Ether takes crypto spotlight as Congress passes historic stablecoin bill

Ether climbed to end the week as the GENIUS Act heads to President Donald Trump's desk to be signed into law, while bitcoin and its proxies took a breather.

The price of ether was last higher by 3.6% at $3,558.68, according to Coin Metrics, trading at highs not seen since January.

On Thursday, ETFs tracking the price of ether saw daily inflows top those of bitcoin ETFs for the first time ever. The funds logged $602 million in net inflows, led by BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA). Bitcoin ETFs on the same day saw inflows of $522 million. A day earlier, the ETH funds saw a single-day record inflow of $726.7 million.

Coinbase at one point rose to an all-time intraday high surpassing its initial pop on its IPO date in 2021, and is still pacing for its fifth positive week in a row. It turned lower with the broader market after Trump reportedly pushed for greater tariffs on the European Union. Robinhood and the ether treasury stock Bitmine Immersion also gave up earlier gains.

Meanwhile, the price of bitcoin slipped 1%. Bitcoin treasury giant Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, fell 4% and Mara Holdings, the mining company and bitcoin proxy, hovered under the flat line.

Ether has advanced 19% this week, bringing its two week gain to about 43.6% — its strongest two-week period since August 2021. Bitcoin is down less than 1% for the week.

"No coin seems to have more [momentum] than Ethereum of late," Wolfe Research's Read Harvey said in a note this week. "We began suggesting it was time to start gaining exposure in May, as ETH began to show some life relative to BTC. Fast forward to today, and we're not just seeing life, but a potential trend reversal."

Now trading near five-month highs relative to bitcoin, the leadership pendulum in crypto may be shifting, he added.

On Thursday, the House passed a bundle of crypto bills, sending one, the stablecoin legislation known as the GENIUS Act, to President Trump's desk. It is expected to be sign into law Friday afternoon and become the first ever piece of major crypto legislation in the U.S.

"This is the biggest deal in crypto so far this year, up there with the change in the SEC – it's the first crypto-focused law in the history of the United States, home to the largest financial market in the world. Just the symbolism alone is worth getting excited about," said Noelle Acheson, economist and author of the Crypto is Macro Now newsletter.

Being law rather than an agency ruling "means that future Administrations will not be able to easily overturn its provisions. Should any try, by then stablecoins will be so deeply embedded in the global financial landscape, it would be futile," she added.

House lawmakers also passed a second, much broader crypto market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, that will now go to the Senate.

On Thursday, BlackRock also filed with the SEC to include staking to its ETHA ether ETF, which also boosted sentiment for crypto's second largest coin.

—With reporting by CNBC's Nick Wells and Adrian van Hauwermeiren