A weakening US economy and Fed rate cuts set the stage for Bitcoin’s next move, but, onchain data shows a fragile bull market missing retail demand. Could it return by fall?

Bitcoin builds energy for new highs as US stagflation risk, tariff war, Fed rate cuts loom

Ethereum (ETH) has recorded strong gains over the past two weeks, rising from 
$2,111 on June 12 to $2,515 on June 25, reigniting hopes for a sustained 
bullish rally that could push the digital asset beyond the crucial $3,000 
level. Ethereum Rally Marked By Shift In Dynamics According to a recent 
CryptoQuant Quicktake post by contributor Amr Taha, Ethereum’s latest rally 
has been accompanied by a notable shift in market dynamics &#8211; including a flip 
to positive funding rates, a potential short squeeze, and a rise in ETH 
inflows to Binance crypto exchange. Related Reading: Ethereum Breakout 
Imminent? Broadening Wedge Hints At $4,200 Surge Recent data from Binance 
reveals a significant shift in ETH funding rates from negative to positive. 
Positive funding rates typically indicate that traders are opening or holding 
leveraged long positions, reflecting expectations of further upside. However, 
rising funding rates may also raise the risk of a short-term price pullback if 
long positions become overextended. Data from CoinGlass shows that 68.15% of 
liquidations over the past 24 hours were long positions &#8211; highlighting this 
risk. Taha also emphasized the role of a short squeeze in Ethereum’s recent 
price surge and the increase in funding rates. As ETH&#8217;s price climbed, it 
retested the previous short-squeeze zone around $2,500. He explained: In that 
earlier event, short positions were forcibly closed by initiating aggressive 
market buy orders to cover their exposure, triggering a cascading effect known 
as a short squeeze. This dynamic occurs when traders who had bet against ETH 
(shorts) are forced to close their positions by aggressively buying back the 
asset to limit losses. Meanwhile, ETH inflows to Binance have also spiked. On- 
chain exchange data suggests that 177,000 ETH was deposited into Binance over 
a three-day period &#8211; an unusually high volume. Such a surge typically signals 
increased selling pressure or large-scale repositioning by major holders. 
Large transfers of ETH to exchanges often precede either potential sell-offs 
or liquidity provisioning. In conclusion, Taha noted that while a short-term 
correction may be likely, ETH’s breakout above $2,500 underscores the 
aggressive speculative activity driving its recent price action. Traders are 
advised to closely monitor funding rates and exchange flows for signs of an 
impending retracement. ETH Bulls Take The Charge Recent technical analysis 
suggests ETH may be gearing up for a breakout above the $2,800 resistance 
level. The asset also recently formed a golden cross on the daily chart, 
fuelling speculation that a new all-time high (ATH) could be within reach. 
Related Reading: Ethereum Bulls Wake Up: $4,000 Target Back on the Radar After 
Reclaiming Key Level That said, ETH is not entirely in the clear. Technical 
analyst Crypto Wave recently predicted that the cryptocurrency may revisit 
lower levels in the $1,700 to $1,950 range. At press time, ETH trades at 
$2,429, down 0.4% over the past 24 hours. Featured image from Unsplash, charts 
from CryptoQuant and TradingView.com

Ethereum Reclaims $2,500 In Squeeze-Driven Rally – But Can It Hold?

SOL Strategies, which has already invested millions as part of its strategic 
reserve strategy, will now also include decentralized, Solana-focused projects 
as part of this new push to support the wider Solana ecosystem and benefit 
from its growth. SOL Strategies Kickstarts Solana Strategic Ecosystem Reserve, 
Acquires Jito Tokens SOL Strategies, a Canada-based company that has […]

SOL Strategies Reveals Solana Strategic Ecosystem Reserve Initiative

A federal judge has rejected Ripple and the SEC&#8217;s proposed $50 million 
settlement, but social media sentiment around XRP has turned bullish anyway. 
Ripple-SEC Settlement Stalled After Court Rejection The Ripple-SEC case seemed 
to be moving forward after both parties agreed on a reduced $50 million 
settlement, but the joint motion for an indicative ruling has now been 
rejected in court. According to the filing shared by defense lawyer James K. 
Filian in an X post, the two haven&#8217;t &#8220;come close&#8221; to showing exceptional 
circumstances outweighing public interest or the administration of justice 
that would justify modifying the judgment. This means that the original fine 
of $125 million still stands for Ripple. Related Reading: Bitcoin Binance Open 
Interest Shoots Up: Warning For BTC? Following the news, XRP has taken a 
bearish hit to its price, as the below chart displays. The asset was trading 
around $2.15 at the time the news broke out, but it has since fallen below 
$2.09, implying a decrease of around 3%. Naturally, this reaction is quite 
mild by the cryptocurrency sector&#8217;s standards, but could still suggest some 
panic selling. Sentiment among the retail crowd, however, has seen a 
surprising jump, as per social media data. XRP Sentiment On Social Media Has 
Seen A Bullish Jump In a new post on X, the analytics firm Santiment has 
talked about how the social media users have responded to news of the Ripple- 
SEC case stalling. The indicator shared by Santiment is the &#8220;Positive/Negative 
Sentiment,&#8221; gauging the ratio between positive and negative comments involving 
a given coin on the major social media platforms. The indicator separates 
between positive and negative posts/threads/messages on the platforms using a 
machine-learning model and determines how the counts of the two compare. Here 
is a chart that shows the latest trend in the metric for Bitcoin, Ethereum, 
and XRP: As displayed in the above graph, the Positive/Negative Sentiment is 
currently above the 1 mark for all three of these cryptocurrencies, indicating 
that posts pertaining to bullish sentiment outweigh the bearish ones. Related 
Reading: Bitcoin Retests $108,000, But Holders Disagree On Direction For 
Bitcoin and Ethereum, however, the positive comments only have a slight 
advantage, meaning that while optimism does exist among the crowd, it&#8217;s quite 
mild. From the chart, it&#8217;s visible that XRP has diverged from these assets 
with a sharp spike, which has taken its Positive/Negative Sentiment to a value 
of 2.1. This is the highest level for the cryptocurrency in 17 days and 
corresponds to there being more than double as many bullish calls as bearish 
ones. Often, retail sentiment acts as a contrarian signal, with extreme values 
in either direction leading to some sort of reversal in the price. As such, 
while this development in crowd mentality could potentially imply investors 
aren&#8217;t worried about the news, the indicator could still be to keep an eye on. 
Featured image from Dall-E, Santiment.net, chart from TradingView.com

XRP Down 3% After SEC Settlement Stalls, But Social Media Turns Bullish

XRP whale flows flipped bullish in May after months of outflows, hinting at a 
potential triple-digit price rally.

XRP price saw month-long 420% rally the last time this metric turned green

CME’s launch of XRP futures has surged past $542 million in trading volume, 
signaling rising global demand and fueling bullish projections for crypto 
markets into 2025. XRP Futures Surge on CME, Reinforcing Optimistic 2025 
Projections Across Finance A month into its debut, XRP futures have sparked a 
new wave of institutional and retail interest in […]