Ripple Market Update: XRP is the least-favored altcoin in Japan

The Japanese traders prefer Bitcoin over XRP, according to the recent research published by  Japan Virtual and Crypto Assets Exchange Association (JVCEA) on August 19. The analysts found out that investors tend to sell XRPs and other altcoins to buy Bitcoin as the share of BTC in the total transactions value on the cryptocurrency exchanges catapulted to 87%. Meanwhile, the number of active accounts hit the all-time high at 13,987 in April 2020 (the latest available data). 

Yuya Hasegawa, a market analyst at Japan-based crypto exchange Bitbank commented: 

It seems like Japanese investors’ overall interest in altcoins has been shrinking over time relative to their interests in Bitcoin . Given the growth in the number of active accounts, the vast majority of the newer market participants in Japan, particularly since last summer, are likely to be interested only in Bitcoin.

Notably, XRP is the least-favored altcoin among the Japanese traders as the share of this coin in the local cryptocurrency transactions dropped 5% from 40%.

XRP/USD: The technical picture

XRP/USD has been in decline since the start of the day. The third-largest digital asset has lost nearly 2% on Monday, though it is still in a green zone on a day-to-day basis. At the time of writing, XRP/USD is changing hands below $0.2800 with short-term bullish bias amid low volatility. 

On the daily chart, XRP/USD bumped into a local resistance of $0.2850. This barrier is reinforced by the intraday high and middle line of the daily Bollinger Band. Once it is out of the way, the upside is likely to gain traction with the next focus on  $0.2900 and $0.3000. However. considering the downward-looking RSI on a daily chart, the bearish correction with the first aim at $0.2700 looks likely at this stage. If it is broke, the sell-off may be extended towards the net target of $0.2600 reinforced by the daily SMA50 and the lower line of the daily Bollinger Band.

XRP/USD daily chart