Crypto Today: Ripple outperforms Bitcoin and Ethereum, 20% rally likely in XRP

• Ripple rallied above key psychological resistance at $0.6000 early on Thursday.
• Bitcoin and Ethereum struggled under key support levels. 
• SEC lawsuit ends with Judge slashing down fine from $2 billion to $125 million, marking a victory for. 
• XRP retail investors accumulated over 10 million tokens shed by whales in the price rally on August 7.
• XRP could extend gains by over 20% and hit the November 2023 high of $0.7500. 

Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP update

• Ripple (XRP) rallied past key psychological resistance at $0.60, while Bitcoin and Ethereum struggled at key support levels. XRP could extend gains by nearly 20% in response to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit ruling. 
• The long-drawn legal battle with the SEC came to an end on August 7 when Judge Analisa Torres ruled on the issue of a fine to be imposed on Ripple for violation of securities laws. 

SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit ends, Ripple announces key developments, XRP rallies

The legal battle between Ripple and SEC ended with Judge Analisa Torres’ ruling in the lawsuit. The Judge slammed Ripple for violation of federal securities law and sale of XRP to institutional investors, with a penalty of $125 million imposed on the payment remittance firm. 

The judge upheld the July 2023 ruling where XRP received legal clarity as a “non-security” in secondary market transactions. 

Ripple recently announced a slew of positive developments and news. The payment remittance firm shared details of its stablecoin, announcing that access depends on regulatory approval. Ripple called security researchers to identify potential vulnerabilities in its codebase and participate in the RippleX Bug Bounty Program. 

The firm has previously awarded $1 million in bounties as part of its program. The firm recently committed $10 million to an investment in tokenized US Treasury Bills on the XRP Ledger. 

The positive developments and the final ruling in the lawsuit catalyzed gains in XRP. The native token of the XRPLedger rallied above $0.60, a key psychological level for the asset. 

XRP market capitalization exceeds $34.37 billion, and the asset ranks seventh among cryptocurrencies, per CoinGecko data. 

On-chain data shows whales shed XRP at a profit while retail investors collected the asset in the past two days. Network Realized Profit/Loss (NPL) metric measures the net profit/loss of all tokens traded on a given day. The metric indicates XRP traders shed their holdings at a loss on August 5 and took profits in the days after. 

XRP Network Realized Profit/Loss vs asset price. 

Ripple investors holding between 1,000 and 10,000 tokens and 10,000 and 100,000 tokens accumulated XRP as whales holding 100 million and higher volume of the asset shed their coins, taking profits. The Santiment chart below shows the change in holdings of different tiers of XRP investors. 

XRP supply distribution

Why XRP could rally 20%

Ripple is currently in a multi-month downtrend as seen in the XRP/USDT daily chart below. XRP trades at $0.6164 at the time of writing. The altcoin could extend gains by 22% and hit its November 2023 high of $0.7500, a key level for the altcoin. 

XRP faces resistance at $0.6602, the 50% Fibonacci retracement level of the decline from its July 13 top of $0.9380 and the July 5 low of $0.3823, and then at $0.7000. 

The momentum indicator, Relative Strength Index (RSI), reads 59.14, above the neutral zone.

XRP/USDT daily chart

Ripple could find support at the Fair Value Gap (FVG) between $0.5188 and $0.5785 and then at the $0.4573 level, which has acted as support for several months. 

Market updates

• Franklin Templeton’s OnChain US Government Money Fund is available on Arbitrum per an official announcement on X. 

• Over $450 million in Ponzi scheme Plustoken funds have been moved on August 8. Investors fell victim in the years 2018-19 and lost between $2 and $2.9 billion in assets. On-chain data from Arkham tracks movements of funds. 

• Binance announces that as of July 31, over $73 million in stolen user funds from external parties in 2024 have been secured. 

Industry updates  

• PeckShield data shows that a wallet linked to the $200 million hack of the Nomad Bridge, from nearly two years ago, transferred nearly 15,000 Ether to crypto mixing service Tornado Cash. 

• BingX exchange announces the integration of Apple Pay and Google Pay to enhance fiat trading for users. 
• Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and Alameda Research will pay $12.7 billion to creditors after a New York judge’s officially approval to an order on Wednesday, August 7. 

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