XRP, the Ripple payment ecosystem’s native cryptocurrency, was last trading lower by about 1.8% on Friday in the run-up to the release of US jobs data. Analysts have said it could cause volatility in cryptocurrency markets should it impact expectations for how much further the US Federal Reserve will lift interest rates. XRP/USD was last changing hands close to $0.39 per token and almost bang on its 200-Day Moving Average (DMA). Meanwhile, prices have been able to hold comfortably above the 21DMA in the low $0.38s.
XRP Price Prediction – Quick Jump to $0.50 Likely?
XRP price predictions have been getting more bullish in recent weeks as the cryptocurrency has recovered from its post-FTX collapse lows. Ripple’s native token was last trading up nearly 24% versus these lows around the $0.32 mark. In the last few weeks, XRP has been in an uptrend and seems to have formed an ascending triangle. The ceiling of this triangle is, for now, the support-turned-resistance around $0.42.
XRP/USD is up over 23% since its November lows. Source: TradingView
Ascending triangles are typically viewed as a bullish price pattern. XRP/USD bulls will thus be hoping that, in the coming days, XRP can rally back to rest the $0.42 resistance area. A break above here could trigger a quick push above $0.50 and towards the next key area of resistance around $0.51. Whether XRP can surge to the moon depends on more than just technicals.
An ascending triangle breakout could push XRP/USD quickly towards $0.50. Source: TradingView
Ripple may be able to force the SEC to settle its ongoing lawsuit against the firm, by essentially proving that the US regulatory agency had treated the project unfairly compared to other crypto projects like Ethereum. A big legal victory for Ripple could result in a huge cloud of uncertainty being removed for XRP and could lead to a big jump.
XRP Sees $900 Million in Trading Volumes in 24 Hours
XRP’s trading volume across major cryptocurrency exchanges in the last 24 hours stands at around $915 million. That’s impressive but doesn’t mark a deviation from the usual weekly volume profile of the last few weeks.
It is notable, however, that since the FTX-collapse-induced market crash in early November, XRP trading volumes have shifted significantly higher.
XRP trading volumes up post-FTX collapse. Source: TradingView
Coinbase Wallet to Remove Support for XRP
Early this week Coinbase announced that it would be removing support for XRP from its self-custody wallet. The largest US-based exchange cited “low activity” for making the decision and also removed support for the BCH, ETC and XLM tokens. Coinbase Wallet assured its users that remaining balances held in wallets would not be impacted.
The announcement didn’t seem to have much of an impact XRP’s price at the time but will come as a blow to users of Coinbase Wallet who also invest in XRP.
Alternative Altcoins To Consider
Dash 2 Trade (D2T)
Those interested in investing in a promising crypto trading platform start-up should look no further than Dash 2 Trade. The up-and-coming analytics and social trading platform hopes to take the crypto trading space by storm with its host of unique features. These include trading signals, social sentiment and on-chain indicators, a pre-sale token scoring system, a token listing alert system and a strategy back-testing tool.
Dash 2 Trade’s ecosystem will be powered by the D2T token, which users will need to buy and hold in order to access the platform’s features. Dash 2 Trade is currently conducting a token pre-sale at highly discounted rates. D2T token sales recently surpassed $7.6 million and the sale will soon enter its fourth phase, which will see the token pre-sale price lifted to $0.0533 from $0.0513.
RobotEra is an early-stage sandbox-style crypto metaverse project that hopes to usurp the likes of Decentraland and The Sandbox with superior graphics and a more gamified feel. The RobotEra metaverse will feature a variety of different play-to-earn and player-versus-player games.
In just a few days since the start of its pre-sale of the TARO token that will power the in-metaverse economy, RobotEra has already raised close to $300,000. Once RobotEra has raised $1.8 million, the price of the TARO tokens being sold will jump to $0.025 from their current $0.020 level, so interested investors are encouraged to get in quickly.
Amid the growth in popularity in recent years of environmentally and socially friendly investments, investors looking for a green cryptocurrency should consider the IMPT token. IMPT.io has partnered with thousands of the world’s largest retailers to help offset their carbon footprints and allows users to trade carbon credits on the blockchain.
IMPT tokens are currently in their second stage of the presale with IMPT having raised nearly $13.5 million.
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.
