Multiple factors, including ETF outflows, contracting demand, and price falling below key support levels, indicate the start of a BTC bear market.
A debate on X over seemingly conflicting bitcoin forecasts from Fundstrat analysts drew a response from Tom Lee, highlighting differing mandates and time horizons.
XRP has continued to trade lower as crypto prices weaken across the board, with the total market shedding more than $1.3 trillion since October. Related Reading: Bitcoin Feels The Weight Of Quantum Risk Concerns, Industry Leaders Warn During the past three months, XRP has dropped more than 30%, keeping pressure on sentiment even as some commentators argue the token’s purpose goes far beyond short-term price moves. Retail Vs. Institutional Viewpoint According to health and finance commentator Dr. Camila Stevenson, much of the debate around XRP misses how large financial players judge settlement tools. Everyday traders tend to focus on charts and quick exits. Banks do not. They look at whether a system can handle stress, move large sums, and keep working when conditions worsen. Stevenson compared it to infrastructure testing, where strength and capacity matter more than the initial cost. XRP Was Built For Flows Based on reports from her recent video discussion, XRP was structured to act as a bridge for moving value, not as a speculative chip. With a fixed supply, the token cannot expand in quantity to meet higher transaction demand. Stevenson said that leaves price as the only way to support larger volumes. Analyst XFinanceBull echoed this view, encouraging market watchers to think in terms of flows rather than daily price action. Price Alone Does Not Prove Use Even so, market behavior still plays a major role. XRP trades in open markets, and speculation continues to influence price direction. A higher price may improve efficiency, but it does not guarantee adoption. Stevenson pointed out that many institutions position through custodians, OTC desks, and private agreements. These transactions often happen quietly and may not show up as sharp moves on public charts. Sudden spikes during positioning, she warned, would suggest instability rather than healthy use. Why Higher Price Helps Stevenson argued that banks moving billions would rather use fewer units that each represent more value. Fewer tokens can mean simpler settlement and less risk of slippage during busy periods. Large financial systems tend to fail when money cannot move or when settlement slows, not when prices fall. In that context, a higher XRP price could support smoother transfers if volumes rise enough to test the system. Related Reading: XRP ETFs Grow Past $60M As Price Struggles To Respond Market Reality Remains Mixed Despite the theory, clear proof of large-scale institutional demand remains limited. Regulation, liquidity depth, and reliable access still shape whether banks commit real volume. XRP’s 33% slide over recent months shows how quickly sentiment can shift, even as long-term use cases are debated. The idea that banks prefer a higher XRP price rests on future scale, not current trading patterns. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Bitcoin’s inability to reclaim $90,000 is looking less like a debate about narratives and more like a test of market plumbing. For the better part of 2025, the surface story was institutional momentum. The US moved toward a workable regulatory perimeter, capped by President Donald Trump signing the GENIUS Act to federalize payment stablecoins. At […]
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Bitcoin's fundamental properties make it a better long-term bet than gold, according to Bitcoin maximalist and analyst Matthew Kratter.
A Democrat and a Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee have unveiled a draft bill to bring clarity to crypto taxation in the United States.
UNI jumped after voting began on a proposal to activate Uniswap protocol fees, while broader crypto markets traded quietly.
