Crypto World
BIS report warns crypto exchanges’ rapid growth and lack of standardized rules leave users at risk
Crypto exchanges are increasingly offering bank-like services such as lending and yield products, but without the protection traditional financial institutions provide, according to a report issued Thursday by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
“What looks like a high-yield savings product is, in reality, an unsecured loan to a lightly regulated shadow bank,” said the report, which does not necessarily reflect the views of the BIS, an international financial institution owned by 63 central banks from around the world.
The 38-page report also noted that the crypto industry’s largest participants have evolved beyond simple trading platforms into what it described as “multifunction cryptoasset intermediaries,” bundling services that would typically be separated across banks, brokers and exchanges.
The authors said the biggest concern is how fast “earn” and yield products are growing, and that they are widely marketed to retail users as tools to generate passive income on their crypto assets. While these offerings often promise attractive returns, their structure is closer to unsecured lending than savings, the report said.
“These platforms are effectively taking deposits and recycling them into risky activities — but without the safeguards that make traditional banking stable.”
In many cases, crypto exchange users relinquish control and, sometimes even ownership, of their digital assets to the platform, which then uses the funds for lending, trading or market-making strategies. The returns paid to customers are a share of the profits generated from these activities.
While these arrangements are similar to bank deposits, they lack the insurance traditional finance offers. There may also be a lack of transparency on how the assets are used.
“From the customer’s perspective, these products are generally an unsecured claim on the intermediary,” the report said, warning that users are exposed to the platform’s solvency in the event of losses.
The BIS pointed to the collapse of Celsius Network and FTX as examples of how users are exposed and victims of the weaknesses it says are still rampant within the industry.
“What unraveled at Celsius and FTX wasn’t just poor management, it was a system built on leverage, opacity and deposit-like promises without protection,” the report said.
The report cited the flash crash of October 2025, which triggered an estimated $19 billion in forced liquidations across crypto derivatives markets, saying the slide highlighted how quickly these dynamics can spiral.
Senator Bernie Moreno declared at a Washington event on April 22 that the CLARITY Act must clear Congress by the end of May, stating plainly that missing that deadline could shelve the legislation indefinitely as midterm election politics consume the remainder of the congressional calendar.
Summary
- Senator Bernie Moreno set an end-of-May deadline for the CLARITY Act at a DC event on April 22, 2026, warning that failure to meet it could permanently delay the bill.
- Moreno’s statement pushed Polymarket odds of the CLARITY Act passing in 2026 from 38% to 46%, but Galaxy Research still puts chances at roughly 50-50 or lower.
- The bill faces five sequential hurdles after any Senate Banking Committee markup, and Congress breaks for Memorial Day recess on May 21, leaving an extremely narrow operational window.
Senator Bernie Moreno told attendees at a Washington event on April 22 that the CLARITY Act will get done by the end of May, and that failure to hit that window risks shelving the legislation indefinitely. “I think we’re going to get it done by the end of May,” Moreno said, according to Disruption Banking. His statement pushed Polymarket odds of the CLARITY Act passing in 2026 from 38% to 46%, though the prediction market remains far from confident.
Senator Moreno CLARITY Act Deadline Sets the Stakes for the Crypto Industry
Moreno also dismissed the stablecoin yield opposition from banking groups as noise. “There’s a lot of noise in the market, but most of it is fake,” he said, adding that banks need to innovate rather than block legislation. The comment came as the North Carolina Bankers Association was actively urging member banks to call Senator Thom Tillis’s office and demand changes to the stablecoin yield compromise that had already been negotiated with the crypto industry. As crypto.news reported, banking groups including the American Bankers Association have warned that allowing stablecoin rewards could drain up to $6.6 trillion in deposits from the banking system, a position the White House Council of Economic Advisers directly contradicted by calculating the lending impact of a yield ban at just 0.02%. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also warned publicly that regulatory delay pushes digital asset innovation toward Dubai and Singapore.
Why the May Window Is the Only Real Window Left
Congress breaks for Memorial Day recess on May 21, leaving fewer than four weeks of operational legislative time after Moreno’s April 22 statement. As crypto.news has tracked, even after a successful Banking Committee markup, the bill requires a 60-vote Senate floor threshold, reconciliation between the Senate Agriculture Committee and Banking Committee versions, reconciliation with the House-passed text from July 2025, and a presidential signature. That is four sequential steps after the markup, each a potential delay point. Galaxy Research analyst Alex Thorn noted that only approximately 18 working weeks remain before the October midterm recess, meaning every week of Senate inaction now shrinks the floor consideration window to the point where 2026 passage becomes structurally implausible without Banking Committee clearance this month.
