XRP is one of the most utility-driven assets in the crypto space. It powers billions in cross-border payments, settles transactions in just 3 to 5 seconds, and is used by major banks and institutions globally. Despite all this, its price remains underwhelming. A recent post by All Things XRP lays out the reasons why and what could change soon.
OTC Deals Keep XRP Demand Hidden
One of the main reasons XRP’s utility doesn’t impact its price is how it’s being used. Most institutional players acquire XRP over-the-counter (OTC), not through public exchanges. So even though banks are transacting with XRP, that volume doesn’t show up in trading data. This disconnect keeps the price relatively flat despite high utility.
Hidden Road is a Trump Card
But things could soon shift. Ripple recently acquired Hidden Road, a prime brokerage that moves over $3 trillion a year. If even a portion of that volume starts running through the public XRP Ledger (XRPL), the demand would become visible to markets, possibly causing the price to spike. This could finally allow XRP’s real-world use to show up in price charts.
Speculation and ETFs Could Build the Bridge
Traders are paying close attention. The ongoing talks around an XRP ETF and Ripple’s expanding network of CBDC and financial partnerships are boosting sentiment. Speculation acts as a bridge between utility and price, and that bridge is currently under construction. Analysts say there’s an 85% chance of an XRP ETF approval this year, which could attract serious institutional money.
From Infrastructure to Price Impact
Unlike Bitcoin, which is seen as digital gold, XRP functions more like a financial rail. According to Teucrium’s CEO, XRP’s real-world use case might even surpass Bitcoin’s. As crypto markets evolve from hype to utility, XRP stands to benefit.
Many people get stuck on the idea of market cap (price × supply), thinking it limits how high XRP can go. But that’s a misunderstanding. For utility tokens like XRP, what matters most is how useful they are. If XRP becomes essential for global payments, price growth is inevitable, regardless of market cap.
Right now, XRP’s price doesn’t reflect its true potential. But with institutional pipelines growing, more public usage on the horizon, and ETF access likely, the gap between price and utility may soon close. Real-world use could finally drive real price movement.
On the flip side, Versan Aljarrah, CEO of Black Swan Capitalist, claims XRP’s true value has already been set behind closed doors by financial giants like JP Morgan and BlackRock, comparing it to a pre-IPO stock. He believes institutions see XRP as key to global finance and may value it far higher than its current market price, sparking debate over whether retail prices truly reflect its real utility.
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Sui price has rallied by 120% from its lowest level in April, and is now forming a bullish flag pattern that points to an eventual surge to its all-time high. The rising stablecoin market cap, which is nearing the $1 billion milestone, will help to supercharge this rally.
Sui Price to Benefit as Stablecoin Market Cap Nears $1 Billion
Sui price rose to $3.80 on Thursday after soaring by 12% in the last 24 hours. This recovery happened in a high-volume environment, with the 24-hour figure jumping by 47% to $2.18 billion.
A potential catalyst that may propel Sui to its all-time high will be its growing stablecoin position. DeFi Llama data shows that the market cap of all stablecoins in the ecosystem has gone parabolic in the past few months and is slowly nearing the $1 billion milestone.
These stablecoins have a market cap of $913 million, higher than the January 1 level of $317 million, a nearly 200% increase. Therefore, if the trend continues, it means that these stablecoins will hit $1 billion either this month or in June.
Sui Stablecoin market cap
A rising market cap of these coins is a bullish sign for a blockchain because it shows how active its network. It also helps to boost the chain revenue since it takes a small cut for all stablecoin transactions in the network. As the chart below shows, Sui’s chain revenue has held steady above $40,000 a day in the past few weeks.
Sui price will also benefit from the growing performance of its decentralized exchange (DEX) volume. Its volume jumped to over $11.65 billion in the last 30 days, making it bigger than other popular chains like Cardano, Avalanche, and Tron.
Sui Coin Price Analysis: Bullish Flag Points to More Gains
The daily chart shows that the Sui Coin price bottomed at $1.7028 in April. It then formed a double-bottom-like pattern at $2 with a neckline at $2.820. It has surged above the neckline and is nearing the crucial resistance at $4.
