Crypto News Roundup: XRP Price Falters as Bitcoin Bounces Back

SAN FRANCISCO, California – The cryptocurrency market was a mess this week. Bitcoin prices seesawed while XRP failed to deliver what Ripple promised.

The week was initially devoid of holiday cheer as the price of Bitcoin plummeted past $6,500. But like a proper Christmas miracle, the coin also bounced back within a few hours to rest at $7,400. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $7,200.

BTC remains the dominant token as its numbers jumped above 68%, and some sectors are saying bitcoin’s bounce back shows the token to be bullish. However, analysts are claiming the medium-term trend for BTC is downwards. There are predictions of the coin dropping to at least 25% and will stabilize at $5,300.

Crypto traders are still at a loss as to why the market became so volatile. However, some had posited that it caused when PlusToken organizers started selling their coins. The PlusToken project got considered one of the biggest Ponzi schemes the market has ever seen, with investors losing more than $3 billion worth of virtual currencies.

The PlusToken scammers secured investments in various cryptocurrencies with the promise of massive returns. Chainalysis researchers claimed the project’s founders sold off 25,000 BTC and utilized crypto mixers to hide the transactions. While it resulted as sell-off during that time, a similar round of BTC transfers this week didn’t have much of an impact.

Another event that didn’t generate the effect it was aiming for was Ripple’s funding round announcement. The company recently announced a $200 million funding cycle. The news sent XRP prices up by 4% or $0.19 per coin. But that was as high as Ripple’s token would go, and it eventually closed the day at 3%.

XRP’s performance was very disappointing to investors and traders. They were expecting the third biggest crypto to advance and generate gains for the crypto market. Unfortunately, most tokens barely moved this week.

Ripple’s currency has been declining the whole year, but Chief Executive Brad Garlinghouse remained optimistic. He still expects Ripple to broaden its customer base by 30% to 40% in 2020.

This pre-holiday week also showed that the world’s major cryptocurrency exchanges are determined to comply with regulations. Coinbase has secured a patent that will reportedly allow for BTC to sent through emails. The proposed system will also enable the platform to stop dubious transactions. Another patent is said to block suspicious accounts automatically.

Coinbase says these steps will usher in more stability and transparency to the crypto sector. However, many crypto specialists are telling the industry appears to be positioning itself to merge with the conventional banking arena.