Canadian Crypto Observer

By Aditya Nain on February 19, 2025
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

By Aditya Nain on February 19, 2025
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Plus, Trump wants to make crypto great again, Blackrock iShares launches a bitcoin ETF in Canada, and crypto coins to consider during “alt-season.”

Welcome to the Canadian Crypto Observer. Financial journalist and author Aditya Nain offers perspective on market-moving headlines to help Canadian investors navigate the cryptocurrency market.

Whether we like it or not, the Canadian crypto market depends heavily on what happens in the U.S. Not long ago—under the Biden administration—the U.S. government was ambivalent about bitcoin and crypto. Leading U.S-based crypto companies like Coinbase and Ripple (creator of the XRP cryptocurrency) faced heavy regulatory headwinds, and innovation in the industry was at a standstill.

However, with President Donald Trump taking office again—and having become a crypto advocate—it seems like the U.S. government is announcing new crypto-focused regulation weekly. Could these moves spur bitcoin (BTC) past $100,000 (all figures in U.S. dollars) again in 2025?

Here are the top five moves that Trump has made with regard to the crypto industry:

Ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum platform, has grossly underperformed BTC over the past year, and ETH investors are understandably unhappy. As of Feb. 18, while BTC has risen about 80% over the past year, ETH is down 8%.

It doesn’t help that the Ethereum community has witnessed some online drama, with tussles over leadership changes at the Ethereum Foundation (EF). While Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, wants to maintain control of personnel changes at the foundation, he’s facing pressure from those in the community who are unhappy with the current state of affairs. To be sure, EF does not centrally control ETH or its price. However, because it’s an important part of Ethereum’s community, trouble with EF negatively affects investor sentiment and contributes to negative price performance. And there’s another headache: increased ETH short positions by hedge funds betting against the cryptocurrency. Simply put,........

© MoneySense