Galaxy Research Puts Passage Odds at 50-50
As crypto.news documented, Galaxy Research has assessed the odds of the CLARITY Act being signed into law in 2026 at roughly 50-50, and possibly lower. “The uncertainty stems not from any single issue but from the sheer number of unresolved questions that must be settled in sequence under severe time pressure,” Galaxy said in a research note circulating this week. Senator Cynthia Lummis has gone further than Moreno in framing the stakes, warning publicly that missing this window means waiting until at least 2030, when a new Congress would need to restart the entire legislative process from the beginning. The Senate Banking Committee has not announced a markup date as of publication.
A lame duck session of Congress after the November elections has been floated by some industry insiders as a last-ditch fallback option if the May window closes, though Galaxy Research describes that scenario as low probability.
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TLDR
- Lido confirmed that its EarnETH vault has about 9% direct exposure to rsETH after the KelpDAO exploit.
- Lido paused EarnETH deposits and withdrawals while curators work through the fallout.
- The protocol stated that stETH and wstETH remain unaffected by the incident.
- The KelpDAO exploit involved 116500 rsETH valued at around $292 million at the time.
- Aave froze rsETH and wrsETH markets across deployments following the exploit.
Lido confirmed that its EarnETH vault holds about 9% direct exposure to rsETH after the KelpDAO exploit. The protocol paused deposits and withdrawals while curators address the fallout. It also stated that its core staking system, including stETH and wstETH, remains unaffected.
Lido Details EarnETH Exposure and Safeguards
Lido said its EarnETH vault carries roughly 9% direct exposure to rsETH following the April 18 exploit. The team paused deposits and withdrawals while curators assessed the situation. However, Lido confirmed that stETH and wstETH remain untouched and operational.
The exploit targeted KelpDAO when an attacker forged a cross-chain message. The attacker released 116,500 rsETH without a burn on the source chain. That amount was valued at nearly $292 million and equaled about 18% of circulating rsETH.
As a result, lending platforms froze rsETH markets to limit further damage. Aave stated that its guardian froze rsETH and wrsETH markets across deployments on April 18. Consequently, several staking loop strategies faced pressure from liquidity constraints.
Lido said the issue extends beyond direct rsETH exposure within EarnETH. Contributors are addressing elevated borrowing costs and tighter liquidity in lending markets. Veda and Mellow have reduced leverage and cut wETH debt in affected strategies.
Lido also said EarnETH holds other positions independent of rsETH. The team reported that rapid deleveraging placed the vault in a stronger position. However, it continues to evaluate potential losses tied to the exploit.
Recovery Steps and Broader Market Response
Lido outlined a $3 million first-loss protection mechanism funded by the Lido DAO treasury. The DAO will burn its vault shares to absorb any realized loss. This measure will activate if EarnETH records an actual deficit.
The protocol also mentioned a possible last-resort withdrawal path. Curators may allow early exits with a maximum anticipated haircut. Lido said it would use this option only if remediation takes longer than expected.
The broader stress began when the attacker moved the illicit rsETH into lending venues. The attacker then borrowed ETH against the tokens, which strained liquidity. Risk managers responded by freezing rsETH markets to contain exposure.
Products tied to looped staking strategies felt the impact across protocols. Lido stated that its DVV and EarnUSD vaults have no exposure to rsETH issues. However, the GGV subvault holds looped staking positions and currently posts negative yields.
Lido said users who submitted GGV withdrawal requests before the incident will receive pre-incident valuations. This policy applies to requests made before the market disruption. The protocol continues to provide updates on loss allocation and recovery progress.
Arbitrum’s Security Council froze about 30,766 ETH linked to the exploit. The frozen amount carries an estimated value of $71 million. Lido said recovery efforts remain active while public updates continue to develop.
Crypto World
NYC Mayor Mamdani knocked Ken Griffin in pied-a-terre tax promo. His firm calls the move ‘shameful’
Citadel CEO Ken Griffin speaks during the Semafor World Economy Summit 2025 at Conrad Washington on April 23, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kayla Bartkowski | Getty Images
Citadel rebuked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for singling out Chief Executive Officer Ken Griffin in a push for a new pied-à-terre tax, escalating a public dispute over how aggressively New York should target wealthy non-resident homeowners.
