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Hedge funds and other short-sellers have lost an astounding amount betting against GameStop

Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – January 30th, 2021

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A mixed start to the day saw Ethereum fall to an early morning intraday low $1,286.56 before making a move.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $1,248, Ethereum rallied to an early afternoon intraday high $1,442.88.

Ethereum broke through the first major resistance level at $1,391, before a late pullback.

Coming within range of the second major resistance level at $1,449, Ethereum slid to $1,332 levels and into the red.

Finding late support, however, Ethereum bounced back to $1,410 levels before ending the day at sub-$1,380 levels.

At the time of writing, Ethereum was up by 1.57% to $1,401.59. A bullish start to the day saw Ethereum rise from an early morning low $1,379.61 to a high $1,402.72.

Ethereum left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

XRP Posted Biggest Single-Day Gain in 3 Years in a Coordinated Buying Attack

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XRP rallied hard on Saturday in a move similar to a crowd pump recently observed in out-of-favor stocks such as GameStop.

The cryptocurrency jumped 56% to $0.50944 to hit the highest level since Dec. 22, according to CoinDesk 20 data. That was the biggest single-day percentage gain since Dec. 21, 2017.

The double-digit price rise was likely fueled by members of a Telegram-based group called Buy & Hold XRP (t.me/pumpxrp), which came into existence on Saturday. The group’s membership hit Telegram’s 200,000 ceiling within the first 24 hours, forcing a migration to a new official channel with a similar title but a different link (t.me/pumpxrpofficial).

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“Traditional Crypto-Pump groups are being copied and legitimized by WallStreetBets-style crowd-pumps, and are now turning their burning gaze from dogecoin to XRP,” Jehan Chu, co-founder and managing partner at Hong Kong-based Kenetic Capital, told CoinDesk.

Classic pump and dump tactics are not new to crypto, particularly for XRP, which has a strong army of followers. However, their morale may have been boosted by a group of amateur day traders based on a Reddit forum called WallStreetBets, who recently launched a coordinated buying attack on the video game retailer Gamestop, triggering a short squeeze and inflicting heavy losses for hedge funds.

Short-squeeze target GameStop (GME) surged nearly 400% last week, extending the preceding week’s 83% rise and attracting unwanted attention from regulators. Meanwhile, the meme-based cryptocurrency dogecoin surged 800% a day before XRP’s price pump. The data suggests the crowd buying tactics are returning to their home turf, having democratized the legacy markets.

It remains to be seen if the Buy & Hold XRP group members remain faithful to the group’s title by holding the cryptocurrency.