Proactive Investors - Ripple (XRP) has been at the top of the crypto trending tables for the past week, ever since developer Ripple Labs claimed a (misguided or not) partial victory from the New York courts in its ongoing dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Even though last Thursday’s massive 73% surge to US$0.94 has since chopped back to below US$0.75, that still represents a nearly 60% week-on-week rally.
Without similar tailwinds, benchmark cryptocurrency Bitcoin has cut a bearish path, with the BTC/USDT pair set to post the fifth straight day of losses on the spot market.
The pair closed 0.3% lower yesterday, but more worryingly, has been trading below the critical US$30,000 price point this morning after dipping another 0.6%.
Binance’s order book does show a large tranche of support at the US$29,500 price point, which should help to stem further losses.
Bitcoin get knocked below 30k – Source: currency.com
Of course, when looking at the longer timeframe, bitcoin is a far more sustainable bet over Ripple (XRP), but both with recent headwinds emerging from China, concerns are mounting for the risk-on profile of cryptoassets as a whole.
China’s post-Covid recovery appears to be not happening the way markets had hoped, with yesterday’s gross domestic product data read significantly underperforming against forecasts.
In itself, this is hardly a cause for concern in the crypto markets, but as a globally important economy, China’s economic cooling could stem the wider recovery of global risk assets.
Sustained regulatory threats from the US regulators against most major fiat-to-crypto on-ramps also cannot be ignored.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the US dollar’s 15-month low has not translated into near-term bitcoin upside.
Bitcoin’s sideways trading channel between 30k and 31k has gone on for nearly a month now; historically speaking, a breakout higher or lower is imminent.
The market is watching closely.
Briefly touching on Ethereum (ETH), the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency is also in its fifth straight day of red candlesticks.
The ETH/USDT pair closed 0.6% lower yesterday and dipped a further 0.7% to US$1,897 in this morning’s Asia trading session.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at US$1.2tn, with bitcoin dominance above 50%.