In a social media video filmed outside Griffin’s residence at 220 Central Park South and timed to tax day, Mamdani unveiled a proposed levy that would impose an annual surcharge on one- to three-family homes, condominiums and co-ops valued above $5 million when the owner’s primary residence is outside New York City.
Citadel denounced the mayor’s move with Chief Operating Officer Gerald Beeson saying in an internal memo obtained by CNBC that targeting Griffin showed “ignorance and disdain” toward contributors to the city’s economy.
“It is shameful that he used Ken’s name as the example of those who supposedly aren’t carrying their fair share of the burdens associated with New York City’s often costly and wasteful spending,” Beeson wrote. “In doing so, the mayor has once again manifested the ignorance and disdain of the elite political class towards those who have been consistently committed to building one of the greatest cities in the world.”
Beeson said Citadel’s principals and employees — including non-residents — have paid nearly $2.3 billion in New York city and state taxes over the past five years. He also pointed to the firm’s planned redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue, a project expected to generate about 6,000 construction jobs and more than 15,000 permanent roles, with spending projected to exceed $6 billion.
Griffin moved Citadel headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022 and he has made Florida his primary residence.
The memo also highlighted that nearly 200 Citadel employees serve on boards of New York charitable institutions, while Griffin himself has directed roughly $650 million in philanthropic donations to the city.
“We understand that our hard work and success will, on occasion, make us targets for political rhetoric. But it should not diminish the pride we take in building firms that will continue to help New York City thrive for decades ahead,” Beeson wrote.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the memo earlier Thursday.
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Lido is the first service provider to publicly announce its participation in the relief fund via a governance proposal requesting up to 2,500 stETH.
Aave is rallying the DeFi ecosystem under a coordinated effort it’s calling “DeFi United” to help make users whole after the April 18 Kelp bridge exploit left rsETH — a liquid restaking token — underbacked, putting funds at risk across multiple lending markets.
Aave announced on X today, April 23, that “multiple strong indicative commitments are now in place” to join the recovery effort, with Lido Finance named as the first public participant.
The announcement came just after Lido contributors submitted a governance proposal to contribute up to 2,500 Lido Staked Ether (STETH), worth appoximately $5.7 million, to the dedicated relief fund “to be used solely to reduce the rsETH deficit.”
Per Lido’s proposal, the total deficit exceeds 100,000 ETH, and both Aave and Lido noted that there are already indicative commitments from other service providers for the fund.
Without full coverage, Lido warns that EarnETH vault depositors could face losses of up to approximately 9,000 ETH.
Earlier today, Aave also announced on X that it had paused rsETH reserves across Ethereum Core, Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea to support recovery efforts.
Aave said in its X post that further commitments will be announced as they are formalized.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
Pi Network has introduced PiRC1, a new token issuance framework launched under Protocol 22 on April 22, that bars projects from issuing tokens unless they can first demonstrate a functioning application with real user demand, a direct attempt to filter out speculation-driven launches from the ecosystem.
Summary
- Pi Network launched PiRC1 on April 22 under Protocol V22, requiring any project seeking to issue ecosystem tokens to demonstrate a real, functioning application with genuine user demand before launch.
- Token proceeds under PiRC1 are routed to permanent liquidity pools rather than directly to project teams, adding a structural safeguard against misuse of raised funds.
- The framework arrives alongside an April 27 node upgrade deadline for Protocol 22, with full smart contract functionality expected to follow under Protocol 23 in May.
Pi Network launched PiRC1, its Token Design Framework, on April 22 as part of the Protocol V22 upgrade. As HOKANEWS.COM reported, the core principle of PiRC1 is straightforward: only applications that demonstrate genuine use cases and tangible user demand within the Pi ecosystem will be eligible to participate in token issuance. The framework is designed to address one of the crypto industry’s most persistent problems, the proliferation of low-value tokens created primarily as speculative instruments rather than functional components of a real digital economy.
Pi Network PiRC1 Token Issuance Framework Sets a New Standard for Ecosystem Projects
Under PiRC1, no project can launch a token without first having a working application. Token proceeds do not go directly to project teams but are instead routed into permanent liquidity pools, anchored to Pi Coin as the ecosystem’s foundational currency. This design separates fundraising from direct project control, introducing a structural safeguard that prevents teams from pulling liquidity after launch, a pattern that has caused widespread losses across Web3. Pi’s network of KYC-verified users adds an additional accountability layer, since developers and users operate under verified identities rather than anonymously. As crypto.news reported, PiRC1 was released alongside a new PiRC2 document opening the subscription smart contract model to technical review and community feedback. PI traded at approximately $0.1687 as of April 23, with a $1.73 billion market cap and a 24-hour volume of $11.17 million.
