Cryptocurrency Market Update: XRP drops below $0.3000, ETH at risk of an extended correction

Here's what you need to know on Wednesday

Markets:

BTC/USD hit the intraday low at $11,086 during early Asian hours and recovered to $11,226 by press time. The first digital coin has stayed mostly unchanged on a day-to-day basis and since the beginning of the day, moving within a short-term bullish trend amid shrinking volatility.

At the time of writing, ETH/USD is changing hands at $388.50. The price touched the intraday high above $392.00 during early Asian hours but failed to hold the ground. ETH/USD has been locked in a tight range after unsuccessful attempts to clear $400. The coin is moving within a short-term bullish trend amid low volatility.

XRP/USD is changing hands at $0.2965. The price hit the intraday low of $0.2909 during early Asian hours and lost over 1.5% since the beginning of Wednesday. On a day-to-day basis, it is down over 4%. Now it is moving within the short-term bullish trend amid shrinking volatility.

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, Unibright (UBT) $0.5397 (+35.8%), The Midas Touch Gold (TMTG) $0.0336 (+34.3%), Band Protocol (BAND) $4.88 (+14.7%)  are the most successful.  The day's losers are  Ampleforth (AMPL) $0.8662 (-11.6%), Crypto.com Coin (CRO) $0.1594 (-6.9%), Terra (LUNA) $0.3262 (-4%).

Chart of the day:
XRP/USD, 30-min chart

Market

Ethereum attempted to clear the psychological area of $400 twice since the weekend; however, each time the rally resulted in a fierce sell-off. Experts are anxious that the coin may extend the downside correction in the nearest future. A well-known trader from Amsterdam Stock Exchange, Michaël van de Poppe aka Crypto Michaël, commented on Twitter:

Broke below the $390 level and is currently resting on final support before trend shift. If the $380-383 level is lost, I'm assuming we'll drop towards the next level at $360-364.

The market capitalization of Tether (USDT), the largest and the most popular stablecoin, surpassed $11 billion as demand for such cryptos continues to break records. The interest in stablecoins is driven by market volatility as investors spooked by March collapse look for safe havens.

Tether Market Cap Crossed $11B. The market cap of leading stablecoin #Tether has surpassed $11B and it's now $11.18B. This development represents a growth of 136% from the beginning of 2020. – CryptoRank tweet

Industry

Ethereum Foundation streamed the launch of Medalla, the final test version of Ethereum 2.0. Over 1700 users watched the process online. Medalla does not use real ETH and does not allow to earn real rewards. The network is a step towards the transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Medalla was launched on block #1596546008; while several validators failed to support the new testnet, the developers see it as a good chance to demonstrate the efficiency of the sustainability mechanism implemented in the new network.

Regulation

The Ministry of Economy in Kazakhstan prepared legislation to tax the revenues from cryptocurrency mining. The suggested measures will help to raise the state budget revenues. The draft bill was submitted for the discussion on August 3. The Ministry wants to approve the reporting procedures and change the regulations related to the tax residence. Thus, miners should be registered with the local tax authority as mining taxpayers.