The XRP price has fallen by 2% in the past day and by 20% in the past week as the fallout from FTX’s apparent insolvency continues to wreak havoc on the cryptocurrency market. The altcoin is also down by 27% in the past month, with the downturn of the past few days all but erasing gains it had posted following positive news coming out of Ripple’s case against the SEC.
In previous weeks, investor sentiment had been positive around this legal battle, with Ripple securing some apparent victories en route to a hoped-for favorable outcome. However, with the SEC winning a similar case against LBRY this week, serious question marks hang over Ripple’s prospects.
XRP Price Prediction – XRP Drops 6%, Can it Fall to $0.10?
At $0.358446, XRP is now 72% down over the past year, and its chart appears to suggest that it has still has some way left to go before it witnesses a recovery. Its relative strength index (purple) has plunged to below 30 in the past day, and could hang around this region for a while yet, given the unfolding FTX crisis.
At the same time, its 30-day moving average (red) has begun pointing down towards its 200-day average (blue). It’s now likely that it will sink below the longer-term oscillator, with the process needing at least a couple of weeks to complete, after which investors could potentially expect a comeback.
However, recent events indicate that XRP, like most other coins, is in for a tough time. As mentioned above, FTX appears to be on the brink of collapse, with Binance pulling out of a proposed acquisition that could have saved the exchange.
As such, expect XRP and most other major coins to fall further once FTX eventually bites the dust. At the same time, XRP’s situation may potentially be made worse by Ripple’s case with the SEC.
While past months have seen positive developments, such as the court granting Ripple’s request to file various amicus briefs (and also upholding its right to use a fair notice defense), the outcome of the SEC’s case against LBRY has unsettled the market. A court has upheld that LBRY was selling unregistered securities, with the cryptocurrency firm’s CEO declaring afterward that this result “threatens the entire U.S. cryptocurrency industry.”
In light of this, there’s now a bigger chance that Ripple could lose its case. In other words, there’s every chance it could fall to $0.10 in the not-too-distant future, although, as with nearly everything in crypto, no particular outcome is certain.
Newer Alternatives
Despite XRP’s ongoing troubles, investors looking for gains in the nearer term may be interested in looking at newer altcoins, particularly those that are currently holding their respective presales.
While it’s difficult to predict the future, these coins each have strong fundamentals, putting them in positions to do well in the coming weeks and months.
Dash 2 Trade (D2T)
Running on Ethereum, Dash 2 Trade is a trading intelligence platform aimed at helping investors stay ahead of the cryptocurrency market and to make more informed decisions. To this end, it provides a wealth of analytic and social trading tools, all of which can be accessed via one of two subscription tiers. It began its token sale three weeks ago and has now raised well over $5.8 million, while it also recently announced its first CEX listing on LBank Exchange.
One of the newest coins in the ecosystem, RobotEra (TARO) has only just begun its presale. Billed as an NFT-based and “Sandbox-like” Metaverse, it will enable its players to participate in the creation of its virtual world, including the building of land, structures, and non-fungible tokens. Interested investors can participate in its token sale by heading over to its website and buying it using either USDT or ETH, with 1 TARO currently going for 0.020 USDT.
The price will increase to $0.025 in the next stage of the presale.
Calvaria (RIA) is a play-to-earn blockchain-based game in which players can earn rewards and battle with NFT-based collectible cards. One of its core distinguishing features is that it lets users play without requiring them to hold any cryptocurrency (although RIA can also be used to buy in-game items and for staking). This will potentially make it more accessible to a greater number of players, many of whom may have been put off blockchain-based gaming up until now by the need to hold crypto.
Its presale has raised more than $1.6 million and has just entered its fourth stage, with 40 RIA purchasable for 1 USDT.
The market is currently in a news-driven environment where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agenda rather than fundamentals.
Bitfinex analysts have warned crypto investors to be cautious as bitcoin’s (BTC) recovery over the weekend is not a sign that its correction is over; the asset could witness more bloodshed in the near term.
In the latest Bitfinex Alpha report, experts deemed the market’s reaction this week critical, especially as supply alleviated over the weekend could return when traditional markets open.
“No Man’s Land”
Since Saturday, bitcoin has risen almost 10% from $57,600 to $63,000, closing last week in the green. The asset has surged above the 125-day range low of $60,200, which it broke through earlier this month after news of the German government’s massive BTC selling hit the market.
Market sentiment began to improve after reports that wallets linked to the German government were almost empty. However, the positive sentiment may not be sustained for long as the BTC the German authorities moved to trading desks and exchanges are yet to be sold.
While the supply from Germany appears to have been factored into bitcoin’s market price, Bitfinex analysts believe the end of selling pressure depends on how the involved trading desks execute their trades in the coming days.
Although the shift in sentiment underscores the market’s capacity to integrate new information and adjust expectations quickly, analysts think the market’s reaction over the first two trading days of the week cannot be overlooked for two reasons.
First, the low support level in the $60,200 range has now become a potential resistance line. Second, trading patterns over the past three months suggest that weekends are usually favorable for markets, especially on Saturdays when supply pressure seems to subside.
“We are now in no man’s land until we get clear resolution above or below this level,” the analysts said.
A News-Driven Environment
Besides the potential resistance level and three-month weekend trading pattern, the market is currently in a news-driven environment, where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agendas rather than fundamentals.
Since selling pressure concerns are not yet completely obsolete due to upcoming Mt Gox creditor distributions, Bitfinex analysts expect such headlines to continue to have some impact on price movements. As such, the analysts urged investors to exercise caution in their trading strategies.
