Bitcoin falls to $32,281 as XRP surges 103%
Bitcoin falls to around $32,000 as XRP surges above $0.40 doubling its price by over 100% in just 4 days
Key takeaways
- Bitcoin falls back to $32,000 after key public endorsements
- XRP surges over 100% in less than 4 days
- Alt market largely down following Bitcoin contraction
Bitcoin drops over 6% correcting from $38,000 spike
Bitcoin is trading at $32,281 at the time of writing, which is a 6.3% decrease in the last 24 hours according to pricing information from CoinBase.com. That drop followed a weekend price spike that closed in on $38,000 after Elon Musk and Ray Dalio both endorsed Bitcoin on the same day.
Despite those endorsements, Bitcoin is being more heavily shorted now than at any other time according to data tweeted out by TheBlockCrypto.com. Hedge fund investments are pointing to a coming bear market for the maiden cryptocurrency with over $1 billion open for shorted Bitcoin futures positions.
https://twitter.com/TheBlock__/status/1355183411309268996
That kind of negative sentiment could be spurring a similar shedding in the market for alts with most other leading cryptocurrencies trading in negative territory. Ether is down 4.7% at $1,318, Cardano is down over 5%.
Bucking that trend are both XRP and Dogecoin and doing so emphatically. Dogecoin is continuing its pump showing a 65% increase over 24 hours following what appears to be little more than rampant speculation.
Moving away from rampant speculation, the clearest case for positive price growth is with XRP. Ripple Labs’ flagship cryptocurrency has increased its value by 20% over 24 hours forming the most recent part of a 100% price increase over the last 4 days.
XRP price rises over 100% in less than 4 day
The image below shows the sudden volatility of Ripple Labs’ XRP. Its price has risen from $0.245 to $0.499 at its peak which was reached over the last 12 hours. That price range is a doubling to just over 103%, quite remarkable considering the change occurred across only four days.
As we can see, market speculation has pushed the price of XRP to heights not seen since the price of XRP began to fall sharply in mid December of 2020. The rough seas XRP entered into resulted in a price drop from $0.60 to as low as $0.176 in early January.
The price crash followed a string of bad news which included legal filings by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and several cryptocurrency exchanges announcing a halt in XRP trade following the SEC’s announcement of federal litigation.
Despite the bad press, XRP is still a top tier cryptocurrency and there is still value in opening long positions on XRP. The reason for this is following Ray Dalio who advises that the cryptocurrencies that will perform the strongest are those that central banks will want to use.
Although Ripple Labs have the lawsuit hanging over them, XRP and its blockchain technology are still the most heavily enmeshed crypto-native company in the world of institutional finance with its partners including the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and a host of global financial institutions.
One strong argument against the filing is that as the Trump administration was being pushed out the door they “sought to undo the determination that XRP was a virtual currency made during the Obama administration,” when Janet Yellen was chair of the Federal Reserve.
What this means is that the Biden administration, with Janet Yellen now serving as Secretary of the Treasury, could be more amicable towards Ripple Labs. In addition to that, even if the case is successful it would mean that all XRP would require registration as a security with the SEC. It’s unclear what ramifications that would have on the price of XRP, if any at all.
One thing is clear, XRP is not going to zero and its use as money will continue at the highest levels of international finance.
