XRP’s untold story

 

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Bitcoin ETF approval volatility takes unexpected turn

Key points:

  • The decreased volatility in Bitcoin could attract risk-averse institutional investors looking for a more stable investment environment

  • The decline might also signal growing market confidence and potentially open doors for wider acceptance of Bitcoin

News - The excitement regarding the approval of Bitcoin ETFs triggered considerable market volatility. However, certain analysts argue that the event, which occurred nearly a week ago, has actually resulted in decreased volatility for the leading cryptocurrency.

Any truth to this? Well, yes. A look at Bitcoin's Realised Volatility (RV) and Implied Volatility (IV) revealed a notable decline, with short-term Implied Volatility falling below 45%. 

RV measures actual price fluctuations, while IV reflects market expectations for future swings. The decrease in both RV and IV points to a phase of decreased uncertainty and price variability in the short term for Bitcoin.

How will this impact BTC? For starters, the decreased volatility in Bitcoin could attract risk-averse institutional investors looking for a more stable investment environment. The decline might also signal growing market confidence and potentially open doors for wider acceptance of Bitcoin.

Furthermore, the decline in profitable BTC-holding addresses could work in favor of Bitcoin, as these holders may opt to hold onto their assets instead of selling, potentially providing support for the king coin's current price levels.

TrueUSD upgrades reserve audit system in efforts to recover dollar peg

Key points:

  • Under the new system, daily attestation reports will provide insights into the reserve funds held by its financial partners

  • At the time of writing, TrueUSD's price had rebounded from $0.97 on 18 January to $0.99 on both CoinMarketCap and Binance

News - TrueUSD (TUSD), a stablecoin connected to Tron founder Justin Sun, has enlisted the services of an accounting firm for daily attestation as it faces difficulties in maintaining its peg to the U.S. dollar.

A quick recap - On January 10, social media reports highlighted that TUSD faced challenges in providing real-time attestations of its reserves. Subsequently, on January 15, the TUSD stablecoin experienced a deviation from its dollar peg, declining to $0.984 at 11:15 pm UTC. This depegging occurred following a significant sell-off of over $339 million in TUSD on the Binance exchange within 24 hours, resulting in a total net outflow of $42.3 million from the exchange.

In a post on 18 January, TrueUSD attributed the de-pegging incident to "community mining activities linked to Binance Launchpool," stating that it gave rise to short-term arbitrage opportunities for traders.

A good save? In efforts to recover, the TrueUSD team upgraded its fiat reserve audit system. They have enlisted the services of the accounting firm Moore Hong Kong to perform daily attestations for the stablecoin's fiat reserves, alongside their existing provider, The Network Firm.

Under the new system, TrueUSD stated that the report will provide insights into the reserve funds held by its financial partners. At the time of writing, TrueUSD's price had rebounded from $0.97 on 18 January to $0.99 on both CoinMarketCap and Binance.

XRP ledger breaks monthly transaction record amidst challenges for XRP

Key points:

  • In just eighteen days of January, XRP Ledger's monthly transaction volume climbed to an all-time high of 673.49 billion XRP

  • Meanwhile, XRP continues to face negative sentiment, resulting in a continued decrease in its value

News - The XRP Ledger has hit an all-time high in monthly transaction volume, measured in XRP, based on The Block Data dashboard. In just eighteen days of January, the total value moved through XRP transactions on the decentralized blockchain has surpassed 673.49 billion.

How has XRP fared? As reported by AMBCrypto earlier, Bitfinex experienced a hacking attempt on 14 January, aimed at exploiting XRP tokens. Although unsuccessful, the incident negatively affected XRP, leading to a surge in negative sentiment; with the token's weighted sentiment hitting a multi-month low of -1.58 on that day.

Since then, the daily demand for XRP has dropped significantly. Santiment data revealed a 31% reduction in the number of daily unique addresses participating in XRP transactions. As of 17 January, there were 32,779 active addresses involved in trading the altcoin.

New demand for the token also dropped, evident by a 34% decrease in daily creation of XRP transaction addresses over the past five days.

