Earlier today, Solana announced Alpenglow, a major protocol upgrade designed to improve transaction speed and network efficiency. Unveiled by infrastructure firm Anza, a Solana Labs spinout, the new protocol aims to replace Solana’s current consensus mechanisms with a redesigned system. But the crypto community is curious: will it be as successful as the ETH Pectra upgrade? Solana Upgrade: The Road to Alpenglow Solana Alpenglow came into place as Solana’s network matured and the blockchain faced a surge in transaction volumes. This has caused congestion, which could be seen from its network outages on February 6, 2024, and multiple events in 2022. Another key issue was the complexity and latency of Proof of History (PoH) and Tower BFT. With the introduction of thousands of meme coins on Solana, the surge in transactions caused bottlenecks. 1/ Introducing the largest Solana Protocol change ever: Alpenglow, Solana’s new consensus protocol conceived by the Anza… Read More at Coingape.com
After dropping due to Donald Trump’s tariff plans, which caused an intense market sell-off, Bitcoin is making a strong comeback. It’s now approaching $100,000, its highest level since late February. But fears of a recession could slow down this momentum unless the U.S. and China start talking about tariffs soon. Additionally, the mixed on-chain signals might increase volatility for the $100K level.
Bitcoin’s On-chain Metrics Create Mixed Sentiment
How the tariff talks go could play a big role in whether the economy heads into a recession and in where Bitcoin’s price goes next. Many experts are hoping that trade discussions in May will help calm economic worries. Still, Bitcoin might keep rising even if a recession hits. In the past 24 hours, around $34 million in Bitcoin trades were closed out. Buyers ended $8.5 million in positions, while sellers had to close $25.4 million in bets against Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is getting close to retesting the $100K mark as investor confidence grows. In the last two weeks of April, large investors bought around $4 billion worth of Bitcoin. At the same time, spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs saw strong inflows, with over $3.2 billion entering the market last week. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF alone brought in nearly $1.5 billion, its biggest weekly gain this year.
Additionally, Bitcoin’s netflow is currently negative by $39.79 million, meaning more Bitcoin is being moved out of exchanges than into them. This suggests that more investors are choosing to store their Bitcoin in private wallets instead of keeping it on exchanges. It’s a sign that people are holding onto their coins, which can reduce selling pressure and support Bitcoin’s recovery.
However, Bitcoin risks a “notable increase” in selling pressure around $100K. Glassnode warns that if Bitcoin’s price keeps rising, long-term holders might start selling. Their profits are now close to 350%, a level where they’ve typically sold in the past. If Bitcoin crosses $100K, it could trigger a wave of selling from these older investors.
What’s Next for BTC Price?
Buyers are breaking through Fib levels and they continue to hold the price above EMA trend lines. Bears are now defending any further surges above $98K as BTC faced a rejection recently. As of writing, BTC price trades at $97,182, surging over 0.7% in the last 24 hours.
The rising 20-day moving average at $96,892 and a strong RSI suggest Bitcoin still has room to move higher. If it breaks above $99,500, the price could quickly jump to the key $100,000 level. Sellers will likely put up a strong fight there, but if buyers succeed, Bitcoin might climb to around $103,000.
On the flip side, sellers may try to drag the price back to the 20-day moving average, which is an important support level. If Bitcoin bounces there, the uptrend stays strong. But if it drops below, it could fall further toward the 50-day average at $92.8K.
The post Bitcoin Flashes Signs of $100K Retest: Can BTC Price Meet Buying Demand? appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News
After dropping due to Donald Trump’s tariff plans, which caused an intense market sell-off, Bitcoin is making a strong comeback. It’s now approaching $100,000, its highest level since late February. But fears of a recession could slow down this momentum unless the U.S. and China start talking about tariffs soon. Additionally, the mixed on-chain signals …
XRP price has reversed from its recent multi-week high of $2.30 to trade at $2.18 at press time. Despite this slip, Ripple still eyes gains past $3 after the first spot XRP ETF offered by Teucrium amassed over $40M in net assets, barely a month after launching. The ETF’s success comes after Teucrium’s CEO told Bloomberg that XRP has the most utility among other crypto coins.
XRP Price Eyes Further Gains Amid ETF Success
According to the Teucrium website, the 2x Long Daily XRP ETF has amassed more than $40M in net assets. This is a commendable milestone considering that the product launched on April 8 and has been trading for less than three weeks.
