NEW YORK – In a contrasting turn of events in the cryptocurrency market today, major digital currencies and saw their values decrease, while select decentralized finance (DeFi) assets experienced notable gains. Bitcoin’s price dipped over 2%, trading at $36,049, and Ethereum followed suit with a nearly 3% drop to $2,041.

The DeFi sector, however, painted a different picture. dYdX, a DeFi protocol built on the Ethereum network, saw its native token ETHDYDX soar by 42% over the past week. The platform itself recorded a nearly 7% increase in value within the last 24 hours, trading at $3.34. Maker (MKR), another prominent player in the DeFi space, witnessed its price peak at $1,423 before settling with a modest 1% gain for the day. PancakeSwap (CAKE), known for its automated market-making, also enjoyed an uptick in value of nearly 3%, with its price hitting $2.24.

Last week’s announcement regarding BlackRock (NYSE:) Advisors’ application for an Ethereum ETF initially sparked a bullish trend for Ethereum, leading to a significant surge in both its price and trading volume. Ethereum surpassed the $2,000 milestone following the news, which resulted in a 259% increase in trading volume and a 10% rise in the cryptocurrency’s market cap.

Meanwhile, (SOL), another major cryptocurrency, continued to show resilience despite the cooling enthusiasm for ETFs related to Bitcoin and Ethereum. It traded at just over $56 per coin after adding more than $3 billion to its market cap within a single day last week. Solana’s market cap briefly surpassed that of stablecoin USDC, highlighting the dynamic shifts occurring within the crypto market.

Today’s market movements underscore the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies and the varying factors that can influence investor sentiment and asset prices within this rapidly evolving space.

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