Every uptrend witnesses periodic bouts of profit-booking as short-term traders tend to unwind positions either on adverse news or at critical technical resistance levels. This occurred with Bitcoin (BTC) today as the price momentarily dropped below $48,000 and traders scrambled to close or top up positions before being liquidated. Elon Musk’s tweet on Feb. 20 that said Bitcoin prices “seem high” and the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s warning today on Bitcoin being “extremely inefficient” could have dampened short-term sentiment. Another possible factor that may have exacerbated the fall could have been the unwinding of excessively leveraged long positions. About …

Global money transfer service MoneyGram says it has changed its relationship with blockchain payments firm Ripple amid the latter's litigation with the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to MoneyGram's quarterly outlook, the company is "not planning for any benefit from Ripple market development fees" for the first quarter of 2021. MoneyGram said it had a more than $12 million net expense benefit from Ripple in the same quarter last year. "Due to the uncertainty concerning their ongoing litigation with the SEC, the Company has suspended trading on Ripple's platform," said MoneyGram. The collaboration between the two firms largely began three …

Blockchain-based payments firm Ripple Labs has now registered a business in Wyoming. According to records from the Wyoming Secretary of State, Ripple Markets WY LLC’s status as a local business is listed as "active" after an initial filing in February 2020. As a limited liability company in Wyoming, Ripple’s registered agent will be based in Cheyenne. “More crypto companies are realizing Wyoming is a better domicile than Delaware due to our crypto-friendly laws,” said Caitlin Long on Twitter. Long is the CEO of digital bank Avanti Bank & Trust and associated with the state legislature’s Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial …

Bitcoin (BTC) price finally reached a $1 trillion market capitalization on Feb.19, which is an important milestone because as BTC gains size, the digital asset will continue to attract new institutional investors who will consider allocating a portion to their portfolios. Glassnode data suggests that high-net-worth individuals are continuing to pump money into Bitcoin. The number of Bitcoin addresses holding more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin has risen to 94,000. According to data from Whalemap, another positive sign is that the number of addresses holding between 1,000 to 10,000 BTC has been increasing throughout the current bull run, whereas …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged that Ripple Labs executives Bradley Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen manipulated the XRP price by ramping up or slowing down their coin sales depending upon market conditions. In an amended complaint filed Feb. 18, the plaintiff — the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission —reiterated its stance that Ripple Labs, Christian Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse violated securities laws with the sale of XRP coins starting in 2013: “From at least 2013 through the present, Defendants sold over 14.6 billion units of a digital asset security called ‘XRP,’ in return for cash or other …

A major United States-based cryptocurrency exchange has halted all XRP trading on its platform in the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ongoing lawsuit against Ripple Labs. The PayBito exchange, which processed $1.1 billion worth of trades in 24 hours leading up to the time of publication, will suspend all XRP trading pairs, as announced on Feb.18. Four XRP trading pairs have historically been available on PayBito, with XRP/USDT trades proving the most popular. Notably, the trading suspension will not affect users’ holdings, and those with coins held on the exchange will still be able to transfer them out …

Bitcoin (BTC) is gradually gaining ground on gold, the traditional store of value. Data shows that one ounce of gold can only buy 0.0352 Bitcoin as of Feb. 17, the lowest amount of BTC ever. This shows that Bitcoin has been rewarding its investors much more than gold. Bitcoin has massively outperformed gold over various time frames. Even if the latest one-year data is considered, Bitcoin’s risk-adjusted return is 270%, while gold's is only 24% as of Dec. 28, 2020. The result further skews hugely in favor of Bitcoin if longer time frames of four years or eight years are …

The changing of the guard at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission seems to have affected any possible pretrial settlement in the SEC’s case against Ripple. This conclusion was part of a joint discovery letter filed on Monday before Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Commenting on the prospects of a pretrial settlement, the letter reads: “Counsel for the parties have met and conferred and, having previously discussed settlement, do not believe there is a prospect for settlement at this time. However, the parties will promptly notify the Court if …

A large part of the current crypto bull run has been driven by institutional demand. But for the first time, the institutions may be stepping back. According to CryptoQuant, the Coinbase Premium Index — the difference in Bitcoin’s (BTC) price on Coinbase Pro and Binance — has turned negative, which suggests that pro traders may be taking profits. The institutional selling needs to be monitored closely because roughly 3% of the Bitcoin in circulation is held by these investors. If they start to dump their positions, that could result in an exodus by other traders, leading to a sharp pullback. …

Financial regulators across the world finally seem to be warming up to the idea that cryptocurrencies can trade in tandem with stock markets and also in exchange-traded funds (ETF). On Feb. 11, Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission approved the proposal of a Bitcoin ETF by Accelerate Financial, which marks the first approval of a Bitcoin (BTC) ETF in North America. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has also softened its stance toward a Bitcoin ETF. ASIC commissioner Cathie Armour said a Bitcoin ETF may get the green light if the particular market has proper rules in place. The approval of Bitcoin …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) market capitalization topped $889 billion on Feb. 9, pushing BTC above the value of Tesla and the Russian ruble, according to data from AssetDash. The current rally is longer limited to Bitcoin as several altcoins have been surging in the past few days. This shows the buying interest is broad-based and today the total crypto market cap surpassed $1.4 trillion. While the positive news flow and price rise in most cryptocurrencies may give the impression that the bull run will never stop, traders should be careful because every bull phase witnesses periodic corrections. Another important thing to note …

XRP briefly lost its top-three altcoin position on Feb. 9 after newcomer Polkadot (DOT) overtook its market cap in an ongoing altcoin shake-up. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and CoinMarketCap confirms that XRP is now barely holding on to the fifth-largest cryptocurrency spot and could soon leave the top five altogether. Ripple gets flippled... a second time The new order among large cap altcoins comes as a new "altseason" hits the market, with investors' chosen targets differing considerably from the last in early 2018. Among the victims is Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which as Cointelegraph reported was removed from the top ten …