XRP, the native cryptocurrency that powers Ripple’s global blockchain-based payments system, has jumped around 4% from the monthly lows it printed on Wednesday under $0.3750. The cryptocurrency was last changing hands just below $0.39 per token on Thursday, up about 1.3% on the day and 1.2% in the last 24 hours. However, near-term price predictions remain fairly neutral.
For now, XRP’s 21 and 200-Day Moving Averages and the 61.8% Fib retracement from the September highs above $0.55 back to the early summer annual lows under $0.29 are all acting as a magnet for the price. According to the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI), which was last around 46.5, XRP’s is fairly priced at the moment, with markets likely evenly positioned. That implies plenty of room for bullish or bearish momentum to come in before any discussion of conditions becoming overbought or oversold begin.
XRP is sticking close to its 21 and 200DMAs, plus a key Fib level. Source: TradingView
Price Prediction – Where Next For XRP?
XRP appears to be at a crossroads. It looks to be around the middle of both short ($0.37-42) and longer-term ($0.31-55) ranges. The $0.42 area is a formidable area of resistance – it has consistently acted as both resistance and support since late July and is where the 100 and 50DMAs reside. It will probably be a struggle to get back above this week, even if Friday’s US inflation data surprises to the downside and lifts macro sentiment.
XRP at a crossroads. Source: TradingView
A steady crawl lower to $0.31 support, which is roughly where the post-FTX collapse lows are, could be on the cards if US equities continue pulling back from highs. But with the US dollar in a clear weakening trend right now, it is difficult to bet on a big further crypto price decline, unless something happens to reverse its weakness (continued global recession fears?).
XRP might well remain stuck within recent ranges until things become clearer as to how the Ripple vs US SEC case is going to shake out next year.
Ripple Wallet Expands Fiat Onramps to UK, France
Cryptocurrency users based in the UK and France will soon be provided with an easy fiat-to-XRP on-ramp via the XRP-focused Xumm wallet. The wallet recently launched a similar on-ramp in the Netherlands.
Xumm teamed up with BTCDirect and BanxaOfficial to offer the product and says it will add more countries to the on/off ramp over time and that more third-party providers will also soon be integrated. Xumm adds that it will also soon integrate with GateHub for its stablecoins.
Altcoins Offering Quicker Returns
Cryptocurrencies have been trading sideways for a few weeks now, leading some traders to start looking at alternatives with more potential in the short term. Listed below are some of the leading presales in the market, allowing investors to get in on the ground floor.
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 $9.055 million. The sale has now entered its fourth and final phase and sales are still going strong, with $400K coming in in the last 24 hours. The pre-sale dashboard is going to be released soon, with the development team currently running ahead of schedule. Tokens are currently selling for $0.0533 each, which observers are calling highly discounted.
Dash 2 Trade was recently listed as the third-best presale token of 2022 by CoinCodex.
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 over $15.6 million. That amounts to $1 million in token sales in just the last 24 hours. Investors only have another three days to purchase tokens at the current discounted price of $0.023. IMPT token exchange listings begin in a few days.
IMPT was recently listed as the best presale token of 2022 by CoinCodex.
Major blockchain-based games like Axie Infinity lost significant traction in 2022. As a result, many investors interested in the crypto gaming space are looking for alternative avenues. Calvaria, an up-and-coming play-to-earn battle card crypto game, could be a good alternative. Calvaria seeks to boost crypto adoption by creating a bridge between the real world and crypto, a fun and accessible crypto game.
Investors should consider Calvaria’s RIA token pre-sale. Calvaria has now raised $2.36 million, with a crypto whale scooping up $97.5K in one purchase on Thursday. The presale is in the final stage, with only 24% of tokens left.
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.