How PiRC1 Fits the Broader Protocol Upgrade Roadmap
PiRC1 was introduced under Protocol V22 as a direct follow-on to the V21 and V21.2 network upgrades that strengthened Pi’s infrastructure and prepared it for smart contract readiness. Protocol 22 also carries an urgent node deadline: as crypto.news tracked, Mainnet node operators must upgrade to Protocol 22 by April 27 to remain connected to the network. The next major milestone is Protocol 23, expected in May 2026, which will introduce full smart contract functionality for developers. Together, the PiRC1 token framework and Protocol 23 smart contract tools represent what Pi Network is framing as the transition from a mining-focused network to a structured Web3 ecosystem capable of supporting real commercial applications.
What PiRC1 Means for PI’s Market Position
Pi co-founder Chengdiao Fan first introduced PiRC1 as a proposal in late February, emphasizing that tokens should function as tools within applications rather than as stand-alone financial instruments. The framework’s open review period on GitHub and Google Forms gave the developer community a chance to shape the final design before it launched. As crypto.news documented, PI’s market trajectory in 2026 has been heavily dependent on whether the network’s technical milestones translate into actual on-chain usage. Each prior roadmap release has been treated largely as a sell-the-news event by the market. Whether PiRC1 changes that dynamic will depend on how many developers build functioning applications under the framework and how quickly user engagement on those apps becomes measurable.
Pi Network said it plans to continue expanding the PiRC1 framework with feedback from its developer community, and has flagged Protocol 23 smart contract support as the next major technical deliverable expected in May.
One AI stock reports earnings on May 4, three weeks before Nvidia prints, and the technical setup is the most oversold it has looked in a year.
Palantir (PLTR) closed above $143 on April 23, down about 30% from its November peak and roughly 15% year-to-date. The stock has been stuck inside a falling channel since early November, rejected at every bounce. But under the surface, the signals are flipping.
A bullish divergence has played out, institutional money has turned positive, and options traders are quietly setting up for a squeeze. Here is why the May 4 print matters more than Nvidia’s, and where the price has to go.
Palantir Shares are Deeply Oversold
The calendar is the first edge. Palantir (PLTR) reports Q1 2026 earnings on Monday, May 4, 2026, after the close. Nvidia (NVDA) does not report until late May.
That three-week gap makes Palantir the first major enterprise AI stock to print earnings this season. Whatever number it delivers sets the tone that carries into Nvidia’s report. It also shapes how the entire AI trade is priced through mid-May.
The setup is oversold. PLTR is down 30% from its November high and still stuck inside a falling channel on the daily chart. Part of that pressure stems from investor Michael Burry’s April 9 post, in which he claimed AI startup Anthropic was “eating Palantir’s lunch,” citing its surge from $9 billion to roughly $30 billion in annual recurring revenue.
Shares dropped as much as 7% that day. But the Anthropic scare is now priced in, and the bigger picture has not changed.
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Wall Street has not blinked. Morgan Stanley analyst Sanjit Singh flagged on April 16 that this AI stock could “modestly accelerate growth and raise its full-year guidance” on the May 4 call.
In plain terms, that means posting numbers better than promised AND raising the forecast for the rest of the year, the combination investors reward most.
They are pricing a re-rating that a clean May 4 print would unlock. That oversold price, combined with a likely beat-and-raise, is the first half of the setup. The second half is what the chart already shows.
Chart Signals Say the PLTR’s Oversold Setup Is Turning
Nvidia looks stronger on the surface. The stock trades near $201, and its Chaikin Money Flow (CMF), an indicator of institutional money flow, is 0.30.
Palantir’s CMF just crossed back above zero at 0.04. The simple read says Nvidia has heavier buying. The deeper read says Nvidia is overheated.
Between September 5, 2025, and March 30, 2026, Nvidia’s price returned to the $164 level at both endpoints, while CMF trended lower over that span. That is a hidden weakness signal.
The April rally has shot CMF up to 0.30, but the structural picture shows NVDA running hot into its May 27 print with little room for upside surprise.
Also, between February 24 and April 10, PLTR price made a lower low while its Relative Strength Index (RSI), a momentum indicator, made a higher low. That is a standard bullish divergence, and it already played out with a rally off the April low. The moving averages amplify the signal.
