### Weekly Recap: Surge in Bitcoin ETFs, Trump's WLFI Underperforms, Ripple's Stablecoin Progress

This week saw significant action across the cryptocurrency landscape with notable events surrounding Bitcoin ETFs, Donald Trump's World Liberty Financial token, and Ripple's latest stablecoin developments.

The surge in Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) was a major highlight, starting the week with an impressive $555.9 million in net inflows on October 14. This single day's inflow was the largest seen in over four months. As the week continued, these ETFs maintained a strong performance, yielding a cumulative flow of $1.6 billion by October 16. The trend of a positive inflow extended through the week, ultimately adding $2.13 billion and surpassing $21 billion in cumulative flows for the first time. These gains were accompanied by a significant rise in Bitcoin's value, which saw a 5.12% increase on October 14 and continued climbing past $68,000 by week's end, marking an 8.7% gain.

Donald Trump made headlines with the launch of the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token on October 15, which was promoted heavily by his family. The token, intended for non-U.S. investors and a select group of 100,000 whitelisted U.S. accredited investors, faced immediate challenges. Scammers quickly impersonated the project, creating a phishing scheme to deceive potential investors. Despite ambitious plans to sell 20 billion tokens for $300 million, WLFI significantly underperformed, selling fewer than 800 million tokens for just $11 million by October 16.

In another political twist, Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, announced her intention to implement pro-crypto policies focused on benefiting black investors. However, Trump maintains a substantial lead on Polymarket, a platform where participants bet on real-world events, including the 2024 presidential election. Bets on the election soared beyond $2 billion, with Trump currently holding 59.7% odds compared to Harris's 40.4%. Additionally, Trump-themed meme coins saw mixed performances, with MAGA Hat (MAGA) dropping over 6%, Super Trump (STRUMP) showing little movement, and Doland Tremp (TREMP) increasing by 35%.

Ripple also made strides with its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin, revealing key exchange partners during the Ripple Swell conference. The partners include Uphold, Bitstamp, Bullish, MoonPay, and Bitso. However, Ripple confirmed that regulatory approval is still needed before the stablecoin can be officially launched. This announcement underscores Ripple's ongoing efforts to expand its influence in the blockchain payments sector.