Most importantly, Sui price has formed a bullish flag pattern consisting of a tall vertical line and a rectangle pattern. Therefore, this pattern points to more gains, with the next point to watch being the all-time high of $5.4, which is about 40% above the current level.
SUI Price Chart
On the flip side, the bullish Sui Coin price forecast will become invalidated if it drops below the lower side of the flag at $3.10. Such a drop will lead to more downside, potentially to the double-bottom neckline at $2.82.
The collapse of the MANTRA (OM) token has left investors reeling, with many facing significant losses. As analysts comb through the causes of the collapse, many questions remain.
BeInCrypto consulted industry experts to identify five critical red flags behind MANTRA’s downfall and reveal strategies investors can adopt to steer clear of similar pitfalls in the future.
MANTRA (OM) Crash: What Investors Missed and How to Avoid Future Losses
On April 13, BeInCrypto broke the news of OM’s 90% crash. The collapse raised several concerns, with investors accusing the team of orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme. Experts believe that there were many early signs of trouble.
In addition, the project adopted an inflationary tokenomic model with an uncapped supply, replacing the previous hard cap. As part of this transition, the total token supply was also increased to 1.7 billion.
However, the move wasn’t without drawbacks. According to Jean Rausis, co-founder of SMARDEX, tokenomics was a point of concern in the OM collapse.
“The project doubled its token supply to 1.77 billion in 2024 and shifted to an inflationary model, which diluted its original holders. Complex vesting favored insiders, while low circulating supply and massive FDV fueled hype and price manipulation,” Jean Rausis told BeInCrypto.
Moreover, the team’s control over the OM supply also raised centralization concerns. Experts believe this was also a factor that could have led to the alleged price manipulation.
“About 90% of OM tokens were held by the team, indicating a high level of centralization that could potentially lead to manipulation. The team also maintained control over governance, which undermined the project’s decentralized nature,” said Phil Fogel, co-founder of Cork.
Phil Fogel acknowledged that a concentrated token supply isn’t always a red flag. However, it’s crucial for investors to know who holds large amounts, their lock-up terms, and whether their involvement aligns with the project’s decentralization goals.
Moreover, Ming Wu, the founder of RabbitX, also argued that analyzing this data is essential to uncover any potential risks that could undermine the project in the long term.
“Tools like bubble maps can help identify potential risks related to token distribution,” Wu advised.
2. OM Price Action
2025 has been marked as the year of significant market volatility. The broader macroeconomic pressures have weighed heavily on the market, with the majority of the coins experiencing steep losses. Yet, OM’s price action was relatively stable until the latest crash.
OM vs. TOTAL Market Performance. Source: TradingView
“The biggest red flag was simply the price action. The whole market was going down, and nobody cared about MANTRA, and yet its token price somehow kept pumping in unnatural patterns – pump, flat, pump, flat again,” Jean Rausis disclosed.
He added that this was a clear sign of a potential issue or problem with the project. Nevertheless, he noted that identifying the differentiating price action would require some technical analysis know-how. Thus, investors lacking the knowledge would have easily missed it.
Despite this, Rausis highlighted that even the untrained eye could find other signs that something was off, ultimately leading to the crash.
Strategies to Protect Yourself
While investors remained optimistic about OM’s resilience amid a market downturn, this ended up costing them millions. Eric He, LBank’s Community Angel Officer, and Risk Control Adviser emphasized the importance of proactive risk management to avoid OM-style collapses.
“First, diversification is key—spreading capital across projects limits single-token exposure. Stop-loss triggers (e.g., 10-20% below buy price) can automate damage control in volatile conditions,” Eric shared with BeInCrypto.
Ming Wu had a similar perspective, emphasizing the importance of avoiding over-allocation to a single token. The executive explained that a diversified investment strategy helps mitigate risk and enhances overall portfolio stability.
“Investors can use perpetual futures as a risk management tool to hedge against potential price declines in their holdings,” Wu remarked.
