Bitcoin Steady Around $35,000, XRP Drops Nearly 50%

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Principal Points

• Bitcoin remains well bid for a second day
• XRP crashes following a strong buying wave

Bitcoin is keeping steady and moderately to the upside for the week as the cryptocurrency market is taking a breather after a tumultuous end of January. The price for a single bitcoin is gravitating towards $35,000. Before that, market participants hyped up the number one digital coin after Tesla chief, Elon Musk, sparked a rally on Friday after adding “#bitcoin” to his personal Twitter account. This morning, the billionaire entrepreneur announced on Twitter, that he is staying “off Twitter for a while”. Mr. Musk’s comment comes after his recent remarks on single stocks, cryptocurrencies, and short bets ignited a debate over his power to influence the market as a result of his suggestions about different assets. Elon Musk sided with the retail trading community over its attack on Wall Street, which resulted in a billion-dollar loss for Melvin Capital, a hedge fund that was short on GameStop before the trading crowd boosted its price higher by 1,700%.

Mr. Musk, who has long been a supporter of bitcoin and still boasts the same hashtag in his Twitter bio, recently said that “bitcoin is a good thing”, while also adding that he is “late to the party”. The rally he has sparked on Friday has mostly fizzled out by now. Bitcoin made a weekly low that’s close to $32,000 late on Monday and has now recovered a bit to trade around $35,000-$35,500.

The Retail Trading Community

January was a volatile period for the number one cryptocurrency. Bitcoin experienced its highest level on record in the first days of the month, reaching near $42,000. The climb was boosted by institutional investments and wider public interest. Since then, the price of bitcoin has gradually come down to reach a low of about $29,000. For January, bitcoin registered an increase of over 11%.

As volatility has receded, the controversial XRP coin is down nearly 50% in the last 24 hours. XRP, dormant for the bigger portion of last month, posted its biggest single-day gain in 3 years in a strong buying wave on Monday. Allegedly, a group of retail investors, similar to the crowd that piled onto GameStop, pumped the price of XRP in a coordinated buying attack. The crash that followed later on Monday took the price from over $0.72 to $0.34 in a matter of hours.

Elsewhere, the retail trading community remains determined to continue its fight against big banks and hedge funds. GameStop, however, shows signs of fatigue as the price dropped from $316 to $225 during the US session on Monday. In pre-market trading hours today, the stock’s slide continues, down 25% ahead of the opening.

As the new target of retail speculators, Silver attempted to conquer the $30 level yesterday. The rally, which took the price higher by 13%, was short-lived and now the price of silver is back below $28, currently at $27.65.

Heading to US markets, the futures ahead of the opening are trading in the green as investors remain optimistic over the stimulus package, increasing the speed of vaccination rate and receding retail speculation activity. Futures tied to the Dow, S&P500, and Nasdaq tick up by almost 1.00% each.