PLTR’s key exponential moving averages (EMAs) are all clustered within a tight ten-dollar band above the current $143 price. EMAs are trend lines that smooth out daily noise.
When four of them compress this close together, the next clean break triggers a cascade as each line gets reclaimed in quick succession. The last time PLTR cleanly reclaimed its 20-day EMA, on March 2, the stock rallied 15.75%.
Coming back to the big money flow, between February 12 and April 10, the price trended lower while the CMF trended higher. This second bullish divergence has since triggered CMF’s cross back above the zero line.
The Options Market Could Decide the Rally
The third signal is in the options market. PLTR’s volume put-call ratio is 0.65, indicating calls are outpacing puts on a daily basis. But the open interest put-call ratio is 1.06, meaning there are still more puts than calls in standing contracts.
That gap is short-squeeze fuel. If the May 4 print delivers the beat-and-raise that consensus already expects, trapped short positioning has to cover, and the mechanical flow alone can push PLTR through the channel resistance that has capped every rally since November.
Together, multiple signals, oversold price, positive institutional flow, and short positioning primed to squeeze, converge on one level that has to break.
Break $155 to Flip the Trend, Lose $142, and the Decline Continues
The first hurdle is $155. A daily close above that level takes price through all four stacked EMAs at once, the same cascade that delivered the 15.75% rally after the March 2 reclaim. That break opens a path toward $165 and then the bigger test at $175.
The $175 level is where the setup earns its edge. It aligns with the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement and the upper trendline of the falling channel that has capped every rally since November 3. A break above $175, especially if the May 4 print delivers the beat-and-raise Morgan Stanley has flagged, clears the channel and exposes $189 and the November peak at $207 as the next upside targets.
The invalidation is clean. A daily close under $142 breaks the setup and reopens the downside. That exposes $122, the recent April low. If Palantir delivers the beat-and-raise the tape is already setting up for, the signals that have been stacking up for weeks will finally clear the resistance that has capped the stock for six months.
The post Palantir Earnings Could Ignite AI Stocks Before Nvidia appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Everyone on a liquidity route in Bitcoin’s Lightning Network wants the same rebalance of funds to happen, but none of them wants to be the first person to pay.
The tenuous impasse is a classic Mexican standoff.
When this situation occurs, Lightning node operators can neither pay nor not pay first without harming themselves, so nobody moves, and nobody wins. It has been a recurring problem for years.
After almost a decade of tools and research chasing this problem, the network’s routing nodes remain locked in a standoff that quietly erodes routing reliability of bitcoin (BTC).
The Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s largest layer 2 network with no connection to an altcoin, has a structural bias toward channel depletion.
That is, money tends to flow in one direction along channels from senders toward structural receivers, such as merchants receiving BTC who deliver goods and services to customers.
Routing nodes are left with channels that are stuffed with BTC on one side and depleted of BTC on the other. A channel that cannot send in both directions is effectively half-broken for routing purposes.
Lightning’s total capacity set a fresh all-time high of roughly 5,600 BTC in December 2025, but that surge arrived almost entirely through institutional deposits from Binance and OKX into existing channels. Year-to-date data tells a different story.
BTC capacity from December’s high above 5,600 has declined to 4,884 today, and payment channels have declined from more than 80,000 in mid-2023 to about 45,000 today, nearly halving as liquidity consolidated into lopsided channels on a shrinking graph.
The cheapest fix is the one nobody will start
René Pickhardt, one of the network’s most prolific routing researchers, wrote that most channels “are expected to be depleted over time, primarily due to selfish routing behavior within the current protocol design.”
By his accounting, any given payment link has roughly a coin-flip chance of avoiding long-term depletion.
Researchers have described the embarrassingly simple yet elusive solution.
Presenting several nodes sitting on a circular payment path connected to one another by payment channels and all lopsided in the same direction, each could push BTC around the loop and finish a complete cycle with healthier channels as a result.
Everyone would benefit if everyone cooperated at the same time.
The problem, as with every Mexican standoff, is who pays first.
Routing BTC over Lightning costs money. Whichever node kicks off the rebalance owes routing fees to every other hop on the loop. If they wait, other nodes can receive their rebalancing for free and pocket the fee.
Although every node operator on the ring would benefit most as a collective if they all pushed BTC around for a single sending plus a single receiving fee — i.e. for nearly free in net — each operator also has the rational choice to wait for someone else to send first so they can collect without sending.
Wait for someone else to move first. It is a Mexican standoff.
