In a recent statement before the House of Representatives, US Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen emphasized the need for Congress to pass legislation that provides clarity and regulation in the crypto markets. 

Secretary Yellen Calls For Action ‘Digital Asset Risks’ 

During the Financial Committee hearing, Yellen highlighted the “risks” associated with digital assets and called for measures to address potential vulnerabilities and non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Yellen specifically mentioned concerns related to runs on crypto-asset platforms, stablecoins, and the “proliferation” of platforms acting outside regulatory boundaries. 

The Treasury Secretary stressed the importance of enforcing existing rules and regulations while urging Congress to enact legislation specifically targeting stablecoins and “non-securities” crypto assets in the spot market.

Notably, Taylor Barr, head of policy at the blockchain trade association Chamber of Digital Commerce, pointed out that the bipartisan FIT for the 21st Century Act, led by Representative French Hill, aligns with Yellen’s call for market structure and regulation.

Hill, a proponent of the legislative environment for crypto, previously highlighted the progress made in the House of Representatives. He emphasized passing the first comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets and the prudent approach to stablecoins. 

Furthermore, Hill believes that these initiatives address significant “regulatory gaps” and contribute to the crypto industry’s growth.

Pro-Crypto Stance And Legislative Initiatives Align

Barr also commended the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act proposed by the Chairman of the US Financial Committee, Patrick McHenry. 

This act aims to establish consistent oversight and consumer protection for payment stablecoins, incorporating successful state-level regulations and striking a balance between innovation and regulatory certainty.

McHenry, who has been vocal about the importance of the US leading the financial system of the future, has already emphasized the bipartisan progress on legislation to address the regulatory challenges posed by digital assets. 

McHenry called for the “completion of the job,” highlighting the Clarity for Payment Stablecoin Act as a crucial step towards establishing a federal framework for stablecoins.

Overall, the convergence of Secretary Yellen’s call for regulation, Representative Hill’s legislative initiatives, and Chairman McHenry’s pro-crypto stance reflect a growing momentum toward establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for the crypto industry. 

However, it remains to be seen how Secretary Yellen’s proposed regulatory enforcement ideas and proposals will strike a balance between fostering innovation, as emphasized by McHenry and Hill while ensuring the growth of nascent technology. 

As discussions on crypto legislation continue, the industry eagerly anticipates the outcome, seeking a regulatory environment that provides clarity and consumer protection and positions the United States at the forefront of digital asset innovation.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

An analyst has recently explained how a buy signal has formed for XRP on its weekly chart, which could lead to an uptrend lasting for this long.

XRP Has Observed A TD Sequential Buy Signal Recently

In a new post on X, analyst Ali discussed a buy signal forming in the weekly price of XRP. The relevant indicator is the “Tom Demark (TD) Sequential,” a technical analysis tool for pinpointing probable reversal points for any asset’s price.

This indicator is made up of two phases. The first phase is called the “setup” and lasts nine candles. During this phase, candles of the same polarity are counted up to nine, and following the ninth candle, the commodity can be assumed to have hit a top or bottom.

If the setup’s completion occurred with nine green candles (the prevailing trend was bullish), then the indicator would suggest a switch toward the bearish direction. Similarly, red candles would imply a buy signal for the asset.

The second phase in the TD Sequential is the “countdown,” which works just like the setup except that it lasts for thirteen candles. After these thirteen candles, another price reversal may have occurred.

The TD Sequential phase of the former type has been completed for XRP recently. Here is the chart shared by the analyst that shows the TD Sequential setup forming in the weekly price of the cryptocurrency:

The graph shows that this TD Sequential setup in the cryptocurrency’s 7-day price has formed with red candles, as the coin’s price has been struggling recently.

The historical pattern could imply that the asset may have now hit a probable bottom point. Ali suggests XRP “is poised for an upswing lasting one to four weeks.”

XRP Has Continued To Go Down Since The Year Has Kicked Off

The year 2024 began for XRP with a sharp move down, from which the asset still hasn’t been able to recover as its price has continued to head downward, staying in line with the tone set by the poor start.

The below chart shows how the coin has performed over the last three months.

A brief relief rally came for XRP around the time of the Bitcoin spot ETF approval, but just like it had played out in the broader sector, this surge also couldn’t last long as investors took to selling the news.

After all the downtrend since then, the cryptocurrency is now trading around the $0.50 mark, down almost 18% year-to-date.

In a new development for their partnership, MultiversX has announced its integration with Google BigQuery, marking a significant milestone in making blockchain data more accessible and insightful, per an official post.

