Exchanges Step Away from XRP as ETH Stages a Comeback!

Published in

The Capital

4 min readDec 31, 2020

Barely a week after the US SEC charged Ripple Labs for $1.3 billion worth of unregistered securities sales, top exchanges that want to be taken seriously are distancing themselves from the cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, Ethereum is staging a comeback that’s probably not getting the attention it deserves.

Let’s dig in.

Coinbase and Bittrex Step Away From XRP

There are some folks who are still in denial about the seriousness of the SEC-XRP filing.

On Tuesday, Coinbase announced that it will halt XRP trading in mid-January following an SEC filing against Ripple Labs over how it sells the token. The crypto fell as much as 31% on the day and has lost over three-quarters of its value in six weeks.

Today, Bittrex announced that it will also remove XRP, the fourth-largest currency, from its books on January 15th at 4:00 PM PST.

At the time of writing, XRP is trading just above $0.2 and is down 15% in the last 24 hours.

Bittrex is now the eleventh exchange to delist or suspend XRP trading, with Coinbase, OKCoin, Beaxy, Galaxy Digital, B2C2, Bitstamp, Jump Trading, Bitwise, CrossTower, and OSL making similar announcements.

Binance and Kraken have yet to set an official statement but it’s likely that they won’t remain silent for long.

The lawsuit alleges that Ripple raised $1.3 billion in XRP through unregistered securities since 2013 and continues to do so. Ripple continues to officially deny these allegations even though Brad Garlinghouse has admitted to dumping XRP on the market to keep Ripple Labs profitable.

The latest statement from Ripple Labs said in its latest statement: “ The SEC has introduced more uncertainty into the market, actively harming the community they’re supposed to protect. It’s no surprise that some market participants are reacting conservatively as a result.”

Clearly, Ripple Labs believe themselves to be victims holding the line against regulators who wish to harm people. But when you look at this chart, it’s really a mystery to figure out who the real victims are — those who made $1.3 billion and change since 2013 or those who believed empty narratives for the last five years?

As the XRP army grapples with Ripple’s seemingly bleak future, the crypto industry is eying this situation closely.

What if after all this, Ripple Labs gets a slap on the wrist, pays a fine, and goes on as normal? What sort of precedent would that set for projects that have no intention of building anything of value in crypto?

Whichever way this turns out, one thing is crystal clear. As the industry matures, the terms ‘altcoins’ and ‘alt season’ will have less and less relevance as market forces separate the wheat from the chaff.

The truth often lies somewhere in the middle, and while it’s tempting and too-often true to view altcoins as shitcoins, it will not be the case forever.

In full knowledge of those who have made fools’ of themselves making these claims in the past I say: this time it’s different.

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Technically speaking

Ethereum: Stairway to heaven?

As bitcoin leads the market, the runner-up crypto platform continues to shy away from blasting through the stratosphere — but it’s still in pursuit!

Ethereum traded within an ascending channel since it developed over-head resistance on the 23rd of November.

After testing the $500 level multiple times and notably lagging bitcoin’s performance, the crypto broke out of the channel on Monday as momentum builds for the crypto platform.

As mentioned on Twitter, ETH/USD developed several hidden bullish divergences on both lower and higher time-frames, indicating that increasing sell-side pressure is being overrun by buyers.

On the daily chart, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) pushed lower while prices trended higher, creating a stairway to 4-digit heaven.

Indeed, a 4-digit ETH in the first quarter of 2021 is not unlikely — to put it mildly.

At the time of writing, Ethereum has broken out of its ascending structure, with the next noteworthy resistance zone being the $850 region.

However, the Money Flow Index (MFI) — which is effectively a volume-weighted RSI has flashed an overbought signal. Often enough, this is an early warning sign that precedes a corrective move.

Long story short, an $800-ETH could be short-lived on the first attempt. On a longer-timeframe, a 3-digit ETH will seem like a steal in retrospect.

Onward Ethereans!

Catch you next time.

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