Discussions around XRP supply have resurfaced after a detailed post on X by an XRP investor known as Lord Belgrave, who offered a perspective that goes beyond the usual conversations about the XRP tokens locked in escrow. According to the XRP investor, Ripple’s escrow mechanism is a deliberately structured system designed years in advance with institutional deployment in mind, and we might see more details in the near future as NDAs start to expire. Related Reading: Bitcoin Feels The Weight Of Quantum Risk Concerns, Industry Leaders Warn Why Ripple Created The XRP Escrow In The First Place Lord Belgrave’s remarks on the Ripple escrow system address questions about how XRP supply is managed, why the escrow exists in its current form, and what its role could be as Ripple’s infrastructure matures. The argument is that Ripple’s escrow was never designed internally as a pool of tokens just waiting for the best market distribution. In the discussions he describes, escrowed XRP was presented as locked supply governed by deterministic release schedules and multi-year planning phases. The emphasis was on predictability and control, with supply aligned not to short-term trading dynamics but to institutional readiness. Although not publicly assigned or disclosed, portions of the supply were viewed as conceptually reserved for future system deployments. Lord Belgrave claims these conversations occurred under strict non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and involved institutions across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. These institutions included central banks, systemically important financial institutions, multilateral bodies, the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements. Ripple introduced its escrow system in 2017 to bring transparency and discipline to XRP supply. XRP was created with a total supply of 100 billion tokens. However, not all of these tokens were in circulation during launch. About 55 million XRP was locked into on-ledger escrow contracts during launch, with 1 billion XRP scheduled for release each month. However, Ripple also re-locks around 700-800 million XRP, and only 200-300 million XRP is effectively released into circulation each month. This rules-based approach has become a cornerstone of XRP’s tokenomics for the past few years. NDAs, Disclosure Timing, And What Could Come Next Lord Belgrave also pointed to a perceived change in institutional language following Ripple’s regulatory progress, interpreting it as a sign that long-standing NDAs may be nearing a disclosure phase. Systems are now moving from preparation into active deployment, and as such, previously reserved liquidity will become operational. That interpretation was met with a response from Vincent Van Code, another popular XRP enthusiast on X. In his view, many NDAs exist but disclosure does not occur automatically. He explained that information is typically revealed only when both parties formally agree to share specific confidential details. Related Reading: XRP ETFs Grow Past $60M As Price Struggles To Respond From this point of view, the NDAs are so that Ripple does not disclose its counterparties and keeps them clear of regulatory scrutiny until compliance checks, audits, and approvals are complete. Any future transparency from Ripple and its partners would likely follow coordinated decisions instead of just NDA expiration. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
The fund will use Coinbase Crypto Services as its initial staking provider and pay a 4% service fee, with rewards accruing to the fund and reflected in its net asset value.
Will we get this bill after all?
The full scope of Glamsterdam has not yet been finalized, but developers are targeting it to go live in 2026.
The defendant reportedly told friends he lost $6 million gambling on crypto, and went by "@lolimfeelingevil" on Telegram.
The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI's ChatGPT reinforced delusions that preceded a fatal attack on a user’s mother.
The deal includes performance-based earn-outs contingent on Enigma's strategies generating $40 million in net income.
Since the market-wide crash in early October, the Bitcoin price has struggled to resume any significant movement to the upside. The flagship cryptocurrency has continued to fall even deeper into bearish territory, breaching multiple support zones in the process. With the crypto market’s situation painting a bleak picture, the prevailing sentiment around its leader can hardly be said to be bullish. Interestingly, a recent on-chain evaluation puts into perspective the key players behind Bitcoin’s weakness. BTC Coinbase Premium Gap Reads –$57 In a recent post on the social media platform X, on-chain analyst Maartunn shared that a substantial portion of sell pressure seen in the Bitcoin market might be from the activities of US investors. This on-chain observation is based on the Coinbase Premium Gap metric, which measures whether US based investors are buying or selling Bitcoin more aggressively than the rest of the global market. Related Reading: Bitcoin Recent Dips Reveal Market Structure Issue Not Coming From Selling Pressure For context, the metric tracks the price gap between Bitcoin on Coinbase and Bitcoin on major offshore exchanges (for example, Binance). A positive reading typically indicates that Bitcoin is more expensive on Coinbase, meaning that US traders are buying aggressively. On the other hand, negative readings are interpreted as increased sales or reduced interest among investors in the United States. According to the analyst, the Coinbase Premium Gap recently dropped to a -$57 reading. As has been earlier implied, this deep negative value reveals that traders from the US are actively offloading, rather than accumulating Bitcoin. Interestingly, this heightened selling activity accompanies Bitcoin’s price momentum towards lower levels. Thus, it becomes clear that the sell-pressure reflected on Bitcoin’s price is due mainly to the absence of US demand. BTC Market Outlook According to historical data, Bitcoin’s direction in the long-term could go either way. While a negative Coinbase Premium Gap reading is usually indicative of a bearish phase in the short term, the long-term perspective is a little less straightforward. In past cycles, prolonged periods of negative readings have preceded the formations of market bottoms, after which prices saw recoveries to the upside. This often happens when sell-side pressure dwindles, and fresh demand enters the Bitcoin market. Related Reading: Ethereum Exchange Supply Just Crashed To New Lows, Why This Is Bullish For Price Hence, if this negative reading deepens and there is no fresh demand in the market, the Bitcoin price could follow suit and continue south. However, a reversal of the Coinbase Premium Gap to the upside — pushing it towards neutral or positive levels — could prove pivotal for the world’s leading cryptocurrency. As of this writing, Bitcoin holds a valuation of $88,260, reflecting no significant price movement in the past day. Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView
The scammer sent a small "dust" amount to the victim's transaction history, causing the victim to copy the address and send $50M to the scammer's address.