MultiversX Ecosystem Gains a Boost With BigQuery Integration

This integration hints at potential growth for the MultiversX ecosystem, underscoring the network’s commitment to enhancing the user experience and assisting its developer community by providing them with new tools.

With this latest collaboration, Google replicates its role as the internet’s information custodian by making MultiversX’s blockchain data readily accessible through BigQuery. This platform operates as an enterprise-grade cloud data warehouse.

The official post claims this move will “democratize access to blockchain insights, offering unprecedented transparency and analysis capability to users and developers alike.”

Integrating BigQuery enables anyone with an account to delve into the MultiversX network’s intricacies without needing specialized software or the lengthy process of syncing the ledger.

Users can now easily query the network’s data, including details about the top 100 block producers, daily transaction counts, and much more, as seen in the chart below. This capability is expected to drive further innovation and development within the MultiversX ecosystem.

Lucian Mincu, CIO of the MultiversX Foundation, highlighted the significance of this development, stating:

Analyzing and interpreting data to reveal useful insights about product usage is a science barely explored in the web3 space. Having Google resolve a big part of the hassle for MultiversX projects is an important step towards making dApps better, more useful, and more appealing to the masses.

Google Support Accelerates MultiversX Development

In addition to data accessibility, the partnership between MultiversX and Google Cloud encompasses a wide range of initiatives to accelerate Web3 adoption and ecosystem expansion. As announced during the xDay 2023 Conference in Bucharest, Romania.

These include a startup accelerator program, hackathons, developer initiatives, and joint business developments. MultiversX’s presence at the company’s booth at GITEX Global in Dubai in 2023 exemplifies the partnership’s deepening collaboration.

The partnership also shows Google Cloud’s commitment to supporting the blockchain community, as highlighted by Daniel Rood, Head of Web3 EMEA for Google Cloud. The partnership aims to drive adoption, “accelerating” the growth of the MultiversX ecosystem and, by extension, the broader Web3 space.

With Google’s backing, MultiversX is poised for accelerated growth, bringing new opportunities for users and developers.

As blockchain technology continues to evolve, partnerships between MultiversX and Google BigQuery are pivotal in shaping the future of digital assets and Web3. By enhancing data accessibility and supporting the development community, MultiversX and Google are setting new standards for innovation and collaboration in the blockchain space.

Chart from Tradingview

The expectations of a Bitcoin bull run in the year 2024 continue to drive investment decisions across the space. A number of reasons have been given for the expected bull run, including the approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs for trading as well as the upcoming BTC halving event. One analyst has echoed the latter, elaborating on why the halving will bring about a bull market.

The Bitcoin Halving Event Will Send Market Higher

Crypto analyst James van Straten took to X (formerly Twitter) to explain why the Bitcoin halving event is bullish for price. Now, the halving is an event that is programmed to take place approximately every four years, cutting the block rewards in half each time it happens.

This means that the number of BTC that miners are awarded for mining a block is immediately slashed by 50%, thereby drastically reducing the number of new coins coming into circulation. Currently, the block reward is at 6.25 BTC and the next halving will slash it to 3.125.

Straten points to this reduction, using the monthly issuance as the case study. He explains that over the past month, there have been a total of 61,000 BTC accumulated by miners and exchanges. However, after the halving, the monthly issuance is expected to drop to 13,500 BTC and it is this drop that is most significant.

Past 30 days of all cohorts, miners and exchanges included have accumulated 61,000 #Bitcoin.

When monthly issuance gets cut in half in April to 13,500 #Bitcoin.

If demand stays the same, it outpaces issuance by a factor of 4.

Market will find an equilibrium most likely… https://t.co/FZOWsa8AGR pic.twitter.com/yn4lsF3cPG

— James Van Straten (@jvs_btc) February 6, 2024

As Straten points out, if the demand were to stay elevated at the same levels when the halving takes place, it would see demand exceed supply by a factor of four. This will cause a shift in the market, which will have to “find an equilibrium most likely higher.” In other words, prices would have to go up to keep up with the demand.

Targets For BTC Price In 2024

Another bullish factor for the Bitcoin price is that the halving year coincides with the United States presidential elections. As Markus Thielen, Head of Research at Matrixport, pointed out in an analysis, this coincidence has always been bullish for the price.

The report points back to the previous halving and election years, which show the price of Bitcoin ending on a high note. The last three halving years have seen BTC rise 152% in 2012, 121% in 2016, and 302% in 2020, showing a consistent trend.