Meanwhile, Phil Fogel advised focusing on a token’s liquidity. Key factors include the float size, price sensitivity to sell orders, and who can significantly impact the market.
3. Project Fundamentals
Experts also highlighted major discrepancies in MANTRA’s TVL. Eric He pointed out a significant gap between the token’s fully diluted valuation (FDV) and the TVL. OM’s FDV reached $9.5 billion, while its TVL was only $13 million, indicating a potential overvaluation.
“A $9.5 billion valuation against $13 million TVL, screamed instability,” Forest Bai, co-founder of Foresight Ventures, stated.
Notably, several issues were also raised regarding the airdrop. Jean Rausis called the airdrop a “mess.” He cited many issues, including delays, frequent changes to eligibility rules, and the disqualification of half the participants. Meanwhile, suspected bots were not removed.
“The airdrop disproportionately favored insiders while excluding genuine supporters, reflecting a lack of fairness,” Phil Fogel reiterated.
The criticism expanded further as Fogel pointed out the team’s alleged associations with questionable entities and ties to questionable initial coin offerings (ICOs), raising doubts about the project’s credibility. Eric He also suggested that MANTRA was allegedly tied to gambling platforms in the past.
Strategies to Protect Yourself
Forest Bai underscored the importance of verifying the project team’s credentials, reviewing the project roadmap, and monitoring on-chain activity to ensure transparency. He also advised investors to assess community engagement and regulatory compliance to gauge the project’s long-term viability.
Ming Wu also stressed distinguishing between real growth and artificially inflated metrics.
“It’s important to differentiate real growth from activity that’s artificially inflated through incentives or airdrops, unsustainable tactics like ‘selling a dollar for 90 cents’ may generate short-term metrics but don’t reflect actual engagement,” Wu informed BeInCrypto.
Finally, Wu recommended researching the background of the project’s team members to uncover any history of fraudulent activity or involvement in questionable ventures. This would ensure that investors are well-informed before committing to any project.
4. Whale Movements
As BeInCrypto reported earlier, before the crash, a whale wallet reportedly associated with the MANTRA team deposited 3.9 million OM tokens into the OKX exchange. Experts highlighted that this wasn’t an isolated incident.
“Large OM transfers (43.6 million tokens, ~$227 million) to exchanges days prior were a major warning of potential sell-offs,” Forest Bai conveyed to BeInCrypto.
Ming Wu also explained that investors should pay close attention to such large transfers, which often act as warning signals. Moreover, analysts at CryptoQuant also outlined what investors should look out for.
“OM transfers into exchanges amounted to as much as $35 million in just an hour. This represented an alert sign as: Transfers into exchanges are below $8 million in a typical hour (excluding transfers into Binance, which are typically large given the size of the exchange). Transfers into exchanges represented more than a third of the total OM transferred, which indicates a high transfer volume into exchanges,” CryptoQuant informed BeInCrypto.
Strategies to Protect Yourself
CryptoQuant stated that investors need to monitor the flows of any token into exchanges, as it could indicate increasing price volatility in the near future.
Meanwhile, Risk Control Adviser Eric He outlined four strategies to stay up-to-date when it comes to large transfers.
Chain Sleuthing: Tools like Arkham and Nansen allow investors to track large transfers and monitor wallet activity.
Set Alerts: Platforms like Etherscan and Glassnode notify investors of unusual market movements.
Track Exchange Flows: Users need to track large flows into centralized exchanges.
Check Lockups: Dune Analytics helps investors determine if team tokens are being released earlier than expected.
He also recommended focusing on the market structure.
“OM’s crash proved market depth is non-negotiable: Kaiko data showed 1% order book depth collapsed 74% before the fall. Always check liquidity metrics on platforms like Kaiko; if 1% depth is below $500,000, that’s a red flag,” Eric revealed to BeInCrypto.
Additionally, Phil Fogel underlined the importance of monitoring platforms like X (formerly Twitter) for any rumors or discussions about possible dumps. He stressed the need to analyze liquidity to assess whether a token can handle sell pressure without causing a significant price drop.
