First Mover Americas: XRP Outperforms as Digital Assets Start Week in the Red

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Crypto majors started the week in the red, with bitcoin dropping around 3% in 24 hours to $58,000 and change. The broader digital asset market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), fell 2.2%. ETH and SOL were around 2.5% and 2% lower respectively. One asset bucking the trend is XRP, which rallied 3% to just under $0.59 following the apparent conclusion of the nearly-four-year-old case between Ripple and the SEC. Ripple was ordered to pay $125 million for violating federal securities laws over the sale of XRP to institutional clients. That was a fraction of the $2 billion the SEC sought.

TON, the digital asset associated with Telegram, outperformed the broader market, rising nearly 3% to $6.75. The gain followed HashKey announcing a partnership with TON, in which it will offer regulatory guidance and collaborate on initiatives such as popular GameFi project Catizen, a Telegram-based gaming platform with multiple cat-themed mini games. "[We'll] focus on the TON ecosystem to offer unique Web3 gaming experiences, fostering the prosperity and development of the TON ecosystem," Ben El-Baz, managing director of HashKey Global, said in an e-mail. "Leveraging Telegram’s advantage to attract more developers represents a significant opportunity for TON."

Donald Trump's election chances are not the dominant driver of bitcoin's price, contrary to the popular narrative, data show. Prime broker FalconX's analysis of the three-day change in BTC's price and the three-day change in Polymarket odds of Trump winning the presidential election between June 1 and Aug. 15 shows a lack of definitive trend or clear correlation between the two variables. “One reason for these weaker-than-expected relationships could be the many crosscurrents influencing prices, such as the path of monetary policy in the U.S., concerns around upcoming supply overhangs, and others, as we highlighted before," David Lawant, head of research at FalconX, said in an email to CoinDesk.

Chart of the Day

• The chart shows "non-commercial" or speculative positions in the Japanese yen.
• Speculators have flipped bullish on the yen for the first time in over three years.
• Yen strength is a classic "risk-off" reaction. Thus, expectations for yen strength raise a red flag for risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
• Source: MacroMicro

- Omkar Godbole

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