Like bitcoin continues to trade sluggishly near $75,000, several other crypto projects are showing notable development.
Among them is XRP (XRP), the payments-focused token used by fintech firm Ripple to facilitate cross-border transactions. US-listed spot XRP ETFs drew more than $17 million in inflows on Wednesday, the most since February 2, according to data source SoSoValue. While smaller than the flows seen in bitcoin ETFs, it nonetheless points to a revival in demand for XRP after an extended period of subdued activity marked by little or no uptake.
The news flow has also been encouraging. Ripple has partnered with Kyobo Life Insurance to pilot South Korea’s first real-time tokenized government bond settlement system on the blockchain.
Additionally, XRP’s derivatives market is flashing bullish signals with open interest (OI) rising alongside positive funding rates and cumulative volume delta. OI has jumped to 1.89 billion XRP, a level last seen in late March, according to Coinglass data.
The other notable development is stablecoin-focused layer-1 blockchain Plasma, which has become the world’s seventh-largest blockchain by total value locked (TVL), a measure of the dollar value of assets on the network.
At the time of writing, TVL stood at $2 billion, up 27% over the past week and more than 80% over the past 30 days, according to DeFiLlama. The driver behind the growth is not clear, but may be linked to rising optimism around the CLARITY Act, which is nearing approval in the US, as noted by JPMorgan.
The act is a proposed US bill that seeks to clarify how digital assets, including stablecoins, are regulated and which agencies oversee them.
In addition, Plasma is among a select group of networks, along with Ethereum and Arbitrum, chosen to support Tether’s new self-service wallet, Tether Wallet, which was announced earlier this week.
Finally there is the meme-inspired token. Bollinger Bands, volatility indicators plotted two standard deviations above and below the token’s price, are currently at their tightest since February 2024, typically signaling a period of low volatility likely to end with significant price swings.
As for the market leader, bitcoin, the combination of onchain profit-taking, uneven spot demand and cautious options suggests continued rangeplay near $75,000. Pay attention!
Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today. For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
What is trending
Today’s signal
The chart shows dogecoin’s (DOGE) daily price swings in candlestick format. Superimposed on the chart are the Bollinger Bands, which are compressed to their narrowest in over two years
Squeeze signals an extended period of low volatility, marked by muted price action, with neither buyers nor sellers able to establish a clear trend. Such situations are eventually resolved in a decisive outbreak. This often leads to excessive movement and volatility boom.
Note that this gives no indication of direction. A widening of volatility can just as easily result in a strong rally as it could in a steep decline.
The main takeaway is the size. When dogecoin eventually breaks out of this low-volatility regime, the resulting move is likely to be significant and rapid. So far, however, the market remains in a holding pattern.