Adding to the woes, XRP's value fell by 4.26% in the last week. Due to this decline and increased negative sentiment, more XRP transactions are now at a loss than a profit. AMBCrypto found that, on a seven-day moving average, for each XRP transaction ending in a loss, only 0.96 transactions generated a profit.

Canada proposes new rules for crypto asset handling by public investment funds

Key points:

  • The Canadian Securities Administrators aim to provide clearer guidance on custodianship and outline what funds can do with crypto assets

  • The proposed changes will be open for comments for a duration of 90 days

News - On January 18, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published proposed changes to regulations concerning the handling of crypto assets by public investment funds.

The proposed changes under review aim to limit the actions of public investment funds in relation to cryptocurrency and set guidelines for custodianship.

What are these changes? 

  • According to the proposed changes, only alternative investment funds and non-redeemable investment funds would have permission to directly purchase, sell, or hold cryptocurrency assets. Meanwhile, other mutual funds would have the option to invest in those funds to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies.

  • The invested assets must be listed on an exchange acknowledged by a securities regulatory authority in Canada and must possess fungibility.

  • Additionally, the assets must be insured and kept in cold wallets, with a mandatory annual review of the custodian's internal management conducted by a public accountant.

Notably, the proposed changes will be open for comments for a duration of 90 days, followed by the drafting of a consultation paper and the evaluation of a more comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto assets.

Did you know?

  • Bitcoin's uptime is still in the coveted "four nines" range. In other words, the network has been functional for 99.99% of the time since its creation over 13 years ago.

  • As of August 2022, published estimates of the total global electricity usage for crypto-assets are between 120 and 240 billion kilowatt-hours per year, a range that exceeds the total annual electricity usage of many individual countries, such as Argentina or Australia. 

  • While cryptocurrencies are currently banned in China, the country has a massive interest in blockchain technology and holds 84% of the world's blockchain patents, as per Statista data. 

Top 3 coins of the day

Binance Coin (BNB)

  • Binance had its 26th quarterly burn on the 17 January, during which 2.14 million BNB valued at $636 million were removed from circulation

  • Santiment's data revealed that Weighted Sentiment was 2.63, indicating that market players were still bullish on BNB

What you should know - For the last 10 days, BNB has been trading in a sideways pattern. The token has been struggling to gain traction above the $320 resistance level. In the past 24 hours, BNB gained by 1.0%, reaching a press time value of $314.1. With the RSI at 59, the coin saw a weak bullish uptrend on the cards. This trend was also reflected by the Fear & Greed Index, which flashed a reading of 72 (Greed), suggesting that investors were exhibiting high levels of optimism in the current market conditions. 

Ripple (XRP)

  • At press time, XRP had lost 12.64% of its value on a Year-To-Date (YTD) basis

  • The token's weighted sentiment plummeted to a multi-month low of -1.58 on 14 January

What you should know - In November, XRP experienced rejection at the $0.75 mark. Since the token's price had been consolidating around the $0.6 price mark. More recently, XRP dropped below the $0.6 level. Over the past week, XRP depreciated by 8.3%. At press time, the crypto was trading at $0.55, after a dip of 1.7% in the last 24 hours. The Awesome Oscillator confirmed a bearish trend as it flashed red signal bars below the half-line. If the bears continue to dominate, it is likely that the price could decline further and test the $0.50 support level.

Polygon (MATIC)

  • Over the past week, developer activity on the Polygon network has decreased by 45.86% compared to the previous month

  • Santiment's data indicated a decrease in MATIC's volume, starting at over $800 million on 11 January and later falling to approximately $313 million by 17 January 

What you should know - Following a rejection at the $1.00 mark at the beginning of the year, MATIC has been in a downward trend. Over the past week, the token fell by 14.3%. At press time, MATIC was changing hands at $0.79, following a 1.5% dip in its value in the last 24 hours. The MACD revealed red histograms below the half-line as the lines were bound south, indicating that sellers were in command. The Fear & Greed Index displayed a score of 40 (Fear), suggesting that investors may be inclined towards heightened selling activity, potentially contributing to a more bearish market sentiment.

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