BlackRock’s IBIT led with $117.25 million in inflows on July 15, also being the most traded Bitcoin ETF.
The US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a daily net inflow of $301 million on July 15th. This extended their winning streak to seven consecutive days amidst a broader market recovery.
None of the ETFs recorded outflows for the day.
Bitcoin ETFs Rake in $16.11B in Net Inflows Since Jan
According to the data compiled by SoSoValue, BlackRock’s IBIT, the top spot Bitcoin ETF by net asset value, recorded the largest net inflows of the day at $117.25 million. IBIT was also the most actively traded Bitcoin ETF on Monday, with a volume of $1.24 billion. Ark Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB came in close behind with net inflows of $117.19 million.
Fidelity’s FBTC experienced net inflows of $36.15 million on Monday, while Bitwise’s BITB saw $15.24 million in inflows. VanEck’s HODL, Invesco and Galaxy Digital’s BTCO, and Franklin Templeton’s EZBC funds also recorded net inflows. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s GBTC and other ETFs, such as Valkyrie’s BRRR, WisdomTree’s BTCW, and Hashdex’s DEFI, registered no flows for the day.
A total of $2.26 billion was traded on Monday. The trading volume for these ETFs was less than in March when it exceeded $8 billion on some days. Meanwhile, these funds have collectively attracted $16.11 billion in net inflow since their January launch.
What’s Next For Bitcoin?
Earlier this month, bitcoin’s price decline was mainly due to fears of massive selling pressure from Mt. Gox and the German government’s BTC sales.
But the assassination attempt on pro-crypto former US President and presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump at Saturday’s rally seemed to spark a recovery in the world’s largest digital asset, and experts are bullish on the asset’s price trajectory going forward. Bitcoin surged more than 9% over the past week and was currently trading slightly below $64,000.
Veteran trader Peter Brandt discussed bitcoin’s price outlook, suggesting a potential major rally. He referred to a pattern he terms “Hump->Slump->Bump->Dump->Pump” and highlighted that the July 5 double top attempt was a bear trap, confirmed by the July 13 close. He sees a likely continued upward trend but warned that a close below $56,000 would negate this bullish view.
“Bitcoin $BTC could be unfolding its often-repeated Hump…Slump…Bump…Dump…Pump chart construction. Jul 5 attempt at the double top was a bear trap, confirmed by Jul 13 close. Most likely scenario now is that bears are trapped. Close below $56k negates this interpretation”
PeckShield alert reveals LI.FI’s protocol vulnerability is similar to a March 2022 attack, with the same bug recurring.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) platform LI.FI protocol has suffered an exploit amounting to over $8 million.
Cyvers Alerts reported detecting suspicious transactions within the LI.FI cross-chain transaction aggregator.
LI.FI Issues Warning After $8 Million Exploit
LI.FI confirmed the breach in a statement on July 16 via X: “Please do not interact with any http://LI.FI powered applications for now! We’re investigating a potential exploit.” The team clarified that users who did not set infinite approval are not at risk, emphasizing that only those who manually set infinite approvals seem to be affected.
According to Cyvers Alerts, more than $8 million in user funds have been stolen, with the majority being stablecoins. According to on-chain data, the hacker’s wallet holds 1,715 Ether (ETH) valued at $5.8 million and USDC, USDT, and DAI stablecoins.
Cyvers Alerts advised users to revoke relevant authorizations immediately, noting that the attacker is actively converting USDC and USDT into ETH.
Crypto security firm Decurity provided insights into the exploit, stating that it involves the LI.FI bridge. “The root cause is a possibility of an arbitrary call with user-controlled data via depositToGasZipERC20() in GasZipFacet, which was deployed 5 days ago,” Decurity explained on X.
“In general, the risks behind routers, cross-chain swaps, etc. are about token approvals. Raw native assets like (unwrapped) ETH are safe from these kinds of hacks b/c they don’t have approvals as an option. Most users & wallets also no longer do “infinite approvals” which gives a smart contract total control on removing any amount of their tokens. It’s important to understand which tokens you’re approving to which contracts.
This dashboard looks for all transactions of a user that intersects Lifi. Not all of these transactions indicate risk- but you can see how, broadly, integrations & layers of tech (like how Metamask bridge uses Lifi on BSC) can complicate how users do or don’t put their assets at risk. Revoke Cash is the most well known approval manager app.
But it’s also good security practice to simply rotate your address. New addresses start with 0 approvals, so starting fresh by moving your tokens to a fresh address is another good security practice.” – commented Carlos Mercado, Data Scientist at Flipside Crypto.
Recent Exploit Mirrors March 2022 Attack
Further analysis by PeckShield alert revealed that the vulnerability is similar to a previous attack on LI.FI’s protocol that occurred on March 20, 2022. That incident saw a bad actor exploit LI.FI’s smart contract, specifically the swapping feature, before bridging.
The attacker manipulated the system to call token contracts directly within their contract’s context, making users who had given infinite approval vulnerable. This exploit resulted in the theft of approximately 205 ETH from 29 wallets, affecting tokens such as USDC, MATIC, RPL, GNO, USDT, MVI, AUDIO, AAVE, JRT, and DAI.
“The bug is basically the same. Are we learning anything from the past lesson(s)?” PeckShield Alert said in a July 16 X post.
Following the 2022 incident, LI.FI disabled all swap methods in its smart contract and worked on developing a fix to prevent future vulnerabilities. However, the recurrence of a similar exploit raises concerns about the platform’s security measures and whether adequate steps were taken to address the vulnerabilities identified in the previous breach.
LI.FI is a liquidity aggregation protocol that allows users to trade across various blockchains, venues, and bridges.
