Bitcoin’s Chop Continues, XRP Gains as Ripple v. SEC Trial Begins, and More: This Week’s Crypto Recap

The market continues to chop, clearly unable to pick a definitive direction throughout the past seven days. The total capitalization currently stands at around $2.5 trillion, more or less where it was during the same time last week. However, there’s been substantial volatility, sending many leveraged traders into liquidations. Let’s have a look.

Starting with Bitcoin, it has failed to make any progress during the past seven days, but this wasn’t due to a lack of effort. On Monday, April 22nd, BTC bulls took its price toward the higher end of the current range—above $66K. Critical technical resistance lies at around $68K, and the bulls attempted to break above it on two separate occasions—one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.

Both of these were unsuccessful. It appears that this gave the bears a lot of confidence, and they pushed the price back toward the lower spectrum of the range. Bitcoin currently trades at around $64K.

A lot of the altcoins, however, managed to capitalize on this indecision, charting certain gains.

For example, ETH is up 1.1% during the same period, XRP gained more than 4%, SHIB skyrocketed by 9.2%, TRX – by 8.8%, and so forth. BNB is the largest top-performing altcoin, increasing by almost 8% in the past seven days.

In terms of what happened, perhaps the most notable event is the beginning of the trial between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Ripple Labs. It’s a lawsuit that’s been dragged on for many years, and it has just entered its final phase. Some experts are already speculating that a settlement is incoming, while others vouch for a more decisive victory for the company behind XRP.

The SEC also got involved in another lawsuit, but this time it was on the receiving end. Consensys – one of the biggest companies in the industry – filed against it, arguing that its potential regulations could seriously harm the blockchain industry in the United States.

With over a week after the Bitcoin halving, it’s interesting to see how the market will develop in the near future. If one thing is sure, it’s that boring days are a rarity in the industry, and there might be a surge of volatility right around the corner.

Market Data

Market Cap: $2.49T | 24H Vol: $84B | BTC Dominance: 50.9%

BTC: $64,351 (-0.9%) | ETH: $3,140 (+1.2%) | BNB: $603 (+7.9%)

This Week’s Crypto News You Better Not Miss

Tether CEO: Bitcoin Is the Most Beautiful Currency in the World (Token2049 Dubai Interview). During the Token2049 conference in Dubai, CryptoPotato sat down with the CEO of the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, Tether (USDT). Find out what he had to say about the market and the industry’s future.

How to Stake Polkadot (DOT): The Ultimate Guide. Polkadot is one of the leading cryptocurrencies by means of development activity and total market capitalization. In this guide, we take an in-depth look at the intricacies of Polkadot staking and how to do it.

Here’s What Will Drive Bitcoin to $150K After the Halving: Standard Chartered. An analyst from Standard Chartered, who’s also the head of digital asset research – Geoff Kendrick, thinks that Bitcoin’s price is likely to trend higher following the halving. Check out the reasons why and how high it could go.

Consensys Files Lawsuit Against SEC Over Ethereum Regulation. Crypto heavyweight Consensys has filed a lawsuit against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The company stipulates that the Commission’s potential regulation poses risks to the US blockchain tech industry.

 SEC Likely To Deny Ethereum Spot ETFs In May: Reuters. Industry experts seem to believe that the Ethereum (ETH) ETF will likely be denied approval for public trading by regulators in May. Here’s why.

Instagram Influencer Jay Mazini Sentenced to 7 Years for $8 Million Fraud Scheme. From riches to rags: United States District Judge Frederic Block has sentenced popular Instagram influencer Jay Mazini to seven years in prison. He’s been found guilty of multiple fraud schemes and scams.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Shiba Inu, and Polkadot – click here for the complete price analysis.