Ether and other crypto related stocks climbed to end the week as the GENIUS Act heads to President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law. 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.

Stocks tied to crypto trading gained as well. Coinbase rose 4%, hitting an all-time intraday high surpassing its initial pop on its IPO date in 2021, and pacing for its fifth positive week in a row. Robinhood also added 4%. Ether treasury stock Bitmine Immersion continued its rally, jumping 12% Friday.

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

Meta Platforms declined to sign the European Union’s artificial intelligence code of practice because it is an overreach that will “stunt” companies, according to global affairs chief Joel Kaplan.

“Europe is heading down the wrong path on AI,” Kaplan wrote in a post Friday on LinkedIn. “This code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for model developers, as well as measures which go far beyond the scope of the AI Act.”

Last week, the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, published a final iteration of its code for general purpose AI models, leaving it up to companies to decide if they want to sign.

The rules, which go into effect next month, create a framework for complying with the AI Act passed by European lawmakers last year. It aims to improve transparency and safety surrounding the technology.

Meta isn’t the first company to stand up against Europe’s new AI rulebook.

ASML Holding and Airbus were among the signatories in a recent letter that called on the EU to delay the code for two years. Last week, OpenAI committed to signing the code of practice.

“We share concerns raised by these businesses that this over-reach will throttle the development and deployment of frontier AI models in Europe, and stunt European companies looking to build businesses on top of them,” Kaplan wrote.

Kaplan replaced former global affairs chief Nick Clegg earlier this year. He previously served as vice president of U.S. policy at Facebook and was a staffer in President George W. Bush’s administration.

WATCH: Executive Edge: Meta is reportedly considering a significant change to its AI strategy

Elon Musk’s health tech company Neuralink labeled itself a “small disadvantaged business” in a federal filing with the U.S. Small Business Administration, shortly before a financing round valued the company at $9 billion.

Neuralink is developing a brain-computer interface (BCI) system, with an initial aim to help people with severe paralysis regain some independence. BCI technology broadly can translate a person’s brain signals into commands that allow them to manipulate external technologies just by thinking.

Neuralink’s filing, dated April 24, would have reached the SBA at a time when Musk was leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. At DOGE, Musk worked to slash the size of federal agencies.

MuskWatch first reported on the details Neuralink’s April filing.

According to the SBA’s website, a designation of SDB means a company is at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more “disadvantaged” persons who must be “socially disadvantaged and economically disadvantaged.” An SDB designation can also help a business “gain preferential access to federal procurement opportunities,” the SBA website says. 

Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, in addition to his other businesses like artificial intelligence startup xAI and tunneling venture The Boring Company. In 2022, Musk led the $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which he later named X before merging it with xAI.

Jared Birchall, a Neuralink executive, was listed as the contact person on the filing from April. Birchall, who also manages Musk’s money as head of his family office, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Neuralink, which incorporated in Nevada, closed a $650 million funding round in early June at a $9 billion valuation. ARK Invest, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital and Thrive Capital were among the investors. Neuralink said the fresh capital would help the company bring its technology to more patients and develop new devices that “deepen the connection between biological and artificial intelligence.”

Under Musk’s leadership at DOGE, the initiative took aim at government agencies that emphasized diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In February, for example, DOGE and Musk boasted of nixing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of funding for the Department of Education that would have gone towards DEI-related training grants.

WATCH: DOGE cuts face congressional test