TL;DR

BTC tumbled by 6% weekly, impacted by a broader market correction but buoyed by long-term bullish indicators like the halving event. SHIBs price drops, but the ecosystem thrives with milestones like Shibariums growth and high trading volumes on exchanges. Ripple anticipates a key trial with the SEC, potentially influencing its price and the wider crypto markets dynamics.

BTC Struggles Below $70K

The cryptocurrency market recently entered into a state of correction, with Bitcoin (BTC) being one of the severely affected digital assets. Its price is down around 6% on a seven-day scale, currently trading around $65,400 (per CoinGeckos data). 

One factor contributing to BTCs enhanced volatility as of late and its declining valuation could be the profit-taking coming from long-term holders. Earlier this week, CryptoPotato reported that many such investors used the assets price ascent above $73K to cash out some of their positions.

Despite the ongoing negative trend, the majority of the crypto community remains bullish that a new bull run is on the horizon. The popular Fear and Greed Index is currently in Greed territory and has stayed there in the past two months.

The shift from exchanges to self-custody methods (as revealed by CryptoQuant) and the upcoming Bitcoin halving also indicate that a rally might be just around the corner. The latter is an event that slashes the rewards distributed to miners for validating blocks on the blockchain in half, thus reducing the temp of producing new coins.

It occurs roughly every four years and will be repeated numerous times in the next more than a century until the maximum supply of 21 million BTC is mined. Historically, the halving has been a precursor of a major resurgence of the price of the primary cryptocurrency and the entire digital asset market. 

Those curious to explore additional elements signaling that BTCs actual bull run is yet to start, please check our dedicated video below:

SHIB Made the Headlines

While the price of the popular meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB) has also plunged considerably in the past week, some metrics related to its ecosystem have taken off. 

One example is the latest milestone reached by the layer-2 scaling solution Shibarium. As CryptoPotato reported, the total blocks on the network exceeded the 4 million mark. 

In addition, the leading Indian cryptocurrency exchange, WazirX, disclosed that Shiba Inu was the most-traded digital asset on the platform for March. The token surpassed Bitcoin (BTC), Pepe Coin (PEPE), Floki Inu (FLOKI), and its biggest rival in the meme coin niche Dogecoin (DOGE).

Whats Next for Ripple (XRP)?

April is supposed to be an important month for Ripple and its native token, XRP, due to the start of the trial between the company and the US Securities and Exchange Commission on April 23. The resolution of the three-year-old legal battle could trigger an overall market boom (in the event of a decisive win for Ripple, of course).

Nonetheless, the beginning of the trial doesnt necessarily mean the case will be over anytime soon. According to ChatGPT, possible appeals from both sides might delay the outcome until 2026.

Some assume Ripple will enter the trial with the upper hand after securing three vital (yet partial) court victories throughout 2023. The price of XRP reacted positively to each of those, spiking by double digits after the first win.