TL;DR

• Ripple’s cross-border token is currently trading around a crucial level that can determine whether it shoots up by double digits or slumps hard.
• The worst-case scenario, though, sees the asset dropping to $1.3.

The renowned crypto analyst Ali Martinez has outlined multiple times the importance of the $2 support for XRP’s future price movements. The asset tested it on a couple of occasions in the past month, dipping below it twice since March 11.

However, it ultimately withstood the pressure and helped XRP remain among the top performers since the US elections in early November. Moreover, Ripple’s token bounced off quite impressively after the March 11 crash and shot up to $2.6 within the next week.

That price surge transpired after Brad Garlinghouse, the company’s CEO, announced that the lawsuit against the SEC had effectively ended.

Since then, though, XPR has failed to recapture its momentum and slipped below $2 earlier this week, charting a 24% decline amid the escalating Trade War.

As mentioned above, the $2 support remained strong, and XRP now trades at $2.15. Martinez believes holding that level could serve as a propeller for the next leg up, which could push its price north by 30%.

If $XRP can stay above the key $2 level, a 30% move toward the channel’s upper boundary at $2.60 could be next! pic.twitter.com/tBXV0Y28De

— Ali (@ali_charts) April 5, 2025

However, he also highlighted a bearish scenario in which $2 is broken to the downside. In this case, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap risks dropping all the way down to $1.3 as there’s not much support between these two levels given XRP’s explosive surge in November and December last year.

$XRP is breaking out of a head-and-shoulders pattern, setting the stage for a potential move to $1.30! pic.twitter.com/L5rlE4eXIc

— Ali (@ali_charts) April 4, 2025

Nevertheless, Martinez is overall predominantly bullish on XRP, as the TD Sequential also recently flashed a buy signal on the daily chart.

Bitcoin is staging a rebellion against traditional markets, gaining more than 2% while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropped nearly 6% in a single day.

As Trump’s tariffs caused chaos, over $3.2 trillion was wiped out from stocks, yet crypto added $5.4 billion in market cap. Now traders are asking; is BTC finally breaking free from Wall Street’s grip?

Decoupling From Mainstream Markets

“This is insane, BTC is detaching right before our eyes,” tweeted crypto analyst Cory Bates, reacting to data showing the biggest stock market indexes in the red, with Bitcoin up 2%.

In a post on X, Ryan Rasmussen, head of research at Bitwise, showed the performances of several major tech stocks since Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day.”

The likes of Google, Amazon, and Meta were all down by double figures, with Apple the worst-hit, plunging almost 16% in that period. Even gold, the classic safe haven, crumbled 3%, leaving Bitcoin as the last asset standing.

Crypto influencer Kyle Chassé posed a question on X, asking whether BTC could benefit from the ongoing trade war drama, to which a user emphatically responded, “Bitcoin is the only asset to be in right now.”

Meanwhile, former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes cheekily suggested that holders of the cryptocurrency need to “learn to love tariffs” as it showed signs of dissociating with traditional financial markets. Earlier, he had predicted that Trump’s new trade policy could force central banks to start printing money, which could be good for Bitcoin.

BTC to $100K?

Bitcoin’s recent performance relative to Wall Street has led to some measure of optimism. Popular chartist MacroScope revisited a theory they had shared earlier of a possible “handoff,” where BTC diverges positively from gold and broader market risks, a trend not seen since 2019.

“BTC positive divergence from gold and risk in past 24 hours is striking. Haven’t seen it to this extent in a long time,” wrote the analyst.

In their previous post, they called it the “gold leads, BTC eventually follows” relationship. This has held true at a few key inflection points in past years, especially from 2019 to 2020, when gold rallied first, and Bitcoin exploded soon after by a whopping 344%.

“A reclaim of 100k would imply a ‘handoff’ from gold to BTC,” said MacroScope. This, in their opinion, would open the door to a period of “huge outperformance” by Bitcoin over other assets.

However, not everyone is convinced. “Don’t be ultra greedy on crypto this weekend,” warned Master Kenobi, pointing to a possible “rug pull” happening at the start of next week.

The predominant belief is that the cryptocurrency market is in a bull market state that started somewhere around the US elections. Although the past few months didn’t go all that well for most cryptocurrencies, many analysts believe this is just a traditional correction in the broader bull cycle.

But is that true for all digital assets? Let’s check out ETH.

4 Red in a Row

The overall landscape around Ethereum is not all that promising. The largest PoS blockchain faces a substantial revenue decline in terms of fees, while the network itself saw a delay in implementing the next big update, Pectra.

In addition, the network activity has slumped to new lows, which ultimately increases the production of ETH and thus raises the token’s inflation rates. Something that the Merge was supposed to prevent.

Whether these reasons are to blame or there’s more, the undeniable fact is that ETH has underperformed in the past year, and especially since the start of the aforementioned bull market. Back then, the second-largest cryptocurrency stood at $2,400. In the following months, it exploded to over $4,000 on a couple of occasions but couldn’t maintain its momentum and was stopped there.

Not only did it fail to chart a new all-time high, unlike its main rival Solana or even Bitcoin, but the subsequent correction (or end of bull market if you wish) pushed it south so hard that it plunged below $2,000. Its crash went further, driving it down to $1,800 as of now. This means that ETH has erased all the post-election gains and more, as it currently trades 25% lower than it did on November 5.

The monthly charts paint a clear and painful picture. After the explosive November, when ETH closed with a 47% surge, the following four months ended in the red. February and March were particularly violent, with monthly declines of 32% and 18.7%, respectively.

As the graph by CoinGlass shows, ETH’s monthly closures were in the red in nine out of the last 12 months.

What’s Ahead?

With ETH also marking its worst quarterly performance since 2018 with the end of Q1, the focus now goes to – what’s next? Obviously, making predictions about any asset’s future performance is nothing short of speculation. However, we can check what history tells us.

While some analysts believe the current Ethereum prices are a gift for long-term holders, ETH’s Q2s are supporting this view, with one big, massive exception. The asset has registered gains in all but two second quarters since 2016. In fact, it was on a roll of six consecutive ones until that streak came to a screeching end in 2022 with a whopping 67% decline.

Q2 2023 was back in the green, while last year’s ended with a minor decline. So, yes, history is no indication of future price performances, but desperate ETH bulls will certainly hope to reignite the 2016-2021 streak, especially given the triple-digit surge in 2017.