XRP gains; Bitcoin Ordinals bump NFT sales; US investor sentiment up on positive default talks

Bitcoin and Ether prices fell on Friday morning in Asia. After a bullish run, Litecoin joined most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies in recording losses. XRP was the sole winner. It recorded gains following the launch of its new central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform by its issuer Ripple. U.S. equity futures moved higher after a strong rally in regular trading Thursday. Positive earnings reports, debt ceiling talks both played a role.

See related article: Is Tether unmoored — or just dandy?

Ripple XRP makes standout gain

Bitcoin fell 1.97% to US$26,852.75 in the 24 hours to 7:45 a.m. Friday in Hong Kong, down 0.67% over the last seven days according to CoinMarketCap data. 

The dip back below the $27,000 threshold indicated a return to a bearish trend following gains Thursday. That trend should be short lived, however, said financial analyst Tone Vays during an interview.

“I do believe that we have bottomed. We are now in a halving cycle which tends to have Bitcoin go up with less than one year to the halving event.”

Halving refers to a pre-programmed reduction of the rate at which new tokens are created, which reduces supply and can drive prices higher. 

“We have had an extended bear market and it’s just time for Bitcoin to rise again,” Vays added.

Like Bitcoin, Ether fell 0.92% to US$1,804.6. However, it posted gains of 0.29% for the week.

Ripple XRP was the sole gainer among the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies. It gained 2.68% to US$0.4607 while adding 9.13% in the last seven days. 

Those gains followed an announcement Thursday by XRP issuer Ripple Labs. The payment protocol and exchange network said it is launching a platform for a CBDC as part of Hong Kong’s inaugural e-HKD (electronic Hong Kong dollar) pilot program.

The Ripple platform will offer a “frictionless end-to-end solution for central banks, governments, and financial institutions to issue their own central bank digital currency,” according to a company press release. 

Ripple will partner with Taiwan-based Fubon Bank on the project.

The announcement followed further Ripple related news earlier this week. On Wednesday, a U.S. federal judge denied a motion filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to prevent public access to the so-called Hinman document.

These internal documents relate to former SEC director William Hinman’s comments that Bitcoin and Ether are not financial securities. The decision is considered a win for Ripple Labs in its ongoing legal dispute with the SEC. The regulator accuses them of providing unregistered securities.

Elsewhere, most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded lower. Solana led the losers. It fell 3.4% to US$20.36, but was up 0.37% over the past seven days.

Litecoin lost ground after a bullish week. It was down 3.37% to US$90.77.

The Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency had seen a surge in recent interest. This was mainly due to congestion and higher transaction fees on the Bitcoin network associated with the current popularity of ordinals. The Litecoin network has also now seen its own surge in ordinal inscriptions.

On the recent popularity of ordinals on the Bitcoin network in particular, Vays identified a solution to the operational issues it raises.

“The Bitcoin main chain was not really designed for this kind of purpose,” he said. “Yes, the Bitcoin blockchain can be used for these kinds of projects. I just wish they were done on the Liquid sidechain.” 

The layer 2 solution Liquid offers ways to incorporate ordinals and other initiatives on the Bitcoin blockchain without raising transactions fees, he added.

The total crypto market capitalization fell 1.44% in the past 24 hours to US$1.12 trillion. Total trading volume lost 6.46% to US$32.07 billion.

Space Pepe NFTs soar 28270%

The indexes are proxy measures of the performance of the global NFT market. They are managed by CryptoSlam, a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella.

In the non-fungible token market, the Forkast 500 NFT index rose 0.1% to 3,387.40 points in the 24 hours to 9:30 a.m. in Hong Kong. It was up 0.1% over the last seven days.

24-hour NFT sales on Ethereum, the leading blockchain for NFTs, fell 17.31% to US$14.4 million. Sales on the Bitcoin blockchain also lost 11.45% according to CryptoSlam! data to US$6.9 million.

Space Pepes, a Bitcoin NFT collection based on the Pepe the Frog meme, skyrocketed 28270% to US$7.3 million in the last 24 hours leading up to 11:30 a.m. in Hong Kong. The collection topped Cryptoslam’s NFT collection ranking by sales volume.

Uncategorized Ordinals — Cryptoslam’s category of Bitcoin Ordinals that are not part of one established collection — rose 140.12% to US$1.9 million over the past 24 hours.

The Mythos blockchain-based DMarket NFT collection ranked second. DMarket consists of online gaming NFTs traded on the game-item marketplace of the same name. It was acquired by blockchain game maker Mythical Games in January this year.

In individual NFT sales, Bored Ape Yacht Club’s #5042 registered the highest price. It sold for US$172,135.