Crypto blues not related to Palestine conflict

Rania Gule

The digital currency markets, particularly Bitcoin and Ripple, have experienced their worst performance in recent weeks, and this wasn’t significantly related to the geopolitical situation in Palestine. However, there have been some positive legal developments, particularly regarding Ripple, but these haven’t yet translated into realistic price improvements for Ripple. Additionally, Ripple had to accept the resignation of its Chief Financial Officer, Christina Campbell, who joined Maven Clinic as their CFO.

I believe Ripple’s performance in the third quarter was good, even though it failed to maintain the gains made after the judge decided to reject the Securities and Exchange Commission’s appeal, which seems to have weakened investor sentiment and consequently reduced demand for the currency.

On Monday, October 3rd, the Federal Court rejected the Securities and Exchange Commission’s request for a preliminary injunction. Judge Torres mentioned that for the SEC’s request for a preliminary injunction to be granted, they must establish, among other things, a “substantial likelihood” of success on the merits. However, the digital market, including Ripple and Bitcoin, failed to capitalize on Judge Torres’s decision, as the price of Ripple dropped by about 3.2% yesterday. Bitcoin’s price also dropped to $27,060, which may also be due to the prevailing risk aversion sentiment in the market.

In my opinion, another reason for the recent decline in Ripple and Bitcoin is the recent decision by the International Settlements Bank to add Ripple to its interbank operability working group. This means that Ripple is now part of the working group established for cross-border payments. This should have been a significant positive development, but it hasn’t been priced in by the markets yet.

Looking at the fear and greed index in the cryptocurrency space, we’ve seen a slight shift from fear to neutrality over the past month, which is a minor positive for the overall cryptocurrency market.

Despite the judgment issued by Judge Torres last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission can still choose to drop its case against Ripple. Given the SEC’s apparent disdain for the cryptocurrency industry, the markets will remain in a state of anticipation in the near and medium term.