December 23, 2024

Bitcoin price is sideways, silver hits a 7-year high and XRP’s rally pops

While Bitcoin trades sideways, the price of silver rushed to a 7-year high and XRP surprised new investors with a sharp 50% sell-off.

Bitcoin (BTC) price spent the day trading in a tight range between $32,000 and $34,000. At the time of writing, the digital asset is pinned below the descending trendline resistance and each attempt to cross above it is met by selling. 

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView show a price increase of 4.14% for the top cryptocurrency, which currently trades at $33,840.

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

In light of the sideways price action, Ki Young Ju, theCEO of the cryptocurrency analysis firm CryptoQuant, spotted a potential bullish indicator that may indicate a price breakout in the near future for Bitcoin.

According to Ju, more than 15,000 Bitcoin were recently withdrawn from Coinbase Pro with the outflows going “into custody wallets that only have in-going transactions,” indicating the purchases were likely “OTC deals from institutional investors.” Rallies have followed similar outflows in the past, and Ju sees this as a sign BTC will “protect $33,000 in the short-term.”

Financial markets are still dealing with the antics of r/Wallstreetbets, which has expanded into the cryptocurrency sector via r/Satoshistreetbets and helped initiate the recent pumps in the price of Dogecoin (DOGE) and now XRP.

After rallying 147% to trade at $0.76 overnight, XRP price corrected by 47% and currently the altcoin is trying to retake the $0.40 level.

In other news, Kraken cryptocurrency exchange joined Grayscale Investments in its effort to fight back against the proposed FinCEN self-hosted wallet rule and the U.S. government’s STABLE Act.

The exchange pledged $100,000 to Coin Center, a Washington D.C.-based cryptocurrency advocacy group whose focus is to educate regulators about digital assets while also advancing the rights of crypto users.

Silver surges higher after r/Wallstreetbets takes aim at short-sellers

Traditional markets saw increases across most sectors and this helped to recover some of the losses from Jan. 29. The S&P 500, Dow and NASDAQ have all benefited from the positive price action on Feb. 1 and closed the day up 1.61%, 0.76% and 2.5% respectively.

IShares Silver Trust monthly chart. Source: TradingView

As announced over the weekend, members of the r/Wallstreetbets investing group turned their focus to the precious metals market and pushed silver futures above $30, its highest price level since 2013.

The market has since cooled off slightly, and SLV currently trades at $29.07.

Decentralized exchanges take center stage

DeFi related tokens continue to perform well as the battle between Uniswap and Sushiswap heats up and the top two DEXs see increased trading volume, along with sharp appreciation in the pric of their native tokens.

Both tokens rallied to new 2021 highs. The price of UNI is up 17% and trading at $20.44 while SUSHI is up 28% and trading at a price of $12.73

UNI price vs. SUSHI price. Source: TradingView

Binance Coin (BNB) has been the best performing top 10 coin over the past 24-hours, currently up 12.91% and trading at a price of $49.51. Meanwhile, the NEO-based DeFi platform, Flamingo (FLM), is up 38.19% and trading at $0.305, boosted by an ongoing governance vote by token holders.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands around $1 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 62.5%.

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