XRP price up nearly 10% as bulls break above $0.50

  • XRP price rose nearly 10% to highs above $0.50 on Tuesday.
  • Ripple is set for a court decision in its battle with the SEC, with social dominance for XRP rising.
  • XRP price is up amid increased volume, with support for the XRP/TUSD pair on Binance added on 29 March.

The price of XRP soared nearly 10% on Tuesday morning to break above $0.50 for its highest level since early November. The XRP price is up 32% this past week.

XRP’s gains came as the broader cryptocurrency market endured yet another slow day, with action muted as the community digested recent news around major cryptocurrency exchange Binance. 

As of 11 am ET on 28 March, the XRP token traded at $0.5045, the highest price for the Ripple cryptocurrency since 5 November 2022 when it sharply dropped from above 50 cents to lows of $0.33.

XRP price outlook amid volume spike

Today’s upside comes after a week of growing positivity for XRP, with expectations over the SEC vs. Ripple Labs case helping return huge volume to the top 10 crypto.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) terming Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin as commodities in its complaint against Binance has only helped to fuel sentiment that XRP will be declared a commodity and not security when its court battle with the US regulator concludes.

On Monday, John Deaton, the founder of Crypto Law and a blockchain enthusiast, suggested that XRP offers the best risk/reward ratio.

“The Judge’s ruling is coming down w/in the next few weeks (maybe this week). If the SEC wins, what’s the downside from .45? Ripple appeals and we get the status quo. Ripple wins and its made clear XRP isn’t a security? Upside?”

This outlook for XRP has persisted over the past few days, with trading volume spiking as the network experienced increased mainstream interest.

According to on-chain data platform Santiment, XRP’s breakout to a 50-week high coincides with XRP Network’s social dominance bursting to a new year-high level. This has only added to increased crowd recognition, suggesting the cryptocurrency could see further upside volatility as volume spikes.

Binance’s announcement that it will support for the XRP/TUSD pair starting 29 March, 2023 has also contributed the social chatter that’s seeing XRP price look to test new multi-month highs.

However, while bulls might have a chance to extend gains above $0.50, chances of a short term sell-off are likely given the outcome of the SEC case as well as prevailing market sentiment. If profit taking intensifies, its possible XRP could retreat to recent support near $0.36.

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Kaspa price is soaring after more exchange listings

  • Kaspa has been one of the top-performing cryptocurrencies in March.

  • The coin jumped sharply after more exchanges listed the coin.

Kaspa price has done well in March, making it one of the top-performing cryptocurrencies in the industry. It jumped to a high of $0.023, which was about 2,400% above the lowest level in November last year. Its total market cap has jumped to over $397 million.

What is Kaspa?

Kaspa is an upcoming cryptocurrency that aims to become the best alternative to Bitcoin. It is a proof-of-work coin that seeks to become the fastest crypto in the industry. The coin has a block second of about 1 second and a maximum supply of over 28 billion coins.

It is unclear why Kaspa price jumped sharply in March. A likely reason is that the number of cryptocurrency exchanges started listing the coin. For example, on March, Gate.io listed the coin and enabled the KAS/USDT pair.

Kaspa’s coin was also embraced by other exchanges like DigiFinex and XT.com. On Tuesday, the coin was listed in HotBit, which will expose it to more customers. Data compiled by CoinMarketCap shows that most KAS/USDT pair was traded in MEXC, which has a 54% market share. Other popular providers of the coin are Txbit, Gate.io, and CoinEx, among others.

Kaspa’s rally is also because of the broader strength of the crypto market. Bitcoin jumped to over $28,500 in March while the total market cap of all digital coins jumped to over $1.2 trillion.

Kaspa price prediction

The 4H chart shows that the KAS/USDT price has been in a strong bullish trend in the past few days. It has managed to move above the key resistance at $0015, the highest level on March 2. The coin has jumped above all moving averages while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has moved above the overbought level. 

Further, the Stochastic Oscillator has moved above the overbought level. Therefore, there is a possibility that the coin will pull back in the coming days as buyers start to take profits. If this happens, the next key support level to watch will be $0.15, which is about 33% below the current level.

How to buy Kaspa

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BNB/USD price forecast amid CFTC suing Binance for crypto trading violations

  • CFTC sues Binance for trading violations 
  • BNBUSD bearish bias persists
  • $200 is a major support area

The cryptocurrency market is hit with another scandal as news that CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) is suing Binance for trading violations. As it turns out, Binance is accused of having over 300 trading accounts under the control of CZ, and these accounts trade crypto.