Crypto and Web3 projects market themselves as decentralized but still rely on centralized cloud infrastructure to power applications.
Four XRP spot ETFs now trade in the US, with combined assets of $941.7 million as of Dec. 18. Grayscale's GXRP holds $148.1 million, Canary Capital's XRPC $373.6 million, Franklin Templeton's XRPZ $189 million, and Bitwise's XRP ETF $215.6 million. That stack grew from roughly $336 million at launch in November to current levels in […]
The post XRP ETFs are booming, but a quiet $15 billion payment layer matters more than the price appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Bitcoin reached significant multiyear support versus gold as commentary diverged over a breakdown and the start of a new bear market.
The victim of a similar $71 million address poisoning attack in 2024 managed to recover nearly all available funds, lending hope to the scam's latest victim.
According to onchain data, Bitcoin may be moving into a different phase of market participation rather than simply hitting a classic cycle top or bottom. Related Reading: Bitcoin Feels The Weight Of Quantum Risk Concerns, Industry Leaders Warn New, large entrants are paying higher prices and holding on, and that change is reshaping where the network’s cost base sits. This is not just a short blip; the pattern has several clear data points behind it. New Whales Rewrite The Network Cost Base According to CryptoQuant figures, addresses classified as new whales now account for almost 50% of Bitcoin’s realized cap. Before 2025, that share rarely rose above 22%. Realized cap tracks the value of BTC at the price each coin last moved, so this shift shows where capital entered the system, not just who currently holds the most coins. Reports say the realized cap share from new whales continued to climb even during pullbacks, which suggests the network’s aggregate cost basis is being re-anchored at higher levels. Short-Term Demand Surges As Larger Players Buy Dips Short-term holder supply expanded by roughly 100,000 BTC over a 30-day span, reaching an all-time high, according to analysts. That jump in STH supply points to intense demand at the near-term level. Based on exchange flows, about 37% of BTC sent to Binance came from whale-size wallets, defined in the data set as holdings between 1,000–10,000 BTC. Reports from Hyblock show the cumulative volume delta for whale wallets — those in the $100,000–$10 million range — posted a positive $135 million delta this week. In contrast, retail wallets ($0–$10,000) and mid-size traders ($10,000–$100,000) logged negative deltas of $84 million and $172 million, respectively. In short: larger players absorbed selling pressure while smaller holders reduced their exposure. Related Reading: XRP ETFs Grow Past $60M As Price Struggles To Respond Derivatives Point To Short-Term Risk Price action was sharp. Bitcoin rose to $88,000 from $85,100 in about five hours after the Bank of Japan raised rates, a move that many investors had tracked as a potential macro trigger. Open interest climbed faster than the price, and funding rates turned positive, which indicates fresh margin-driven long positions were being added rather than a simple cover of shorts. That kind of flows pattern raises the chance of volatile reversals if sentiment shifts, even when spot demand looks healthy. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Digital fixed-income products are experiencing rapid growth, with $325 million distributed on Mercado Bitcoin's platform in 2025.
BitMine’s growing Ether holdings are reshaping how investors assess the company’s balance sheet, risk exposure and equity valuation.
The Uniswap (UNI) price has moved back into focus as traders react to a major governance vote that could reshape the token’s long-term value. While the broader crypto market remains cautious, UNI has shown relative strength, driven by expectations around changes to token burns and protocol fees. With the vote entering its final stage, UNI …
The director of global macro at the asset management giant remains a secular bull on bitcoin, but isn't optimistic about the next year.
