XRP Ledger lacks smart-contract functionality, altcoin dips 3% on the day
|- Ripple CTO David Schwartz responds to a user query on X and says the XRP Ledger does not have smart-contract functionality yet.
- Ripple plans to roll out smart contracts on its Ledger mainnet by 2025, per a press release.
- XRP erases 3% value on Wednesday, trades at $0.5260 at the time of writing.
Ripple (XRP) has plans to introduce smart contract functionality to its native blockchain, the XRP Ledger. However, as of September 11 the firm has not announced a date for its launch on the mainnet.
XRP trades at $0.5260, down 3% on Wednesday.
Daily digest market movers: Ripple does not have smart contracts on XRP Ledger
- Ripple Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz responded to a query from a crypto trader on X. When asked which smart contracts are rolled out on the XRP Ledger mainnet, Schwartz said none yet. The CTO said that “today XRP Ledger is a fixed-function ledger.”
There are none today. Today, XRPL is a fixed-function ledger.
— David "JoelKatz" Schwartz (@JoelKatz) September 9, 2024
There are none today. Today, XRPL is a fixed-function ledger.
— David "JoelKatz" Schwartz (@JoelKatz) September 9, 2024
- The payment remittance firm has previously shared plans to introduce smart contract functionality on the mainnet through utility functions like hooks. A press release by Ripple notes that 2025 is the likely timeline for the functionality’s launch.
- This would mark a key milestone as it would boost the Ledger’s functionality and likely drive demand for native token XRP.
Technical analysis: XRP could extend loss by 5%
Ripple is in a downward trend that started following the July 12, 2023 top of $0.9380. The altcoin is in a state of decline and dipped to a low of $0.3832 on July 5, 2024. The altcoin’s price has since recovered somewhat, and XRP trades at $0.5293 at the time of writing.
XRP could suffer a decline of 5% and sweep liquidity at $0.5026, the September 6 low for the altcoin. This marks a key support level for the altcoin that has been respected for over 30 days since August 8.
The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator shows red histogram bars under the neutral line. XRP price trend has underlying negative momentum, supporting the bearish thesis.
XRP/USDT daily chart
A daily candlestick close above the upper boundary of the Fair Value Gap (FVG) at $0.5785 could invalidate the bearish thesis. XRP could proceed to the psychologically important $0.6000 level once the FVG is filled.
Cryptocurrency prices FAQs
Token launches like Arbitrum’s ARB airdrop and Optimism OP influence demand and adoption among market participants. Listings on crypto exchanges deepen the liquidity for an asset and add new participants to an asset’s network. This is typically bullish for a digital asset.
A hack is an event in which an attacker captures a large volume of the asset from a DeFi bridge or hot wallet of an exchange or any other crypto platform via exploits, bugs or other methods. The exploiter then transfers these tokens out of the exchange platforms to ultimately sell or swap the assets for other cryptocurrencies or stablecoins. Such events often involve an en masse panic triggering a sell-off in the affected assets.
Macroeconomic events like the US Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates influence risk assets like Bitcoin, mainly through the direct impact they have on the US Dollar. An increase in interest rate typically negatively influences Bitcoin and altcoin prices, and vice versa. If the US Dollar index declines, risk assets and associated leverage for trading gets cheaper, in turn driving crypto prices higher.
Halvings are typically considered bullish events as they slash the block reward in half for miners, constricting the supply of the asset. At consistent demand if the supply reduces, the asset’s price climbs. This has been observed in Bitcoin and Litecoin.
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