The problem is that it is easy to manipulate market prices through a tactic known as wash trading. Binance’s image is affected, and it might impact its coin, too, BNB.

BNB is the cryptocurrency coin that powers the BNB Chain ecosystem. It traded as high as $700 during the 2021 bull market but has given up more than half of its gains since then.

So what do the charts tell us about the next possible direction for the BNB/USD?

BNBUSD chart by TradingView

$200 is a major support area for BNB

After surging during the bull run of 2021, BNB/USD made a double top pattern around the $700 area. From that moment on, the bearish bias persisted, as the market was unable to break the series of lower highs.

Even the 2023 rally in the cryptocurrency market was not strong enough for the market to break above the previous lower high. As such, the bearish bias persists, and all eyes are now on the $200 area where the market found strong support previously.

Only a daily close above $400 would invalidate the bearish bias. Until then, the path of least resistance remains the downside.  

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Bankrupt BlockFi to refund over $100K to California clients

  • BlockFi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 28.
  • Some Califonia users continued to repay their loans between November 11 and November 22
  • Users were not notified until November 22 that they could stop repaying their Loans “until further notice.”

California’s financial watchdog, the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI), had previously suspended BlockFi’s lending license for 30 days from November 11, 2022, before later revoking BlockFi’s CFC license on December 15, 2022.

BlockFi halted client withdrawals on November 2022 and requested clients to deposit funds to BlockFi wallets or Interest Accounts for lack of clarity around the FTX collapse. The crypto lender later voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on November 28, 2022, alongside its eight other subsidiaries.

The DFPI claimed that BlockFi failed to “provide timely notification to borrowers that they could stop repaying their BlockFi loans.” The watchdog claims that the crypto lender did not notify borrowers until November 2022 that they could stop repaying their BlockFi loans “until further notice.”

About 111 California BlockFi users to get refunded

According to a statement issued by DFPI on March 27, investigations showed that at least 111 BlockFi borrowers from California continued paying their loans between November 11 and November 22, 2022. These borrowers paid back about $103,471 in loan repayments between the said periods.

BlockFi requested permission from the bankruptcy court to return the payments to the borrowers in a motion filed on February 24, 2023. The crypto lender has agreed to refund more than $100,000 to the California customers that continued repaying their crypto loans even after trading halted operations on November 10, 2022.

The hearing for the request to refund the customers is scheduled for April 19, 2023. The refunds will go ahead if the motion is approved by the bankruptcy court.

In the meantime, BlockFi has agreed to an “interim suspension” of its California Financing Law (CFL) license while “the bankruptcy and revocation actions are pending.”

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Binance’s CZ refutes CFTC’s claims of improper compliance procedures and trading

  • Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) made a surprise lawsuit against Binance.
  • The lawsuit has labelled Bitcoin, Ether, Binance USD, Tether and Litecoin as commodities.
  • CFTC also made allegations of market manipulation and a lack of compliance efforts.

Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao has rejected the allegations made by Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) against Binance and himself in the March 27 lawsuit.

On March 27, the US CFTC issued a 74-page complaint labelling Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance USD (BUSD), Litecoin (LTC), and Tether (USDT) as commodities and also accused Binance and Changpeng Zhao of market manipulation and lack of compliance.

CFTC has also accused Binance of not cooperating with the investigative subpoenas while also obscuring the location of its executive offices.

CZ calls CFTC’s claims incomplete recitation of facts

Binance’s CEO published a blog post arguing that the cryptocurrency exchange:

“Binance.com does not trade for profit or “manipulate” the market under any circumstances. Binance “trades” in a number of situations. Our revenues are in crypto. We do need to convert them from time-to-time to cover expenses in fiat or other crypto currencies. We have affiliates that provide liquidity for less liquid pairs. These affiliates are monitored specifically not to have large profits.”

In the lawsuit, the CFTC has accused Binance of trading on its own platform using 300 “house accounts” without properly disclosing the information to its customers in its Terms of Use. The CFTC says that the exchange has instead kept the information as a “top secret” and even refused to respond to the commission-issued investigative subpoenas looking for information about the said trading activity.

CZ also went ahead to disclose that he has two accounts with Binance: one for the card and one for crypto holding. He says in the blog post:

“Personally, I have two accounts at Binance: one for Binance Card, one for my crypto holdings. I eat our own dog food and store my crypto on Binance.com. I also need to convert crypto from time-to-time to pay for my personal expenses or for the Card.”

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