Crypto markets have fallen below the $3 trillion mark, as traders struggle with macroeconomic uncertainty.

Why is the crypto market down today?

The XRP price continues to show strong bullish signals in the medium term, 
with a crypto analyst forecasting a significant move to a new ATH. Despite 
ongoing market fluctuations, the cryptocurrency continues to hold key levels, 
maintaining a bullish path toward the $5 target. Elliott Wave Maps Out XRP 
Price Path To $5 XForceGlobal, a Certified Elliott Wave analyst, recently 
shared a medium-timeframe Elliott Wave analysis of XRP, focusing on its price 
action and wave structure. According to the analyst, XRP remains on a bullish 
path, indicating a strong potential for upward movement toward the $5.4 
target. Related Reading: XRP Price Breaks Above ‘Magic Line’ With Bullish 
Continuation Toward $3 The price chart shows that XRP is in the final stages 
of a complex corrective pattern and is poised to enter a powerful third-wave 
rally. The current wave structure indicates that XRP is forming a “1-2 
scenario,” with the next Wave 3 expected to launch its price significantly 
higher. XForceGlobal has outlined a Fibonacci Retracement zone between the 
$2.00 and $1.80 range as a potential entry point, with price action showing 
resilience near this area. The critical price level to watch for XRP is the 
regional low at $1.60, which acts as the most important support level that 
would determine the cryptocurrency’s next move. This support level is because 
if XRP’s price remains above it, its projected bullish scenario and current 
structure remain intact. On the other hand, if the price drops below it, the 
trend could shift bearish, potentially invalidating the bullish outlook. With 
$1.60 acting as a strong support foundation, XForceGlobal projects that XRP 
could soon surge past $3.20 and potentially reach $5.40 in the coming months. 
This would mark a new all-time high for XRP, representing a 40.63% increase 
from its current ATH of $3.84. $2.18 Flagged As Key Breakout Level For The 
Altcoin Sharing a similar bullish forecast, Bitcoin Benny, a crypto analyst, 
has shared a technical analysis of XRP on the 1-hour time frame to map out its 
likely price trajectory. According to the analyst, XRP is showing signs of 
recovery after enduring a sharp market correction in late April. Related 
Reading: XRP Price Pullback To $2 According To Plan For Historic Breakout To 
$10, Analyst Says The cryptocurrency had made a significant high of around 
$2.3 but underwent a dramatic drop, reportedly bottoming out at approximately 
$2.125, where buyers quickly stepped in to stabilize its price. This support 
level has since held strong, with the XRP price currently consolidating just 
below this point. Marked on the right side of the chart, the analyst has 
pinpointed a key resistance level at $2.18, labeling this level as a critical 
breakout point. Suppose the altcoin can decisively break and close above 
$2.18. In that case, Bitcoin Benny predicts that it could trigger what he 
calls a “send season,” which is a momentum-driven rally that could push XRP 
toward new levels to potentially retest its previous highs. Featured image 
from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com

XRP Price Still On Bullish Path To $5 As Long As This Level Holds

SEC leadership is turning up the heat on outdated capital-raising rules, with 
bold signals that long-overdue Regulation A reforms could finally open 
floodgates for crypto ventures. SEC Chair Blasts Regulation A Limits, Calls 
for Reform to Empower Crypto Issuers and Small Businesses U.S. Securities and 
Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul S. Atkins urged a reassessment […]

