Ripple Wins SEC Case, Fed Refuses to Lower Interest Rates, BTC Price Holds Steady: Your Weekly Recap

Unlike the previous trading week, which saw fireworks in the face of massive price crashes to multi-month (and year) lows, this one started a lot calmer and went through fewer fluctuations even though it was just as eventful, if not more.

The weekend was expectedly dull as BTC spent it sitting around $84,000 aside from some volatility experienced on Sunday evening after a whale opened a short position and some community members tried to (unsuccessfully) liquidate them. The first actual breakout attempt came on Tuesday when BTC plunged toward $81,000 but managed to defend that level.

It went on the offensive on Wednesday and especially on Thursday. First, the US Federal Reserve said it will not change the key interest rates, which was expected but brought some fluctuations to the crypto market.

The most important news, which was also anticipated by some, came hours later when Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that the lawsuit against the SEC is now over as the regulator had decided to drop its latest appeal.

Bitcoin reacted with an immediate surge that pushed it beyond $87,000 during the Thursday morning Asian trading session, which became a two-week peak. However, the asset failed to maintain its run and dropped to $84,000 almost immediately.

It has remained there as of press time, with a market cap of $1.650 trillion and dominance over the alts at 58.5%. The weekly scale is slightly in the red for BTC, while SOL, ADA, DOGE, and PI have plunged hard. In contrast, BNB and TRX are with notable gains, while TON has risen by 24% after Durov’s passport retrieval.

Market Data

Market Cap: $2.832T | 24H Vol: $80B | BTC Dominance: 58.5%

BTC: $83,850 (-1.11%) | ETH: $1,957 (+1.85%) | XRP: $2.37 (+0.7%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Plunge to $44K or Surge to $112K: Bearish and Bullish Bitcoin Price Predictions. Bitcoin’s price stagnation continues for a few weeks but that just adds more fuel to the fire of analysts expecting a big move ahead. One of them, Ali Martinez, outlined two scenarios – one that sees BTC dumping to $44,000 and another that forecasts a surge beyond $110,000.

They Knew? These Wallets Loaded Up on XRP Before Ripple’s SEC Win. The aforementioned Ripple win against the SEC in their four-year-long legal battle benefited some more than others. It turns out that XRP whales had piled up big time in the past two months, leading to the case’s resolution.

Ripple CEO Pushes for XRP in US Reserves, Keeps IPO Option Alive. After the landmark announcement made on X, Garlinghouse appeared on Bloomberg to provide some details regarding the company’s future. He believes an IPO in the States is not out of the question and asserted that XRP should be added to the US crypto strategic reserve.

How Much Do US Interest Rates Really Matter to Crypto? Although the past few FOMC meetings didn’t bring any changes to the interest rates, previous examples have shown that the central bank’s decisions have profound effects on BTC’s immediate price movements. However, what are the long-term effects? Find out more here.

Has Bitcoin Really Entered a Bear Market? Analyst Weighs In. Big industry names like CryptoQuant’s CEO, Ki Young Ju, asserted earlier this week that the BTC bull run has ended, at least for the foreseeable future. Another analyst outlined his views on whether there’s some merit to this statement and provided metrics supporting his stance.

Binance Maintains Over 100% Reserves for 29 Straight Months. Digital asset reserves became a massive part of crypto exchanges’ transparency policies after the FTX fallout, and Binance seems to be proving that point. According to recent data, the exchange has maintained over 100% reserves for well over two years now.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Toncoin, and Solana – click here for the complete price analysis.