Read more: Why two-party Bitcoin Lightning channels keep failing
A graveyard of fixes for Lightning channel imbalances
The industry has thrown nearly a decade of engineering at channel imbalances without solving these types of standoffs.
Alex Bosworth’s submarine swaps, announced in August 2018, let operators shuffle BTC between on-chain and Lightning to reload channels.
It helped a bit, but every swap burned a real BTC transaction fee, so adoption didn’t pick up enough to solve many of the network’s recurring Mexican standoffs.
Lightning Labs packaged the idea into Loop and, later, into Lightning Pool, a non-custodial marketplace for inbound channels since at least November 2020.
Lightning Pool activity declined within roughly a year, and the product faded from the ecosystem.
Core Lightning’s Liquidity Ads, the closest protocol-native alternative, sees fulfillment that one recent analysis described as sporadic at best.
Amboss Technologies launched Magma in April 2022 to let operators buy and sell inbound liquidity peer-to-peer. Other rebalancing scripts like C-Otto’s rebalance-lnd and Bosworth’s Balance of Satoshis let operators pay themselves through loops when fees permit.
A new proposal this week aims to encourage cooperation at a protocol level.
A perennial problem with Lightning
None of those efforts have prevented standoffs from recurring.
Protos has previously documented Pickhardt’s argument that depletion is a structural property of the two-party channel itself, not an operational hiccup.
His January 2026 paper identified three possible mitigations: symmetric fees per direction, convex or tiered fees, and coordinated replenishment.
The first two require fee structures most routing nodes would reject outright. The third requires somebody to volunteer to coordinate.
Coordination is where Lightning keeps getting stuck. The protocol is supposed to work with nodes routing selfishly without trusting each other.
When channels become lopsided, however, fixing the network’s most persistent liquidity problem requires exactly the type of coordination the protocol was built to avoid.
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- XRP price held support near $1.40 and could eye a retest of $1.50.
- Bitcoin and Ethereum continued to dictate sentiment.
- Cryptocurrencies are showing upside potential despite geopolitical headwinds.
XRP is positioning for a crucial retest of the $1.50 resistance level, buoyed by broader upside signals across the cryptocurrency market.
As Bitcoin stabilizes above $78,000 and Ethereum holds near $2,300, XRP’s price around $1.40 reflects relative stability in today’s trading.
BTC and ETH holding current levels could help reinvigorate capital flows, with top altcoins likely to follow despite ongoing geopolitical uncertainties.
XRP price holds support
As noted, XRP held above key support at $1.40 on Thursday, with a slight uptick to intraday highs signaling a potential move back toward $1.50.
While prices were down about 1.8% at the time of writing, trading volume had also declined by 11%, suggesting bulls are absorbing selling pressure rather than capitulating.
XRP climbed to highs of $1.45, showing resilience as Bitcoin reclaimed $78,600 and Ethereum touched $2,350.
Cryptocurrencies have broadly held key levels despite geopolitical headwinds, including tensions in the Middle East.
“This month’s sustained rebound reflects capital inflows. If macroeconomic pressures bottom out by mid-year, Bitcoin’s bottom will also be confirmed,” analysts at Greekslive wrote on X.
On-chain data points to reduced selling pressure, with whale accumulation increasing in recent weeks. This stability suggests buyers are regrouping and could challenge overhead resistance if momentum continues.
XRP price outlook
XRP’s broader outlook remains tied to movements across risk assets, including recent outflows from crypto ETFs.
Macro factors—such as Federal Reserve hawkishness and equity market pullbacks—could amplify downside risks. If Bitcoin weakens, XRP is likely to follow.
Lingering geopolitical uncertainty, including limited progress from the US-Iran ceasefire, could further weigh on sentiment.
That said, institutional and retail interest remains supportive. Ripple’s ongoing partnerships and expansion in payments adoption continue to underpin fundamentals.
Despite delays in a spot XRP ETF launch, analysts believe Ripple could still attract sustained capital inflows.
Technical setup signals breakout potential
From a technical perspective, a potential cup-and-handle pattern is forming on the daily chart.
The “cup” base developed between $1.10 and $1.65 over the past month, with the handle consolidating in the $1.40–$1.50 range.
A decisive breakout above $1.50 could open the path toward $1.80. However, XRP has struggled to regain momentum after falling below the $2.00 level.
Failure to break resistance may see the token revisit lower support levels around $1.30 or even $1.20, last seen in early April.
Going forward, investors are likely to watch macroeconomic data and geopolitical developments closely for direction.
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