XRP is under pressure today, with its price falling to around $2.16 as the broader cryptocurrency market faced a sell-off. The total crypto market value slipped by 3.1%, now standing at $3.35 trillion. This sudden dip came after a U.S. court overturned President Trump’s trade tariffs, creating fresh uncertainty for investors.
The Court of International Trade ruled that Trump had overstepped the powers granted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act when placing those import tariffs. While the Trump administration has already filed an appeal, the decision rattled financial markets — and cryptocurrencies felt the impact as well.
What’s Happening with XRP’s Price?
Right now, XRP risks falling by another 16% to around $1.96 if it can’t stay above a key support level at $2.31, which is backed by the 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA). This is making traders nervous because some early warning signs are showing up in the market.
Bearish Signs in the Data
A couple of things are raising red flags for XRP:
Funding rates for XRP have been stuck around 0% since February. This means traders aren’t really bullish or bearish — they’re undecided. And when there’s no clear direction, prices often move sideways or dip.
Open interest (the total value of active XRP futures contracts) has dropped by 9.66%, falling from a 3-month peak of $3.52 billion on May 13th to $3.2 billion now. This shows investors are pulling out their money and cutting risk on XRP.
XRP ETPs saw their biggest weekly outflow of $37.2 million. This broke an incredible 80-week streak of steady inflows. Even worse, the monthly outflows now total $28.6 million, while other cryptocurrencies are still seeing positive inflows.
Bitcoin (BTC) enters the second week of May trading in a fragile but critical zone, with conflicting technical signals and growing macro uncertainty shaping short-term expectations. While the ADX from the Directional Movement Index is rising, bearish pressure still dominates, and momentum remains weak across multiple indicators.
Although the price continues to hold above the $92,900 support level, weakening EMAs and the looming FOMC meeting leave Bitcoin’s $100,000 recovery path uncertain, but not out of reach.
BTC Trend Strength Rises, but Bears Still in Control
Bitcoin’s Directional Movement Index (DMI) is showing a notable shift.
The ADX, which measures the strength of a trend regardless of direction, has climbed sharply to 25.93, up from 15.97 just two days ago—crossing the key 25 threshold that signals a trend is starting to gain traction.
This rising ADX suggests that volatility is returning and a new directional move may be forming, even if the direction itself is still unclear.
Looking at the components of the DMI, +DI (bullish strength) has bounced to 12.2, up slightly from yesterday’s low of 8.67 but still down significantly from 21.31 three days ago.
Meanwhile, -DI (bearish strength) is at 19.17, slightly off its peak of 25.44 but still higher than three days ago. This indicates that although the recent bearish momentum has cooled somewhat, sellers still have the upper hand.
With ADX rising and -DI leading, Bitcoin could remain under pressure unless +DI recovers sharply in the coming days.
Bitcoin Trapped Below the Cloud as Momentum Stalls
The current Ichimoku Cloud chart for Bitcoin reflects a market in consolidation, with a slight bearish undertone. Price action is sitting very close to the blue Kijun-sen (baseline), which typically represents medium-term trend momentum.
Trading beneath this line suggests that BTC lacks the strength to reclaim bullish momentum in the short term. The white candlesticks hovering near the cloud’s lower boundary indicate indecision among traders, with no clear breakout in sight.
The green Kumo (cloud) itself is relatively thin at this stage, hinting at a fragile support zone that could easily be broken if bearish pressure returns.
Looking ahead, the red Senkou Span B—the top of the projected cloud—is acting as dynamic resistance, capping any upward attempts. For a stronger bullish signal, BTC would need to close decisively above both the Kijun-sen and the entire cloud.
Complicating matters further, the Tenkan-sen (conversion line) is flat and overlapping with the Kijun-sen, signaling weak momentum and a lack of direction. Flat Tenkan and Kijun lines often precede sideways movement or delayed trend development.
Until Bitcoin breaks convincingly above the cloud with rising volume, the current setup leans neutral to bearish, with price trapped in a zone of low conviction and limited momentum.
Bitcoin Holds Key Support as $100,000 Reclaim Hangs in the Balance
Bitcoin price has remained resilient above the $90,000 level since April 22, repeatedly holding support near $92,945 despite broader market uncertainty. The exponential moving averages (EMAs) still reflect a bullish structure, with short-term averages positioned above long-term ones.
However, there are early signs of weakening momentum, as the short-term EMAs have begun to slope downward—an indication that buyers may be losing strength soon.
If BTC fails to hold its key support, a drop toward $88,839 could follow, breaking the structure that has held for over two weeks.
Still, some analysts remain confident. Nick Purin, founder of The Coin Bureau, believes Bitcoin is well-positioned to reclaim the $100,000 mark, even as markets brace for volatility surrounding the upcoming FOMC meeting:
“It will be a volatile week. Firstly, we have the FOMC meeting tomorrow. While it’s pretty clear there will be no rate cuts, it’s what Chair Powell says that could move the markets. On top of that, trading volume is low and the long/short ratio is sitting at 50/50, which means that, yet again, BTC can swing in either direction from here. The good news is that there’s a great deal of buying interest around the $90,000-$93,000 range, so a dip to those levels is nothing to be concerned about – it will likely bounce back. And overall, the BTC/USD chart is looking strong as it continues to print higher lows.” – Purin told BeInCrypto.
