Over the past few days, Bitcoin has strongly outperformed altcoins, especially Ethereum and XRP. On Wednesday, when BTC was trading 8% down on the week, both ETH and XRP — the second and third-largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, respectively — were down nearly 15% since the weekly open, crushed under the pressure of BTC volatility.
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Despite the fact that the cryptocurrency market’s capitalization has since recovered, the two aforementioned altcoins are still rather down on the week against Bitcoin. Traders expect this trend to continue.
XRP to Fall Against Bitcoin, Analyst Warns
According to popular cryptocurrency trader Jacob Canfield, XRP’s pair against BTC has just lost the support of the 20-week simple moving average after trying to hold it as support for weeks. He notes that if this level breaks down, he expects for the XRP/BTC to fall “much lower.”
https://twitter.com/JacobCanfield/status/1208085700769386496
It isn’t only the fact that XRP/BTC failed to hold its 20-week moving average that is a harrowing sign for bulls of the cryptocurrency.
Trader Velvet remarked that he expects for Bitcoin’s dominance metric to hit 78% — some 10% higher than current levels — by March, just four-odd months away. He remarked that for this to take place, there is likely to be a “slow bleed” in the prices of XRP and ETH. This comment was made in tandem with his assertion that BTC will hit $20,000 by March 2020, which is a move that will force altcoins relatively lower.
Speaking to Forbes, Joe DiPasquale, CEO of cryptocurrency hedge fund manager BitBull Capital, remarked that the aforementioned altcoin is likely to suffer more, despite XRP already trading at its lowest price in over two years. DiPasquale remarked:
“XRP has been historically very sensitive to adoption-related news pertaining to banking and money services partners, since they represent the biggest clientele for Ripple’s services… Now, with Bitcoin’s price also experiencing downward pressure, we expect the cryptocurrency to slide further due to this news.”
This comment was made in reference to news that MoneyGram, one of Ripple’s most prominent financial institution partners, that it doesn’t actually hold or “HODL” the asset that it uses.
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Ripple Completes Funding Round, Could be Boon
Not all is lost for Ripple, though.
According to a report from Fortune, the company has just completed a massive funding round that values the company at $10 billion, making Ripple one of the largest blockchain companies on the market at the moment. The investment that valued it at $10 billion, $200 million — sourced from global investment firm Tetragon, Japanese pro-XRP finance-centric conglomerate SBI, and Route 66 Ventures.
Apparently, the funds, while not needed to fund operations, will give the company “Balance sheet flexibility” as it looks to hire upwards of 150 new employees in 2020 and introduce new overseas offices to facilitate said employee additions.
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