Crypto Today: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP gains slow down, traders keep eyes peeled for ETH ETF approval

• Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP price rallies grind to a halt as crypto traders keep eyes peeled for Spot Ethereum ETF approval by SEC. 
• XRP erased recent gains and slipped under key support at $0.60, early on Thursday. 
• Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Brett and Mog Coin suffered corrections in the last 24 hours. 

Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP updates

• Bitcoin trades at $64,691, at the time of writing. The asset erased recent gains and hovers close to the $65,000 level. This is considered a key level for the asset. Glassnode data shows that the eleven spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) issuers hold over 887,000 Bitcoin, ranking second among the largest Bitcoin pools, after centralized exchanges. Bitcoin price holds $64,000 on ETF inflows and positive on-chain data
• Ethereum trades at $3,460 at the time of writing, as ETH holders await the final US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) approval on Spot ETFs. Crypto analyst Jacob Canfield believes, contrary to popular belief, ETF approval could usher a decline in Ether price as Grayscale sets fees ten times higher than competitors. This could result in a similar selling pressure on Ethereum, as experienced by Bitcoin, per Canfield’s tweet. 

• SEC green flags Grayscale and ProShares Spot Ethereum ETF, what’s next for Ethereum ecosystem tokens
• Ripple erased 8% of its value on Thursday, dropping under key support at $0.60. XRP Ledger’s native token erased all gains catalyzed by anticipation of the end of SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit. 
• XRP erases gains, loses 7% value on Thursday as Ripple traders take $111 million in profits

Chart of the day

ENA/USDT daily chart

Ethena (ENA) trades at $0.478 at the time of writing. ENA is rallying early on Thursday. The token could extend gains by 20% and hit the lower boundary of the Fair Value Gap (FVG) between June 22 and June 24 at $0.573. 

The momentum indicator, Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), flashes green histogram bars, supporting the positive underlying momentum in ENA. 

ENA could find support at July 16 low of $0.445 in the event of a correction. 

Market updates

• CoinGecko published its Q2 2024 report on crypto, key highlights include:
  • Total crypto market capitalization declined 14.4% in 2024 Q2
  • Bitcoin erased nearly 12% value in 2024 Q2
  • Among the top 15 CoinGecko categories were meme coins, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Real World Assets (RWA)
• Ethereum’s largest scaling protocol Polygon announced then date of migration of MATIC to POL. The date is set as September 4 and in the initial phase POL will replace MATIC as the native gas and staking token. 

• WazirX, an Indian crypto exchange, suffered a $235 million exploit early on Thursday. The exploiter sold over $102 million worth of Shiba Inu, per Arkham data. 

Industry updates

• BlockFi, a bankrupt crypto lender, is expected to commence distribution of crypto to creditors through Coinbase exchange in July, according to an official tweet. 

• Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse slams the US for making crypto a “partisan” issue when elsewhere in the world it is considered an innovation in technology, in a recent interview. 

• Legendary Trader Peter Brandt expresses concern over Bitcoin’s decline in an official tweet on X.

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