Nick states how Fed next decisions could influence the market in the next months:
“If the Fed surprises with some dovish tones as well as guidance for rate cuts in June, there’s room for Bitcoin to rally all the way back up to that $100,000 level, which remains a liquidity magnet. But even if Powell strikes a hawkish tone, the impact on BTC will likely be minimal. There’s simply too much positive momentum – spot BTC ETFs are hoovering up assets, corporates are building up BTC treasuries and the correlation between Bitcoin and stocks is breaking down. On top of this, historic data shows that BTC has posted gains during nine out of the last 12 Mays. So, despite the likelihood of heightened volatility, the near future is looking promising. As such, following the old adage of ‘sell in May’ would be madness at this point.” – Purin told BeInCrypto.
A recovery in momentum could first drive BTC to retest resistance at $95,657, with a breakout potentially leading to $98,002 and eventually a challenge of the psychological $100,000 level.
With macro headwinds and technical crossroads converging this week, the next move will likely hinge on how BTC responds to its support zone and how broader market sentiment reacts to Fed commentary.
OKX CEO Star Announcement:- The adoption of crypto payment for real-world utility has seen accelerated development. Global crypto users have surpassed 560 million including individuals holding or transacting in crypto.
Of these holders, 39 % have reported using crypto to purchase goods or services at least once in a year. Currently, over 18 000 merchants or businesses worldwide are accepting crypto payments.
In another strategic move towards this, the leading exchange OKX has hinted at a new business move. OKX Founder, Star Xu, has revealed in a X post that the exchange will launch OKX Pay Wallet next week.
He touted the Pay Wallet as “the road to billion-user crypto adoption.”
The separate Pay Wallet launch comes a month after OKX launched a standalone OKX Wallet app. The past month launch decoupled the OKX Wallet’s DeFi and self-custody features from the primary OKX CEX platforms.
And now this further splitting off payments into a standalone Pay Wallet signals company’s efforts to scale and enter crypto payments business segment.
How will OKX Pay Wallet look like
OKX CEO Star did not reveal explicit details about the product in his X post. However, he did share two screenshots from the OKX Pay Wallet interface.
We will launch OKX Pay Wallet next week. It’s a road to billion users crypto adoption! Looking forward to try it! @okx@walletpic.twitter.com/zRpa1XzHqC
Accordingly, certain features of the OKX Pay Wallet as indicated by OOX CEO Star would include:
1. The new payment product will be integrated into the OKX exchange application. This implies there will be no separate or standalone launch.
2. It will enable users to make P2P transfers, QR/NDC merchant checkouts. The wallet will be purely payment centric with instant fiat on-/off ramps.
3. The OKX Pay Wallet is shown as using only stablecoin – USDT/USDC – as the intermediary payment currency. Thus, the OKX Pay wallet will allow for stablecoin-supported crypto payments.
Adoption of stablecoin for crypto payment makes sense. Stable currency such as USDC and USDT run on X layer developed by OKX.
Thus, OKX Founder Star was quite evident as he declared making “X Layer as the global Payment Chain.”
Further, the Wallet includes simple UX such as Crypto gifts or red envelopes, Chat menus. The Chat feature would allow for social communication between the senders and receivers.
Launch Next Week! What to Expect
OKX CEO Star announcement hints at certain near-term strategic moves by the exchange next week.
OKX CMO Haider has also hinted at more new product launches by the brand. He said, “More to come in the next few days and over next week.”
We have rolling out new products – primary focus is bringing more onchain utility and building products outside of speculative trading. More to come in the next few days and over next week
The launch with integration of features like Chat menus and payment-centric signals the crypto exchange’s strategic entry into payment business. OKX seems to be developing a web3 version of web2 ‘to-C payment applications’ such as Paytm, Wechat, GooglePay.
Aligning with OKX Founder Star’s vision, it will make it easy for users to make crypto payments in USDT for personal usecases. This can onboard millions of users.
However, as Crypto payment adoption gains, OKX new product would need to carve out a niche for itself. The giants like Binance, Coinbase are already in the crypto payment business.
No existing app such as Binance Pay, Coinbase Pay, unites these many features into a single application. If successful, it can be a huge boost to the crypto payments adoption.
Further on April 16, cryptocurrency exchange OKX re-entered the US with new crypto exchange and wallet.
The recently released FOMC minutes showed that Jerome Powell and the US Federal Reserve are likely to maintain a cautious approach as long as Donald Trump’s tariffs remain in place. Chicago’s Austan Goolsbee has weighed in on this and suggested that the market could witness Fed rate cuts if these tariffs somehow go away. Fed Rate Cuts On The Table If Trump Tariffs End According to a Reuters report, the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President stated that he believes the market would witness some Fed rate cuts if the big tariffs could end through trade deals or otherwise. Goolsbee made this statement given the current strength of the US economy and the fact that inflation is trending downward. This comes just following the release of the May FOMC meeting minutes, which showed that Jerome Powell and the committee are currently taking a cautious approach due to the Trump tariffs. The… Read More at Coingape.com