SEC Signals Major Shakeup for Crypto Funding With Regulation A Under Fire

Digital asset manager Bitwise has filed to list a spot Near exchange-traded 
fund with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, adding to a growing list 
of altcoins currently vying to win regulatory approval.
The Bitwise Near (NEAR) ETF will track the price movements of the NEAR token, 
minus expenses, through a traditional brokerage, Bitwise&#8217;s May 6 registration 
statement shows.
Bitwise named Coinbase Custody as the proposed custodian of the Bitwise NEAR 
ETF. The management fee, ticker and stock exchange it seeks to list on weren&#8217;t 
named yet.
_Source:__Cointelegraph_
Bitwise must also file a 19b-4 filing with the SEC to kickstart the 
regulator&#8217;s approval process for the fund. The crypto native asset manager 
indicated it would make such a filing when it registered a trust linked to the 
NEAR ETF in Delaware on April 28.
## NEAR joins a pile of spot crypto ETFs on the SEC&#8217;s desk
The SEC now has at least a dozen spot crypto ETFs to review in 2025, including 
applications for Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), 
Cardano (ADA), Hedera (HBAR), Polkadot (DOT), Chainlink (LINK), Avalanche 
(AVAX), Aptos (APT) and Sui (SUI).
Bitwise already has applications out for a spot DOGE, SOL, and XRP ETFs, and 
also has an approved spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETF, which are listed 
on the NYSE Arca and have attracted a combined $2.35 billion in net inflows 
since launching last year.
NEAR &#8212; the token powering the layer-1 Near blockchain &#8212; is the 44th largest 
cryptocurrency by market cap at $2.73 billion, CoinGecko data shows.
The Near blockchain was once touted as an Ethereum killer and is considered by 
its proponents as a solution to the &#8220;blockchain trilemma&#8221; &#8212; the challenge of 
achieving all three critical aspects of blockchain performance: security, 
scalability and decentralization.
_**Related:**__**Ethereum &#8216;s era of crypto dominance is over &#8212; LONGITUDE 
panel**_
Through Nightshade sharding, Near can process up to 100,000 transactions per 
second and is secured by 265 active validators, Nearblocks.io data shows.
_Source:__Justin Bons_
The Near ecosystem shifted from decentralized finance to AI infrastructure in 
2024, unveiling plans to build the world&#8217;s largest open-source large language 
model.
_**Magazine:**__**12 minutes of nail-biting tension when Ethereum &#8216;s Pectra 
fork goes live**_

Bitwise throws NEAR ETF in race for SEC approval with S-1 filing

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin network activity has recently declined into 
the bear market zone. Here&#8217;s what this could mean for the asset. CryptoQuant&#8217;s 
Bitcoin Network Activity Index Is Flashing A Bear Market Signal As pointed out 
by an analyst in a CryptoQuant Quicktake post, the Bitcoin Network Activity 
Index has recently been inside the bear phase. The &#8220;Network Activity Index&#8221; 
here refers to an indicator from CryptoQuant that essentially tracks the 
amount of activity that the BTC network is witnessing. Related Reading: 
Bitcoin In The Middle Of A Decision Point, Analyst Says—Here’s Why The metric 
uses the data of different activity-related indicators like the transaction 
count and daily active addresses in order to determine the situation on the 
blockchain. Here is the chart shared by the quant that shows the trend in the 
index and its various moving averages (MAs) over the cryptocurrency&#8217;s history: 
As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Network Activity Index reached a 
peak last year, but since December, the metric has been sharply moving down, 
implying the demand for using the network has been waning. Generally, a surge 
in user activity is what provides the fuel that any move in the asset&#8217;s price 
needs to be sustainable, so an increase in the Network Activity Index may be 
considered constructive, while a decrease a bad sign. Recently, the trend in 
the network activity has developed in such a manner that the index has entered 
into what&#8217;s considered as a &#8220;bear phase.&#8221; From the chart, it&#8217;s visible that 
this red signal has maintained even after the latest recovery rally. The 
signal has historically come alongside bear markets for Bitcoin (arriving 
before the price low is in), but there was one notable exception: the second 
half of the bull run in 2021. The Network Activity Index signaled a bear phase 
during this rally, which suggests that, from the perspective of chain usage, 
this run was always unlikely to last. This may be one of the reasons why the 
price couldn&#8217;t reach a much higher top than the May 2021 one during this bull 
run. Nonetheless, Bitcoin was still able to witness a notable period of 
bullish momentum back then despite the Network Activity Index signal. Thus, 
while the latest red signal from the metric can indicate the presence of a 
bear market, it could also just be a signal for a buying opportunity. Related 
Reading: Bitcoin Recovery Fueled By Almost $19 Billion In Crypto Inflows, Data 
Shows In some other news, the combined market cap of the stablecoins has just 
reached a new all-time high (ATH), as the market intelligence platform 
IntoTheBlock has shared in an X post. The capital stored in the form of 
stablecoins may find its way into other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, so a 
rise in their market cap might be looked at as a bullish sign for the sector 
as a whole. BTC Price At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around 
$93,800, down around 1% in the last week. Featured image from Dall-E, 
IntoTheBlock.com, CryptoQuant.com, chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin Network Activity In Bear Market Zone—Warning Or Opportunity?

SOL Strategies has acquired 122,524 SOL following a $20 million funding round, 
reinforcing its commitment to Solana infrastructure growth and hinting at 
ambitions for a future Nasdaq uplisting. Potential Nasdaq Uplisting Could be 
on the Cards for SOL Strategies SOL Strategies Inc., a Canadian firm focused 
on advancing the Solana blockchain ecosystem, has made a […]