• As Bitcoin comes under selling pressure in the current macro environment, some altcoins witnessed higher social interest.
  • Ripple’s XRP rallies as traders expect a positive settlement between Rupple and the U.S. SEC.

 

Over the last week, the broader crypto market has come under selling pressure amid monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve. As this happens, the attention of crypto traders has moved to altcoins such as Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), XRP, Polygon (MATIC), and Shiba Inu (SHIB).

The below chart from Santiment shows how the social interest has been moving away from Bitcoin and into altcoins. As on-chain data provider Santiment notes:

#Crypto markets have obviously taken a big hit over the past week, but it’s interesting to see where social interests have shifted. $ETH, $XRP, $ADA, $MATIC, and $SHIB have increased in discussions, while most other assets are being discussed far less.

ETH vs XRP

Post the Merge event last week, Ether (ETH) has come under major selling pressure as the classic ‘sell-the-news’ story plays out. The ETH price has corrected more than 20 percent since the Merge fell under crucial support levels. As of press time, ETH is trading 5 percent down at a price of $1,274 with a market cap of $158 billion.

Since the Merge event, Ethereum’s larger addresses have lowered their supply majorly. Some of the market experts also think that ETH can once again touch its June 2022 lows of $1,000. On-chain data provider Santiment explains:

The #Ethereum #merge on 9/15 has brought on a shift in large address behavior. In the past 6 days since the shift to #proofofstake, addresses holding 1k to 10k $ETH have dropped 2.24% of their cumulative holdings. 100 to 1k addresses have dropped 1.41%.

Along with Ethereum (ETH) other altcoins have also come under selling except for XRP. Despite the recent crypto market turmoil, Ripple’s XRP is outperforming. The XRP price has jumped more than 32 percent over the last week and is currently trading at $0.44.

The recent rally in the XRP price comes since traders are optimistic about a settlement between Ripple and SEC after a very long legal battle. Santiment explains:

#XRPNetwork is +17%this past week, while #Bitcoin (-5%), #Ethereum (-16%), and most of #crypto has declined. The ongoing battles between #Ripple & the #SEC regarding increased regulation has mainly led to increased trader optimism & high whale movement.

What’s Bitcoin up to?

The world’s largest crypto Bitcoin also faces strong selling pressure amid the global macro developments. As Fed turns hawkish with its rate hike, BTC is likely to stay under selling pressure for a while.

As of press time, Bitcoin is trading close to $19,000 showing a greater correlation with the S&P 500. If the U.S. equity market continues to drop from here, experts believe that the BTC price could probably slip under $15,000 and even to $12,000.