We’re probably getting used to it, but yes, we have new All-Time-Highs (ATHs) for BitcoinBitcoin is the first decentralized digital currency. It was created in 2009, by an anonymous founder or group of founders... More (BTCAn abbreviation for Bitcoin.) and Ethereum (ETH), with XRP following suit. Finally, Bitcoin managed to break the $60k resistance, and now we have a record of over $63,700 per coin. Meanwhile, ETH surpassed $2,300 per coin on the eve of its next update.
Two main reasons may be driving the price of BTC up. According to Glasssnode, there are more and more BTC holders in the long term. They’ve been buying and withdrawing from cryptocurrencyA digital currency running on a blockchain and built with cryptography. Contrary to central-bank issued currency, cryptocurrency issuance rules are... exchanges to store their coins in their own wallets. Once there, it’s less likely they decide to spend the coins.
The analyst Willy Woo calls these hodlers “Rick Astley”, after the song “Never gonna give you up”. That’s because, apparently, they’ll never give up their coins, and they’ll never let their balance go down.
The second reason is related to Coinbase and Grayscale Investments. The first company (Bitcoin-focused) is going public this 14 April, while Grayscale is planning to transform its Bitcoin Trust into the first Bitcoin ETF in the United States.
For its part, the increase in the Ethereum price may have to do something with its last update, “Berlin”, whose activation is planned for this 14 April. This hardfork is already live on some testnets and includes four Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs): EIP-2565, EIP-2929, EIP-2718, and EIP-2930.
The first two will modify the gas prices (generally reducing them) and will improve the security. By their part, the last two will bring new types of transactions. For July, the London upgrade might improve even further the current issue with gas prices.
Ripple vs SEC
Surprisingly, XRP is accompanying the higher prices today. During the last seven days, this cryptocurrency has increased by over 119% and now it’s being traded for a price of $1.82 per coin. This is the first time in three years that XRP surpasses the dollar barrier. Although, there’s still some distance to reach its last ATH of $3.8 per coin in 2018 [CoinMarketCap].
The reasons behind this price increase probably have to do with the last court hearings for Ripple. Last week, the crypto-company won access to SEC’s private documents about Bitcoin and Ethereum. With this, they want to clarify that XRP isn’t much different from these cryptocurrencies, thus, isn’t a security like the SEC’s lawsuit stated.
Also, this week, the SEC’s request to review the banking records of the last 8 years of Ripple’s top executives was denied by the court. And the investment firm Tetragon wasn’t lucky either. The company invested at least $175m in Ripple, but, after the SEC’s lawsuit, they wanted their money back. So, they sued the crypto-company in January to recover the investment.
The results are very bad for Tetragon now. According to the attorney Jeremy Hogan, not only Ripple won the case, but Tetragon has to pay all the legal fees (over $3.4m). Meanwhile, XRP is getting closer and closer to the $2 barrier.
Featured Image by Miloslav Hamřík / Pixabay
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