With the year 2024 being another halving and election year, the research analyst expects that the price of Bitcoin will finish out the year at $70,000. This would mean another 65% rally from the current price levels, and if the trends hold, the start of another bull market.

“Supported by the macro environment, monetary tailwinds, the US election cycle, and gradually increasing demand from TradeFi investors allocating to Bitcoin ETFs, a Bitcoin rally to 70,000 appears plausible,” Thielen said.

The PEPE meme coin has seemingly faded into the shadow as new and exciting meme coins make it to the fore. This can be attributed to the likes of BONK and other Solana ecosystem meme coins that have taken the attention away from the Ethereum ecosystem. However, as excitement around these new meme coins begins to wane, expectations fall back to the leaders of the market, one of which is PEPE, who could be getting ready to make a comeback.

What On-Chain Indicators Say About PEPE

On-chain indicators are one way to know if investor interest is turning toward a particular cryptocurrency, in this case, PEPE. These indicators include things like Weighted Sentiment, Transactions Volumes, New Holders, etc. In this case, the focus is on the Weighted Sentiment, which measures sentiment across social media platforms to figure out how crypto investors are viewing a coin.

This indicator can be useful, especially in times like these when there are no clear indicators of where the price of a coin could be headed next. So, by checking what investors are saying about PEPE on social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), one can get a good idea of where the price may be headed next.

According to the Weighted Sentiment by the on-chain analytics tracker Santiment, PEPE is looking quite bullish. The indicator takes into account the mentions of PEPE on social media platforms over the past week, and it shows that there has been a significant uptick in the positive sentiment that is associated with the meme coin.

While it is not the highest that the indicator has been since the year began, it is still sitting at a considerably high level, suggesting a turn in the average sentiment. This also coincides with a drastic rise in the holdings of the largest PEPE whales, showing a willingness to accumulate at the current levels.

Daily Trading Volume Sees A Significant Jump

The Weighted Sentiment is not the only PEPE metric that has seen a significant increase lately. In the same vein, the daily trading volume for the meme coin has been on the rise as well. As data from CoinMarketCap shows, the meme coin’s volume is up approximately 62% in the last day, bringing it to $89.8 million at the time of writing.

Such a rise in volume can either point to buying or selling, but seeing that the PEPE price has managed to hold steady over this time period, it suggests that there is more buying than selling. Given this, it could point to bulls finally establishing support and marking $0.0000009 as a buy level.  If this general bullish sentiment continues, then the meme coin could be looking toward a recovery to $0.000001, which would translate to a 10% move from here.

Due to its decline over the last month, PEPE has lost its position as the third-largest meme coin in the space. It is currently sitting at fifth position behind the likes of BONK and CorgiAI.

Data shows various cryptocurrencies like XRP and Solana are currently witnessing bearish majority sentiment on social media platforms.

XRP, SOL, And Other Assets Are Sharing A Red Mentality Currently

According to data from the analytics firm Santiment, a notable bearish sentiment has emerged among cryptocurrency traders during the past week. The relevant indicator is the “Weighted Sentiment,” based on two other metrics: the Sentiment Balance and Social Volume.

The Sentiment Balance keeps track of the net sentiment present among users on the major social media platforms. The metric calculates this score by reviewing social media posts and applying a machine-learning model to filter for positive and negative sentiments.

Once the indicator has found the scores for these bullish and bearish sentiments, it takes their difference to give the average or net sentiment present among the traders.

The other relevance metric here, the Social Volume, tells us about the amount of discussion related to any topic or term on social media platforms.

The Weighted Sentiment takes the Sentiment Balance and then weighs it against this Social Volume. This means that the indicator’s value only spikes (in either direction) when not only is there some notable imbalance present in the market (that is, the net sentiment has a significant value), but the volume of social media discussion about these sentiments is also high.

This fact makes the Weighted Sentiment more reliable than the Sentiment Balance, as it can provide a better picture of the trend among the traders as a whole (since the Social Volume would only spike when there are many users involved in discussions).

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Weighted Sentiment for six different cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), BNB (BNB), XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA), and Solana (SOL).

As displayed in the above graph, these assets have had a negative Weighted Sentiment recently, suggesting that bearish sentiment has dominated social media users. More specifically, the indicator is around -0.36 for XRP, while it’s about -0.64 for Solana.

Historically, cryptocurrency markets have been more likely to move in the direction opposite to what the crowd is expecting. As such, price rebounds become more probable the more negative the sentiment gets, while tops can occur when the traders share a highly bullish mentality.