XRP ETFs' growth highlights potential for diversification in crypto investments, but market volatility and Bitcoin's dominance pose challenges.
The post XRP ETFs see steady inflows as total assets hit $1.2B appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
Bitcoin’s ETF data is doing that annoying thing where it looks terrifying if you only read the headline. Big chunks of ETF buyers are sitting on losses, and every red flow day gets framed as the start of a stampede. But if you look closely at the numbers, they tell a different story. Outflows are […]
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Canton crypto has quietly climbed into the top 30 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation, drawing attention from traders at a time when much of the broader market remains stuck in tight ranges. While sudden ranking jumps often raise questions about hype, Canton’s recent move appears to be driven by a mix of institutional developments and short-term …
Coinbase believes a major US tax change could significantly alter how gamblers place bets starting in 2026. In its latest outlook, the crypto exchange argues that a provision in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” may unintentionally push gamblers away from traditional casinos and sportsbooks and toward prediction markets instead. The law, signed …
After a strong start to the year, the XRP price has struggled to build a sustained bullish momentum throughout 2025. These struggles are highlighted in the altcoin’s downward spiral since hitting the all-time high of $3.65 in July 2025. The launch of the spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States was expected to offer some relief through increased demand for the underlying asset’s price. However, the latest on-chain analysis shows that the ETFs have failed to reduce the bearish pressure on the XRP price. XRP Price Could Fall To $1.5 If Exchange Inflows Persist In a Quicktake post on the CryptoQuant platform, pseudonymous analyst PelinayPA revealed that the activity of a specific group of XRP whales has been the major driving force behind the steady price decline. The market pundit provided an ETF angle to this whale activity over the past few weeks. Related Reading: Peter Brandt Highlights Bearish XRP Price Chart, ‘You Need To Deal With It’ PelinayPA drew insights from the Exchange Inflow – Value Bands chart, which tracks and sorts the amount of a specific cryptocurrency flowing into centralized exchanges by different investor cohorts within a given period. Recent data shows that the majority of inflows are coming from the 100K-1M XRP and 1M+ XRP bands. PelinayPA wrote in the Quicktake post: After each major inflow spike on the chart, price forms a lower high and lower low structure, clearly showing that supply is overwhelming demand. This happens because there is no strong new spot buyer in the market. Even though whales are not aggressively dumping, the continuous increase in available supply keeps pushing the price lower. Using the inflow intensity and price reactions, the crypto analyst posited that the first major support zone stands at around $1.82 – $1.87. According to PelinayPA, this region represents an area with substantial historical buying activity that has offered stability in the past. However, the XRP price could fall to as low as the $1.50 – $1.60 range if the exchange inflows from whales continue to climb. As earlier inferred by the analyst, large transfers to centralized exchanges are often viewed as a signal of impending selling pressure. XRP Whales Offloaded Their Holdings When Spot ETFs Went Live As seen with its predecessors — Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, the similar XRP exchange-traded products were expected to create institutional demand, leading to higher prices for the altcoin. However, the story has been the exact opposite for the XRP price, which is nearly 50% down from its all-time high. Market data shows that the US-based spot XRP ETFs have not registered a negative outflow day since their trading debut in mid-November. According to SoSoValue, the exchange-traded funds have a total net asset of over $1.14 billion. Related Reading: Ethereum Exchange Supply Just Crashed To New Lows, Why This Is Bullish For Price Interestingly, PelinayPA hypothesized that the reason behind XRP’s steady decline is that whales started offloading their holdings on exchanges as the ETF expectations heightened. This provided the sell-side liquidity for the retail investors who were looking to buy the ETF launch news. PelinayPA said that this occurrence explains why the XRP price faces selling pressure each time it approaches the $1.95 level. The market analyst noted that the exchange inflows would first need to dry up if the altcoin is to see a bullish run anytime soon. As of this writing, the price of XRP stands at around $1.90, reflecting an over 3% jump in the past 24 hours. Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView