XRP loses 3%, Bitcoin and Ethereum remain flat as Metaplanet sells BTC options

• XRP shed 3% on Thursday, sweeping liquidity to $0.5228.
• Bitcoin and Ethereum prices are almost flat as Metaplanet sells BTC options at the $62,000 strike price to earn a premium.
• BTC and ETH are trading at $60,499 and $2,355 respectively.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP Updates

• Bitcoin and Ethereum are down less than 1% on Thursday. Despite the slight decline, the top two cryptocurrencies by market cap are holding above support levels with no real direction.
• XRP corrected more than 3% on the day, trading at $0.5228. XRP holders are digesting the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) appeal against the final ruling in the Ripple lawsuit.
• Crypto asset manager Bitwise filed an S-1 filing on Wednesday for an XRP Spot ETF.

Chart of the Day: FTX Token (FTT)

FTX Token (FTT) is trending among the top cryptocurrencies with negative returns in the past 24 hours, according to Binance data. FTT wiped 8.72% of its value on Thursday. The token could extend its decline by another 10% and see liquidity drop to its September 30 low of $1.7276.

The MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) momentum indicator shows green histogram bars above the neutral line, but these bars are getting shorter, signaling that the underlying positive momentum in the FTT price is fading.

FTT/USDT Daily Chart

A daily candlestick close above $2.5247, the September 30 high, could invalidate the bearish thesis. In such a scenario, FTT could attempt a rally towards the September 29 high of $2.9900.

Market updates

• Metaplanet Inc, a Tokyo-listed Bitcoin holding firm, sold its BTC options to earn a premium of nearly 24 BTC worth $1.44 million.
• Grayscale, a crypto asset management firm, has introduced the Aave Trust, an investment product to help investors gain exposure to the AAVE token. AAVE is a lending and borrowing DeFi protocol.

Visa has announced the launch of a tokenized asset platform for issuing and managing digital assets. The move could boost cryptocurrency adoption.

Industry updates

• US SEC approves options for BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF. Options on an ETF will allow investors to gain exposure to the performance of the index and hedge against a decline in the asset’s price. Coin Bureau analysts explain why this approval is an optimistic catalyst for BTC.

• Bitcoin is experiencing a surge in “new” whales, meaning wallet addresses or entities that started accumulating BTC less than 12 months ago, Crypto Quant data shows.

Bitcoin’s Made Limit: New Whales Vs. old whales

• Spain’s second-largest bank, BBVA, plans to launch a stablecoin in 2025, according to a Fortune report. The bank has partnered with Visa and is likely to launch the stablecoin in the operational phase next year.