Bitcoin bullish run looks to have come to a halt amidst an altcoin rally which has seen relatively lower coins put up impressive performances in the past few weeks. Bitcoin dominance is gradually fading as many experts believe the biggest digital coin is backing down as some top altcoin are showing strong “moves” or signals. 

Bitcoin hit an all-time high over the weekend, the third time its price has done so in just over 2 months. The price of the biggest digital coin touched $28,400 on December 27, before a lightning drop took it to $27,000 just hours of that incredible feat. 

Bitcoin failed to hold onto the $27,000 mark as its price further dropped to $26,000 a day after and is now testing lower levels centered on $26,000 as immediate support. Reports from crypto exchanges revealed BTC/USD trading at lows of $25,830 during the early hours of December 29. 

While Bitcoin has seen red over a couple of days, some altcoins are putting up impressive numbers, giving off signals of a strong altcoin rally. Despite XRP’s current issues, the altcoin market is showing glimpses of its glory days as some digital coins are poised to see major gains over the next couple of weeks. Ethereum (ETH) is at the forefront of the rally, with its price climbing above $700 for the first time since May 2018. 

Polkadot (DOT) also saw daily gains of 22.5% wrapping up an impressive week with an almost 34% rise in its value. The coin is now the seventh-largest token by market cap. Kusama (KSM), a cousin of Polkadot, also saw its price gain 46% last week, pushing its price from $43.1 to $63. The digital token is currently trading at $56 but experts are adamant a breakout above $65 is possible as the token has rebounded off the 20-day exponential moving average ($50.90)

Speaking on the possibility of a long term altcoin rally, analyst Van de Poppe stated that altcoins are next in line to see greens. He added that the next “impulse wave” on Bitcoin next year should be able to take the market to $40,000 or $50,000, but until then, the possibility of a continuance altcoin rally is very much likely.

Although many factors could be in play with regards to the latest Bitcoin price dip, it’s recent fallout with Ripple’s XRP leads the way. Ripple was hit with a lawsuit from the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and subsequently suffered drops that left its price in a pit. XRP, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is now trading at $0.20 as news broke that Coinbase, a major US cryptocurrency exchange has decided to suspend its trading from next month.

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XRP investors have met with an unfortunate fate. It has been a rocky ride for XRP investors as the cryptocurrency has been heading south after the SEC lawsuit. From its monthly high of $0.66 on December 1st, XRP has reduced to only 1/3rd of the price. At press time, XRP is trading 20% trading at $0.22 with a market cap of $10.3 billion. The latest price crash comes amid crypto exchange Coinbase announcing its plan to suspend XRP trading starting January 19, 2020.

Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewar writes that the latest suspension comes amid the SEC lawsuit against Ripple Labs. Also, in the official announcement, Grewar writes:

“We have made the decision to suspend the XRP trading pairs on our platform. Trading will move into limit only starting December 28, 2020 at 2:30 PM PST, and will be fully suspended on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, at 10 a.m. PST. The trading suspension will not affect customers’ access to XRP wallets which will remain available for deposit and withdraw functionality after the trading suspension. We will continue to support XRP on Coinbase Custody and Coinbase Wallet”.

Coinbase joins Bitstamp as one of the top crypto exchanges to suspend XRP trading in recent times. There have been several other exchanges that have announced XRP trading suspension in recent times. Following the Coinbase announcement today, another major crypto exchange Crypto.com also announced its decision to delist the crypto asset.

$XRP will be delisted from the https://t.co/vCNztABJoG App in the U.S. effective Jan 19th, 2021 at 10am UTC.

Details: https://t.co/aja3yrhxCe

— Crypto.com (@cryptocom) December 29, 2020

The Road to XRP Recovery Isn’t an Easy One with Measures by Coinbase and Others

It looks like XRP’s road to recovery ain’t going to be an easy one! Over the last few years, the SEC has conducted a crackdown on several such crypto projects. Speaking to CoinTelegraph, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said:

“SEC and Ripple will have their day in court with due process of law, so we shall not prejudge the case in the court of public opinion. It is of course likely that the case will take up much of Ripple’s attention and resources. […] We hope a clear precedent and framework emerge from these proceedings.”

Furthermore, the SEC has accused Ripple of selling unregistered XRP securities under Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1993. Also, the case will proceed further in the New York Federal Court. Todd Crosland, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange CoinZoom said that the lawsuit will have a long-lasting impact on XRP price.

XRP which has already been a laggard performer over the last two years will continue trading at lower levels even further. While institutional players have been betting big on crypto, they will refrain from having any exposure to XRP.

“Lack of institutional support will hurt liquidity. Institutions will not bet against the SEC, and will be unloading their positions and will avoid taking new positions in XRP until the lawsuit is resolved,” said Crosland.

The only hope for XRP currently is the appointment of new crypto-friendly SEC chairman Elad Roisman. Soon after filing the lawsuit complaint, previous SEC chairman Jay Clayton submitted his resignation. However, we don’t expect things to improve anytime soon.

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This year, the coronavirus pandemic has upended the market and challenged investors, both institutional and individual. Morningstar Inc (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, has conducted research to figure out how US top funds behaved during this hard time and what were the major trends on the market this year. It turned out that funds betting on tech stocks and digital currencies became winners in 2020. Meanwhile, funds that banked on oil and gas companies dropped by nearly 100%.

When COVID-19 broke out, the whole market collapsed, with tech stocks reaching their troughs in March. However, after that, they showed excellent performance, with a more than 60% comeback. Therefore, funds that took a risk and invested in tech stocks, gained billions of dollars this year. The same with funds that bet on digital currencies. For example, one of the US top funds, Grayscale Ethereum Trust that holds Ethereum (ETH), has soared by 333.7% as of December 9. The Bank of Montreal MicroSectors FANG+ 3X Leveraged ETN and the Bank of Montreal MicroSectors FANG+ 2X Leveraged ETN (both of them invest in so-called FANG stocks) reported returns of 301.9% and 201.9% respectively. Such a jump made them the second and third-best performing funds in 2020.

Meanwhile, funds that trusted oil and gas, suffered losses. In particular, the Direxion Daily S&P Oil&Gas E&P 2X ETF lost 97.3% this year. The Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Bear 2X ETF plunged 95.5% in 2020.

2020 Best-Buy Stocks and Cryptos that Contribute to US Top Funds

This year, tech stocks included in FANG, FAANG, and FANGMAN were the best performance. For example, the stock of US top online retailer Amazon Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) gained as much as 71.70% year-to-date. The company took advantage of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders that resulted in increased demand for online shopping. Shares of Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) soared by 79.77% year-to-date. Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) stock added 58.84% this year.

Shares of pharma giants involved in the coronavirus vaccine race have also benefited from the pandemic. To name a few, Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) stock has soared by 530.83%, Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO) shares are 210.91% up year-to-date. The stock of another pharma giant Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) has gained as much as 3,149.75%.

As for cryptocurrencies, their popularity is becoming wider. In comparison with 2017, when the crypto market data provider CoinMarketCap listed about 80 coins, this number has reached 5,000 this year. Bitcoin (BTC) remains the leading position, followed by Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), XRP (XRP), Litecoin (LTC). Bitcoin Cash (BCH), EOS, Stellar (XLM) have been showing strong performance this year as well.

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