Followers of contrarian investing exploit this to time their buying and selling moves. Warren Buffet’s famous quote sums up this idea, “be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”

Given the red sentiment XRP and others are witnessing, a contrarian trader might think it is the right time to buy into these cryptocurrencies.

XRP Price

XRP had attempted recovery earlier, but the move appears to have failed as the asset has returned under the $0.50 level.

The XRP price has yet to recover from the latest exploit, which resulted in Ripple’s co-founder Chris Larsen being hacked and 213 million XRP worth $120 million carted away. This seems to have further spooked a depleting whale account base, as on-chain data points to XRP whales already exiting their positions in the past few weeks. 

Particularly, on-chain data from whale transaction tracker WhaleAlerts points to a recent transaction of 29 million XRP tokens transferred from an unknown wallet to the crypto exchange Bitstamp.

Massive XRP Whale Transfer To Crypto Exchange

The actions of whales or large holders of cryptocurrencies seem to always tell the nature of general market sentiment. XRP, for instance, has been under selling pressure in the past week, as the crypto is currently down by 5.51% in a 7-day timeframe. 

However, recent data points to continued selling pressure in the near term. For instance, according to whale alerts, 29 million XRPs worth $14.7 million were sent to Bitstamp. Similarly, 28.85 million XRP worth $14.6 million was sent to Bitstamp in another transaction. The nature of these transactions likely points to whales dumping their holdings, and moves like this could foreshadow further declines.

28,850,000 #XRP (14,628,631 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #Bitstamphttps://t.co/ujvPfK3ezM

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 5, 2024

On-chain data from Santiment Supply by Addresses metric, which tracks the number of wallet addresses holding more than 1 million XRP tokens, tells a similar tale. According to this metric, the number of addresses in this category saw a steady increase, reaching 1,986 on January 28. This figure dropped to 1,957 on February 3rd, which indicated that 29 whale wallets cut down on their holdings during this period. At the time of writing, the metric stands at 1,962 wallets.

XRP Price Selling Pressure To Continue?

XRP recently crossed below $0.5 for the first time since October after news of the hack broke out. However, the price has since made a slight recovery from $0.49 and is trading at the $0.50 level at the time of writing. 

Despite seeing a 27.43% increase in trading volume, the XRP price has failed to post gains in the past 24 hours and is down by 0.35%. On a larger timeframe, the crypto is down by 10.6% in 30 days, with price movement indicating the formation of lower highs and lower lows. Consequently, if the selling pressure continues and the current minor support at $0.501 fails to hold, XRP could break below to form a lower low around $0.48

According to crypto analyst EGRAG CRYPTO, known for his bullish stance on XRP, the current decline is a perfect opportunity to accumulate more tokens while suggesting the XRP price could spike to $22 very soon.

A mysterious whale is rapidly accumulating Chainlink (LINK). According to Lookonchain, the unknown entity, possibly an institution, withdrew over 2.2 million LINK (worth $42.38 million) via 47 new wallets from Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, in two days.

This sudden block withdrawal now raises questions about what’s driving the whale’s interest and what it could mean for LINK in the coming days.

Chainlink Is Key In DeFi And NFTs, Gradually Improving 

Chainlink is a popular project that provides secure middleware services and allows smart contracts to access tamper-proof external data. For this role, the platform has been adopted by multiple protocols offering decentralized finance (defi) services in Ethereum and beyond. 

Additionally, Chainlink plays a role in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) through its random number generator (RNG). It continues to release new products and enhance its features.

To illustrate, in November, Chainlink upgraded its staking mechanism, releasing v0.2, which significantly increased the pool size to 45 million LINK. 

The platform noted that the decision was to attract more investors and, more importantly, bolster its security while concurrently aligning with its broader objective of attaining the “Economics 2.0” plan.

Initially, staking began in December 2022. The goal was to incentivize participation by expanding the utility of LINK and allowing stakers to receive rewards. 

The release of v0.2 in November means more tokens can be locked, helping make LINK scarce, considering the role of the token in the vast Chainlink ecosystem. 

Trackers show that over 40.8 million LINKs have been locked so far. Chainlink confirms that anyone can earn a variable reward rate of 4.32%.

Beyond staking, Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) is gaining adoption. To illustrate, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) initiated its first phase of e-Hong Kong Dollar (e-HKD) trials in November, integrating CCIP. 

As part of this trial, the regulator wanted to illustrate the capabilities of programmable payments enabled by Chainlink via its solution, CCIP. In DeFi, protocols such as Synthetix and Aave have adopted CCIP. 

Will LINK Breach $20?