Teucrium’s XXRP leveraged product is the first XRP ETF to launch in the US, and the amount of interest it is amassing from investors despite ongoing market anxiety is a bullish sign for the Ripple price and could aid a breakout past the key resistance hurdle of $2.20 to all-time highs.
At the same time, Teucrium’s CEO appeared in an interview with Bloomberg, stating that XRP has the most utility in the crypto industry. He opined that Ripple has amassed utility across payments, tokenization, and most recently, brokerage services after the acquisition of Hidden Road.
Besides institutions, whales are also rapidly accumulating XRP and possibly positioning themselves for further gains. Data from Santiment shows that as XRP price broke out to multi-week highs, the addresses holding between 1M and 100M Ripple purchased 260M tokens.
XRP Whale Balances
The high interest from whales and institutions shows a bullish outlook towards XRP value today and confidence among traders that the altcoin will extend its gains and smash the $3 price level to create a new record high in the coming months.
Ripple Teases Breakout From Channel Pattern
After forming a series of lower lows in the last three months, the XRP price is now teasing a breakout from a descending parallel channel, to form a higher low. This breakout will be confirmed if Ripple can make a decisive close above resistance at the upper trendline.
The first resistance level that XRP price needs to overcome if this breakout happens is $2.75. If it flips this level, the uptrend will continue past $3 towards the next hurdle of $3.29. Clearing this hurdle will unlock the rally to all-time highs.
However, traders should take note of the RSI movements, which currently show that the recent buying pressure that pushed Ripple to $2.30 is weakening. The RSI needs to recover and continue rising for a strong upward momentum. The uptrend will also occur if the MACD line crosses above the zero line.
XRP/USDT: 1-day Chart
This bullish XRP price forecast will be invalidated if the RSI falls back below 50, and the MACD rise turns out to be a fake breakout. An extension of the downtrend will happen if the XRP price falls below support at $2.05.
Considering the high institutional interest towards Teucrium’s XRP ETF and whale accumulation, it is likely that Ripple resumes its recent uptrend. However, traders booking profits after the recent rally might stall the uptrend.
The Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) have written a letter to shareholders as the Donald Trump-affiliated parent firm of Truth Social is considering deepening its ties to crypto. In the letter to investors, the firm revealed its plans to pursue an utility token that can help power its broader ecosystem in today’s financial world. This shift by the Trump Media outfit has generated a massive conversation on X.
Truth Social Token: The Justification
In the shareholder letter, the firm reiterated that the reason for the emergence of Truth Social is to create an alternative platform without censorship. To complement this, the firm told shareholders it has Truth+ operational as a streaming platform for home-safe programs.
To create a system to monetize these various platforms, the firm said it is considering launching an utility token. This, it planned to do within a Truth Digital wallet that can be used to pay for Truth+ subscriptions. Over time, the organization said it will create more utility for the token within the Truth Social ecosystem.
The entire Trump family is now closely linked to the crypto ecosystem. From moves that started with Non-Fungible Token (NFT) launches, the President now have deep ties to the broader decentralized Finance (DeFi) world. While the Truth Social move comes with criticism, it has also garnered support from crypto proponents.
Deepening the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) Mission
The big crypto project backed by the Trump family is World Liberty Financial (WLFI). Beyond the WLFI partnership with Justin Sun and other major proponents in crypto, it is also known for the stablecoin USD1.
Notably, the stablecoin is gaining traction with its market capitalization surpassing the $136 million circulating supply benchmark, per data from CoinMarketCap. Notably, USD1 secured DWF Labs funding worth $25 million as the firm expanded to the US earlier this month.
Beyond the stablecoin engagement, the broader Truth Social and Trump family remain deeply-inclined to emerging technologies.
Implication for DeFi and Crypto Regulation
With 100 days in office, President Donald Trump has kept to his campaign promises to the crypto industry. In the past months, the top US market regulators have dropped lawsuits held against crypto industry proponents.
In a major pivot, the Federal Reserve revised its crypto guidelines recently to allow banks engage with the industry. The Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC) and the OCC have also made this important pivot.
Notably, the Trump family may have critics for engaging with digital currencies. However, the promised regulations have sparked a wait-and-see approach from a few optimistic stakeholders.
