Ether Leads Majors as Bitcoin Holds $63,900 Handle; Stablecoin Supply Contracts Over $980M

Bitcoin closed Tuesday at $63,945, up 0.3% on the session, while ether outperformed with a 1.5% gain to $1,920.29. Solana held onto its recent momentum despite a flat print, extending its weekly gain to 9.2%. Stablecoin supply contracted by nearly $1 billion across USDC and USDT, pointing to modest de-risking beneath the surface.

Market Overview

Ether led the majors Tuesday, adding 1.5% to close at $1,920.29, while bitcoin ground higher by 0.3% to $63,945. Solana printed a flat session at $74.10 but sits 9.2% higher on the week, the strongest weekly performance among the top four. The tape was quiet in absolute terms — no major asset moved more than 2% intraday — but the underlying stablecoin picture told a more cautious story.

Asset Price Analysis

Bitcoin remained capped in a tight band around the $64,000 handle, closing marginally green but still down 0.6% on a 7-day basis. The 30-day print, however, sits at +13.7%, meaning the near-term chop is playing out well above the July lows. Ether's 1.5% gain was the standout among large caps, though ETH is still 3.7% lower over the trailing week and has lagged the broader complex on a 30-day view (+3.7% versus BTC's +13.7%).

Solana held $74.10 despite the flat session close, with its 7-day (+9.2%) and 30-day (+15.6%) numbers outperforming both bitcoin and ether. XRP finished unchanged at $1.07, up 1.7% on the week and 8.4% on the month. The relative performance suggests capital is favoring the higher-beta names — SOL and XRP — over the two majors, a pattern consistent with prior episodes of range compression in bitcoin.

Key levels heading into Wednesday: bitcoin has held support around $63,000 for several sessions and faces resistance near $65,500. Ether reclaimed $1,900 on Tuesday's move; the next visible resistance sits closer to $1,975.

Stablecoin Flows

Stablecoin supply contracted meaningfully. According to InflowScan data, USDC supply fell by $948.8M in the last 24 hours to $72.5B, while USDT supply declined by $32.8M to $183.9B. The combined drawdown of roughly $981M is the more notable data point of the session — a supply contraction of that scale is historically associated with either redemption activity or off-ramp flows rather than fresh capital being deployed into risk. The divergence between ether's green close and the stablecoin drain suggests today's ETH bid was funded by rotation, not new money.

Prior Settled Flows (Context)

Tuesday's ETF flow data has not yet been published by issuers and will settle overnight. As context, the most recent settled session — Monday, July 27 — showed spot crypto ETFs registering -$27.3M ↓ in net outflows, according to InflowScan data. Fidelity's FETH led redemptions at -$27.8M, with BlackRock's IBIT logging -$8.7M and Fidelity's FBTC at -$2.8M. BlackRock's ETHA was the standout inflow at +$11.2M ↑, with Volatility Shares' SOLT adding +$3.2M ↑. XRP fund coverage was partial (8 of 9 funds reported), with remaining issuers still settling.

The FETH-versus-ETHA split within ether products is the more telling detail — issuer-level rotation rather than a broad exit from the asset class. That backdrop is worth carrying into Wednesday's flow report, particularly given ETH's outperformance on Tuesday's tape.

Outlook

Data points to watch into Wednesday's session:

Whether Tuesday's settled ETF flows, published overnight, show the ETHA-FETH split extending or reversing
Stablecoin supply — a second consecutive session of $500M+ contraction would strengthen the de-risking read
Bitcoin's ability to defend $63,000 on any pullback; a failure there opens the door to a test of $61,500
Whether SOL and XRP continue to outperform the majors, or whether the rotation into higher-beta names begins to fade