XRP Rallies 8% as Bitcoin and Ether Trade Flat Ahead of Fed

Crypto markets dipped slightly on Wednesday as traders awaited the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate decision, expected later this afternoon.

Ethereum (ETH) is down 0.3% to $3,320, while Bitcoin (BTC) dipped 0.7%,to $66,000. Solana (SOL) gained 0.5%, and Polkadot (DOT) fell 2%.

The overall market slump can be attributed to several factors, including fears of a selloff after large amounts of Bitcoin were moved by Mt. Gox and the U.S. government.

On Wednesday, Mt. Gox moved approximately 47,229 BTC, valued at around $3.12 billion, into three unknown wallets within a span of three hours, as per Lookonchain. Since July 5, the trustee overseeing the defunct exchange’s assets has moved 61,559 BTC — worth approximately $3.89 billion — to Bitstamp, Kraken, Bitbank, and SBI VC Trade for repayments to creditors.

This follows Monday’s transfer by the U.S. Marshals Service, which moved $2 billion in Bitcoin to two new wallets, as reported by Arkham Intelligence.

In the past 24 hours, over 45,929 leveraged traders were liquidated, with total liquidations amounting to $119.68 million, as per CoinGlass data.

XRP Rallies 8%

Ripple’s XRP has rallied 8% in the past 24 hours, making it the only asset among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap to post significant gains.

The rally comes after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) amended its lawsuit against Binance on Tuesday, with the agency no longer alleging that Binance offered third-party securities in contravention of U.S. laws.

Though the filing did not directly name any tokens, the XRP community is optimistic that the longstanding legal battle between the SEC and Ripple Labs, which revolves around whether XRP is considered a security, may be nearing a resolution.

“The SEC is dropping cases, no longer going after classifying tokens like Solana and Cardano as securities. All it takes is for the SEC to say they withdraw… and it’s over. The tides are in our favor,” tweeted Chad Steingraber, a member of the XRP community. “SEC vs Ripple can end AT ANYTIME.”

“SEC basically saying officially that crypto isn’t a security, love not seeing XRP mentioned,” another member tweeted. “By saying that basically all cryptocurrencies are not securities, why would XRP be one? Plus, how can a smart contract be a security?”

According to the on-chain analytics platform Santiment, the number of wallets holding at least 10,000 XRP has surged over the past five weeks. Currently, there are 279,400 such addresses, marking a six-month high.

Ethereum ETFs Record Positive Inflows

After four consecutive days of net outflows, Ethereum ETFs recorded positive inflows of $33.7 million on Tuesday, according to Farside Investors data. BlackRock’s ETHA gained $118 million, followed by Fidelity’s FETH with $16 million, and Grayscale Mini ETH with $12.4 million in inflows. However, Grayscale’s ETHE experienced its fifth consecutive day of outflows, which now total $1.8 billion.

“The volatility premium of ETH to BTC has also widened to about 8% for the longer tenor expiries from 4% last week,” QCP Capital wrote in a market analysis.

The firm expects that macroeconomic factors will be a major focus this week. “Key events starting with the FOMC meeting on Wednesday, megacap tech earnings (Apple, Amazon, Meta) throughout the week, and unemployment data on Friday.”

As investors awaited the Federal Reserve monetary policy decision on Wednesday, stock futures were relatively unchanged. Leading up to the announcement, traders will be closely watching economic data on private payrolls, scheduled for release in the morning.