Top 10 cryptos in the red, except Ripple’s XRP
Cryptocurrency investors have experienced one market crash in April and another one in June, which leaves some anxious when the overall market is on the red.
The cryptocurrency market has been able to hold its prices quite convincingly since the two crypto crashes of May and June. We’re in mid-July and we’ve seen no significant driving forces neither to the upside nor the downside.
Summer holidays may be playing a role in the range trading. Still, most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies are showing signs of weakness on Monday, with Ripple’s XRP being the exception to the rule: up by 0.40% at the time of writing.
The 7-day change offers more perspective on market sentiment, with Binance Coin (8.32%), Polkadot (0.63%), and Uniswap (3.80%) swimming against the negative current in the wider markets of digital assets. Not even XRP stands a change (-3.78%).
As to the past crypto crashes, we have covered industry experts and their opinions regarding the role of margin trading in the two last episodes of extreme volatility.
Big Short legend, Michael J. Burry, even declared the “mother of all crashes” was coming in a tweet he quickly erased.
Ethereum, -5.44%, may be indicating hesitation from investors as the Ethereum Foundation is about to launch the upgrade ETH2, which will change the model from proof of work to proof of stake.
There is a case to be made regarding the change of Ether’s status in the eyes of the US regulators. The digital asset is informally considered to be a commodity, but the SEC could eventually deem it a security.
Such a move could be driven by the financial watchdog’s need to show clarity and neutrality amid the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit.
Ripple Labs has been putting pressure on the regulator by calling ex-SEC Director William Hinman, who stated that Ethereum and Bitcoin were not securities. Hinman then moved to a law firm close to the Ethereum Foundation right after leaving the SEC, thus prompting accusations of conflict of interest.
The Defendants have most recently requested to schedule the deposition for July 19, 2021, a week from now. This could be revealing of growing impatience among Ripple Labs and its co-founders as the back and forth of motions keeps the firm from going forward with its planned IPO.
The abovementioned impatience could be related to a letter from US Senator Elizabeth Warren to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, which implicitly offers the SEC wider authority over the asset class.
That didn’t sit well with many within the space, including influential names within the XRP community, who see it as an “orchestrated powerplay” by the SEC Chair, Senator Warren, and the SEC to outflank its sister regulator, the CFTC.
Despite the tense legal battle between the blockchain firm and the US regulator, Ripple continues to offer new use cases for its XRP Ledger, with the most recent being the tokenization of assets.
Its plans to go public via initial public offering will remain tied up until the lawsuit is over. When will the lawsuit end? and Why is it taking so long? are very legitimate questions in such fast pacing industry.
