TL;DR
Bitcoin (BTC) fell 14% in three days, influenced by the Federal Reserve’s inflation concerns. The meme coin market saw a sharp 20% drop, with assets like DOGE and SHIB facing double-digit losses and analysts predicting more losses for the former. XRP hit a multi-day low of less than $2, but industry participants remain bullish, highlighting potential key triggers for a future rally, including a Ripple ETF and regulatory resolutions. BTC loses $13,000 in three days
At the start of the trading week, Bitcoin (BTC) soared to a new all-time high of over $108,000. Its market capitalization crossed the $2 trillion mark, making the cryptocurrency bigger than Saudi Aramco and other well-known corporations.
However, the spike was short-lived and the bulls took a big hit in the following days. BTC fell to around $101,000 on December 18 and below $93,000 in the last few hours. The asset is currently worth around $93,200 (according to CoinGecko data), representing a 14% decline on a three-day scale.
The market started to pull back shortly after the US Federal Reserve announced its latest rate cut. It cut the benchmark by 0.25%, but Chairman Jerome Powell hinted that policy could be on hold next year amid growing inflation concerns. He also said that the central bank is not allowed to buy BTC, despite the promises of Donald Trump.
While the drop of 13 grand in just three days may seem quite dramatic, some factors indicate that the bulls could be back on top soon. Crypto analytics platform Santiment recently estimated that BTC’s collapse has increased discussions about buying the dip to early August levels. At the time, the price of the asset fell below $50,000, but a few days later, it rose above $62,000. It will be interesting to see if history repeats itself this time.
Hemorrhaging heavily in the Meme coin niche
The meme coin sector has been hit even harder than BTC. Its market capitalization is down 20% on a daily basis, falling below $100 billion.
All major assets including Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Pepe (PEPE), Bonk Inu (BONK), dogwifhat (WIF) and many more have posted double-digit losses. It’s pretty hard to find a meme coin positioned in the green today, with Zerebro (ZEREBRO) among the few exceptions.
Some analysts expect more losses in the sector, more specifically with regard to DOGE. Jake Wujastyk forecast a possible drop to $0.27, while Rose Premium Signals predicted a drop to $0.22. However, the latter believes that DOGE could recover and resume its bull run.
How is XRP?
Lastly, we’ll focus on Ripple’s native token, which is also very much in the red today (December 20). It is currently trading around $2, which is the lowest mark seen in the last ten days.
XRP Price, Source: CoinGecko
However, many industry participants foresee good days ahead for the XRP army. An analyst recently advised investors to withdraw only when seven important things happen.
These include the introduction of Ripple’s stablecoin, the inauguration of Donald Trump, a possible resolution of the Ripple v. SEC case, the departure of Gary Gensler from the regulator, the start of the alternative season, a partnership between the company and a large banking institution and the possible launch of an XRP ETF.
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