With more protocols and traditional institutions leveraging the technology, the demand for LINK (and prices) will likely increase as the fear of missing out (FOMO) kicks in.

While the whale’s motives remain unknown, their large-scale LINK accumulation suggests they might be bullish on the token. Notably, it coincides with the sharp expansion of LINK prices in the past 48 hours. 

So far, the token is changing hands slightly below the $20 psychological resistance. Any breakout above this level might lift the token to around $35 in Q3 2021.

Ronin (RON), the token powering the Ronin Network, experienced a rollercoaster ride in the past 24 hours, rallying to a two-year high before crashing nearly 30% after its listing on Binance. This dramatic price swing has raised questions about potential market manipulation and the long-term viability of the project.

From Hero To Zero: A Short-Lived Rally

On February 5th, RON enjoyed a meteoric rise, surging 15% to reach a peak of $3.54. This rally was fueled by investor optimism surrounding the network’s growing user base and address activity. Trading volume spiked to $80 million, signifying increased market participation.

However, the euphoria was short-lived. Coinciding with the Binance listing announcement, the price began a precipitous decline five hours after trading commenced on the exchange. By today, RON has shed nearly 30% of its value, currently trading at $2.54. This drop marks a breach of the crucial $3 support level, which the token had recently reclaimed after 14 months.

Negative Sentiment And Selling Pressure Mount

Social media sentiment surrounding RON mirrored the price action. Santiment data (chart below) reveals a 250% increase in social volume within 24 hours, but with a concerning shift towards bearishness. Negative sentiment spiked from 0.87 to 5.58, reflecting growing investor concerns.

This negativity translated into significant selling pressure, with 24-hour trading volume soaring 275% to $203 million. Market participants, eager to offload their holdings, contributed to the downward spiral.

Binance Under Scrutiny: Pump And Dump Allegations

The timing of the price surge and subsequent crash has fueled speculation of a “pump and dump” scheme, with some accusing Binance of complicity. While no concrete evidence has surfaced, Yi He, Binance’s co-founder, acknowledged the concerns and announced a $5 million bounty program to expose any corrupt employees involved in such activities.

Future Uncertain: A Cautious Outlook

Despite the recent setback, RON still stands at a 23-month high compared to February 2022. However, the future remains uncertain. The sharp drop, shifting sentiment, and potential manipulation allegations have cast a shadow over the project’s prospects.

Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from TradingView

According to a CoinShares report, Bitcoin and Solana led the way in the amount of institutional inflows into digital asset investment products last week. The report also highlighted an emerging trend among Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US. 

Bitcoin Records $703 Million In Inflows

Bitcoin is reported to have seen inflows totaling $703 million last week, thereby accounting for 99% of all flows into these investment products. Solana came in a distant second with an inflow of $13 million, outperforming the second-largest crypto token, Ethereum, which saw an inflow of $6.4 million. 

The spotlight was on Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US, with these funds seeing an inflow of $721 million last week. These new ETFs are said to have now averaged $1.9 billion in inflows over the last four weeks, bringing their total inflows to $7.7 billion since launch. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s GBTC has contributed largely to the $6 billion that these funds have recorded as outflows so far. 

CoinShares noted that these outflows have slowed in recent weeks, suggesting that GBTC investors have cooled off on taking profits. The inflows recorded by other Spot Bitcoin ETFs have also been able to overshadow GBTC’s outflows. NewsBTC had also recently reported how BlackRock’s IBIT had surpassed GBTC in trading volume for the first time. 

A Drop In Trading Volume

Last week was a relatively slow week for digital asset investment products in terms of trading volume. The report highlighted how trading volumes in ETPs (Exchange Traded Products) fell to $8.2 billion compared to the prior week’s total of $10.6 billion. This drop in trading volume was well evident in the figures that the Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded last week. 

Notably, these funds recorded a daily trading volume of $924 million on February 1 last week, the first time that the trading volume was under $1 billion. This trend continued the next day, with the Spot Bitcoin ETFs combined recording $922 million in trading volume. 

Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, however, suggested that there was no need to be alarmed. He noted in an X (formerly Twitter) post how there is usually a slow decline after a big, hyped launch. What is, however, evident is the fact that these funds have lived up to the hype so far. BlackRock and Fidelity alone (the top two issuers by AuM, excluding Grayscale) now hold over 134,358 BTC ($5.7 billion) for their Spot Bitcoin ETFs. 

Interestingly, their funds also made the top 10 of all ETF inflows in January. This shows an impressive interest in the funds and that institutional adoption of the flagship crypto token is on the rise.