: to create a financial instrument that can keep pace with crypto-native payment systems and prevent a further shift away from traditional finance.

Industry insiders say payment infrastructure arms like Zelle’s operator, Early Warning Services, and The Clearing House are also involved in talks. The stablecoin would likely be dollar-pegged and open to broader banking adoption beyond the founding consortium, reflecting a desire to modernize settlement rails and attract fintech interest.

The move comes as the GENIUS Act gains momentum in the US Senate, laying the groundwork for a formal regulatory framework around stablecoins.

Sun praises Trump at dinner, calls memecoins ‘underrated’

Justin Sun, once under legal siege during the Biden administration, was front and center at Donald Trump’s exclusive dinner for TRUMP memecoin whales — using the moment to declare a new era for crypto in the US.

In an interview after the event, Sun pushed back against critics who accused the memecoin gathering of being a crypto-access-for-cash scheme, saying skeptics are missing the big picture.

Sun has been a key figure in Trump’s crypto orbit since late last year, reportedly investing up to US$75 million in Trump-affiliated crypto projects, including World Liberty Financial tokens.

Legal issues still follow Sun — including an ongoing DOJ investigation — but his comments make clear that the crypto industry sees Trump’s administration as a major opening.

Ember Sword becomes latest Web3 game casualty amid market slump

Ethereum-based MMORPG Ember Sword has shut down its development, citing an inability to raise sufficient funding despite a previously strong start and multimillion-dollar NFT land sales.

The studio behind the game posted a farewell note to supporters, saying that even with early access launched and high-profile advisors onboard, current market conditions were too harsh to sustain the project.

The team had switched platforms multiple times — from Polygon to Immutable X and later to Mantle — in search of better scalability, but the moves weren’t enough to keep the dream alive.

Ember Sword joins a growing list of web3 gaming failures this year, including Deadrop and Tatsumeeko, as investor appetite for blockchain games cools significantly. The game’s token, EMBER, has lost over 99 percent of its value from its peak, now trading at a mere US$0.00047.

Bullet briefing — Trump signs nuclear orders, ECB issues gold warning

Trump executive orders boost uranium stocks

The uranium sector got a boost on Friday (May 23) after Trump signed several executive orders geared at overhauling the country’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission and speeding up nuclear reactor deployment.

‘It’s a hot industry. It’s a brilliant industry. You have to do it right,’ Trump told reporters about the nuclear energy sector. The executive orders also focus on power up US uranium mining and enrichment, and will allow nuclear reactors to be built on federal land.

The news sent uranium stocks powering higher, with sector major Cameco (TSX:CCO,NYSE:CCJ) closing the day up 10.04 percent at C$80.55. Denison Mines (TSX:DML,NYSEAMERICAN:DNN) and Uranium Energy (NYSEAMERICAN:UEC) saw even larger gains of 13.49 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

The Sprott Uranium Miners ETF (ARCA:URNM) finished up 12.14 percent.

Gold a threat to financial stability?

A note from the European Central Bank (ECB) turned heads this week with the suggestion that certain dynamics could make the gold market a threat to financial stability. Here’s a key excerpt from the report:

While gold prices are driven by many factors, investors showed high demand for gold as a safe haven asset and, at the beginning of 2025, a notable preference for gold futures contracts to be settled physically. These dynamics hint at investors’ expectations that geopolitical risks and policy uncertainty could remain elevated or even intensify in the foreseeable future. Should extreme events materialise, there could be adverse effects on financial stability arising from gold markets.

The full ECB report is definitely worth a read if you have the time.

China’s April gold imports surge

Gold’s high price hasn’t deterred buyers in China — new customs data from the country shows that April imports clocked in at 127.5 metric tons, an 11 month high.

That’s also a 73 percent increase from the previous month, according to Bloomberg. The news outlet notes that China’s central bank controls the flow of gold in and out of the country, so the strong increase is likely the result of fresh quotas given to some commercial banks.