Interestingly, experts were slightly divided on how CEXs contributed to OM’s crash. Forest Bai claimed that CEX liquidations during low-liquidity hours worsened the crash by triggering cascading sell-offs. Eric He corroborated this sentiment.
“CEX liquidations played a major role in the OM crash, acting as an accelerant. With thin liquidity—1% depth falling from $600,000 to $147,000—forced closures triggered cascading liquidations. Over $74.7 million was wiped in 24 hours,” he mentioned.
“Analyzing the open interest in the OM derivatives market reveals that it was less than 0.1% of OM’s market capitalization. However, what’s particularly interesting is that during the market collapse, open interest in OM derivatives actually increased by 90%,” Wu expressed to BeInCrypto.
According to the executive, this challenges the idea that liquidations or forced closures caused the price drop. Instead, it indicates that traders and investors increased their short positions as the price fell.
Strategies to Protect Yourself
While the involvement of CEXs remains debatable, the experts did address the key point of investor protection.
“Investors can limit leverage to avoid forced liquidations, choose platforms with transparent risk policies, monitor open interest for liquidation risks, and hold tokens in self-custody wallets to reduce CEX exposure,” Forest Bai recommended.
Eric He also advised that investors should mitigate risks by adjusting leverage dynamically based on volatility. If tools like ATR or Bollinger Bands signal turbulence, exposure should be reduced.
The MANTRA (OM) collapse is a powerful reminder of the importance of due diligence and risk management in cryptocurrency investments. Investors can minimize the risk of falling into similar traps by carefully assessing tokenomics, monitoring on-chain data, and diversifying investments.
With expert insights, these strategies will help guide investors toward smarter, more secure decisions in the crypto market.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave his first speech after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to keep interest rates unchanged. Considering the current economic outlook, the Fed Chair noted that its policies are strong for now. Powell noted that the Fed will continue to watch inflation gauges for changes as part of its measures to maintain economic stability and stem inflation.
Jerome Powell Speech: Quantitative Easing Begins
As reported earlier by CoinGape, the Fed maintained interest rates at 4.5%. Powell stated in his speech that the inflation outlook is transitory with the Donald Trump-induced tariff in North America.
Speaking on the inflationary trend, the Fed Chair referenced measures from the Bank of Canada to prevent the bloated surge in the price of goods owing to the tariff war. He said the US measures to tighten or loosen gauges to prevent inflation challenge the FOMC. However, he noted that the United States is not at the level where it will be concerned about the longer-term impact of the trade war.
Ahead of the March FOMC Meeting, the forecast to keep interest rates unchanged was resounding. However, speculations trailed the broader Quantitative Easing (QE) outlook. In line with this, the Federal Reserve Chairman has provided definitive guidance.
“The Committee will slow the pace of decline of its securities holdings by reducing the monthly redemption cap on Treasury securities from $25 billion to $5 billion,” outlining its measures to begin QE.
Jerome Powell said this year that the Fed will adapt based on the market outlook.
Tariff War and Economic Expectation
While the Trump administration has masked the market with tariff concerns, Jerome Powell said in his speech that this trend is partly to blame for the current inflation level.
However, he hinted that the tariff war does not influence all economic activity. He cited the service sector as insulated from this trade war. When asked about his take on Americans who are displeased with the inflation outlook, the Fed Chair said this displeasure is understandable since they are at the price level.
As part of the speech, the Chairman hinted at a possible 2-time interest rate cuts before the end of this year.
Market Reaction to Fed Chair Speech
The market’s volatility recently flipped bullish, drawing on broader economic indices. While keeping interest rates unchanged might help stabilize prices in the short term, lingering uncertainty remains a key headwind in the market.
As of writing, data from CoinMarketCap pegs the price of Bitcoin at $85,516.99, up by 4.30% in 24 hours. Altcoins like Ethereum, XRP, and Solana (SOL) also rallied by 7.61%, 11.85% and 7.11% within the same period.
Beyond the Fed Chair speech, the US SEC’s dismissal of the Ripple lawsuit created a short-term tailwind for the crypto market.
