Welcome to another edition of Crypto NFT Today! The past two weeks have been full of must-know events that will define the future of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFTs.

With cryptocurrencies jumping ahead of Trump’s inauguration, an inflation report for Bitcoin bringing encouragement, and more, there’s lots of essential news you should know about. So, let’s dive in and see what’s happening! 

Cryptocurrencies Jump Ahead of Trump’s Inauguration

Cryptocurrencies surged on Thursday as investors shifted their focus to smaller, higher-risk coins ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

XRP and litecoin were among the top performers, rising 13% and 22%, respectively, according to Coin Metrics. The CoinDesk 20 index, a broad crypto market indicator, gained nearly 5%. Meanwhile, bitcoin increased by less than 1%, hovering near $100,000 after a two-day rally of around 7% earlier this week. Ether dropped nearly 3% on Thursday.

Bitcoin’s Encouraging Inflation Report Releases

Bitcoin continued its rebound on Wednesday, hovering around $100,000 after another positive inflation report boosted investor risk appetite. The price of the leading cryptocurrency was up more than 3%, reaching $99,493.26, marking a 7% gain over the past two days, according to Coin Metrics. It peaked at $100,715.13 during late afternoon trading.

The CoinDesk 20 index, which tracks the broader cryptocurrency market, rose by 7%.Shares of Coinbase climbed 7%, while Bitcoin-related stocks MicroStrategy and Mara Holdings saw gains of 5% and 4%, respectively.

Litecoin May Receive ETF Soon

With U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration a few days away and new leadership set to take over at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), other cryptocurrencies beyond bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) may soon be approved for their own spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Litecoin (LTC) is expected to be the first to receive approval, according to Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart, ETF analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence. “Canary Funds just filed an amended S-1 for their litecoin ETF application. While there are no guarantees, this could signal SEC engagement on the filing,” Seyffart shared on X.

Expert Predicts Dogecoin Surge 

The crypto market often follows a cyclical pattern, with past price movements helping analysts predict future trends. Analyst Martinez applied this strategy in his commentary on Thursday, suggesting that Dogecoin could see another significant rise starting next week.

Martinez pointed out that Dogecoin experienced a major uptrend in the week of January 25, 2021, following a 56% drop from its December high. To provide context, the meme token fell from $0.0143 in December 2021 to a low of $0.0067, before rebounding sharply and closing January with a 700% increase.