Ripple’s native token has been trading within an expanding wedge pattern, recently finding support at the lower boundary.

Until a decisive breakout occurs, further consolidation is expected within its current range, defined by the 100-day moving average and the $2 support level.

XRP Analysis

By Shayan

The Daily Chart

XRP has remained within an expanding wedge pattern over recent months, with the $2 support level acting as a strong defense line for buyers. This crucial price region aligns with the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement level, reinforcing its significance. Meanwhile, Ripple faces significant resistance at the 100-day moving average of $2.5, which is likely filled with supply.

As a result, the price remains confined within a tight range near the wedge’s lower boundary, suggesting continued consolidation in the short term. However, from a broader perspective, if XRP maintains support at this key level, an eventual breakout to the upside could trigger a fresh rally.

The 4-Hour Chart

On the lower timeframe, XRP has struggled to surpass the critical $2.8 resistance, leading to repeated rejections. Recently, the price dipped into a sell-side liquidity zone below a prior market low, which triggered a sharp bullish rebound. Additionally, Ripple has formed a bullish flag pattern and has found support at its lower boundary.

This price action suggests ongoing liquidity hunts and market cooling, potentially allowing smart money to accumulate. If a rebound materializes at this crucial level, a retest of the $2.8 resistance will likely follow.

The Rhodes Scholar and liberal media commentator said in a segment that aired Thursday, March 6, that cryptocurrency is a scam. She also slammed the White House for “playing this game.”

MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow calls Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve a ‘deeply old-fashioned simple scam.’

She draws a striking comparison between crypto and Beanie Babies, saying, “Cryptos operate on the same idea. They have no inherent value at all, but people speculate, hoping… pic.twitter.com/KnJrRWRnDd

— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) March 8, 2025

President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier that day establishing a national digital asset reserve.

White House crypto czar David Sacks said, “The US will not sell any Bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency, often called ‘digital gold.’”

“It’s worth looking at this crypto thing a little bit,” Maddow said on her show. “Only because it is a deeply, deeply old-fashioned simple scam. At this point, which points right to the White House.”

Here’s what Maddow said about Bitcoin and what she got wrong.

1. Unlike Beanies, Bitcoin’s Price Goes Up

“Helpfully, the broad strokes of crypto trading are not complicated,” Maddow said. “It’s like when there was the Beanie Baby craze in the late 1990s.”

“It was a Beanie Baby trading bubble,” she explained. “Other than some emotional value if you had one as a child, Beanie Babies did not have much inherent value.”

“But it was worth buying up a bunch of them because there was speculation on the premise that as collectibles, maybe one day your Beanie Babies collection could be worth a lot of money.”

There is, however, a key difference between Bitcoin and Beanie Babies. While Beanie Babies debuted in 1993 at the World Toy Fair in New York City, this toy fad reached its height six years later in 1999.

Following the dot com crash in 2000, the auction price frenzy for Babies never recovered to those levels again.

To get a realistic idea of the aftermarket value of stuffed toys, one need only study a local thrift store in their city. But unlike Beanie Babies, Bitcoin’s price has been going up ever since it launched on Jan. 3, 2009.

That’s 16 years of growth in daily exchange rate for the dollar that dwarves comparable ROIs from the highest- flying tech stocks in the stock market’s entire history.

During its periodic bear markets, which have so far occurred on a fairly predictable 4-year cycle, critics have repeatedly called Bitcoin a fad and declared it dead.

But every time the skeptics have turned out wrong when the price sets new all-time high records within four years. When it comes to historical records, there is no sensible comparison between Beanie Babies and Bitcoin.

While the toy collectibles peaked in 1999 and never recovered, Bitcoin created 84,000 new crypto millionaires in 2024, according to a report on CNBC.

2. Beanie Babies Markets Are Not Liquid or Transparent

“Cryptocurrencies operate on the same idea,” Maddow went on in her segment to say.

“They have no inherent value at all. The only value they have is that if you have some reason to believe that somebody else might want to buy them from you in the future.”

“What that means in very practical terms is that convincing other people that your crypto is popular and in demand— that is key to actually making money.”

But it’s not true that cryptocurrencies operate on the same idea as toy and fashion manias or that assets like Bitcoin have no inherent value.

Beanie Babies are not a financial product and do not bear qualities that would make them suitable for use as one. It is not as easy as sending an email to exchange a truckload of toy plushies, but it is very nearly that easy to exchange Bitcoin.

It’s also unfeasible to keep track of how many Beanie Babies are in the market and post up-to-the-minute daily trading data about each one.

It is not only feasible with Bitcoin and other cryptos like the ones going in the national reserve— computer developers engineered them that way.

That’s part of the value they provide that makes it possible to use these digital commodities as financial products and investment vehicles: liquidity and transparency.

3. Beanie Babies Are Not Durable and Fungible Like Crypto

Meanwhile, Beanie Babies are not durable and fungible like cryptocurrencies. Who wants someone else’s stuffed toy that they’ve been blowing their nose on and rubbing Cheeto grease into?

These inventories have market values that are highly sensitive to wear and tear, and the products are very vulnerable to deteriorating into a condition with a resale value marked well below retail.

Even when maintained in mint condition, after-market values for toy collectibles are more like the market for used automobiles. After being driven off the lot, they immediately and sharply depreciate.

The inventors of crypto assets BTC, on the other hand, paid careful attention to designing their economics or “tokenomics” to optimize them for resale value over time and for the foreseeable future.

Cryptocurrencies like the two mentioned above have supply limits that introduce scarcity economics. They are also not subject to deteriorating physical condition.

In fact, any unit of Bitcoin is always equal to any other equivalent unit in market value. This is called fungibility, and it is a system requirement for an asset to function as a currency.

4. Beanie Babies Are Not Scarce Like Bitcoin

“The idea of hyping cryptocurrency is that people should buy in soon, right?” Maddow continued on her show.

“Get in on the ground floor while it’s cheap because it’s about to go way up in value because there’s so much interest in it. If you get in on the ground floor now, then you’ll make a bundle. It’s the whole hype. It’s the whole scam.”

While it is true that participants in crypto markets may engage in inauthentic, hyped-up marketing tactics, that doesn’t make the underlying assets a scam.

Nor does it mean there aren’t more intelligent reasons why financial geniuses like BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Shark Tank panelist Kevin O’Leary, or Strategy’s Michael Saylor believe investing in Bitcoin and the blockchain is not only not a scam— but the next phase of developing the Internet and human civilization.

5. Bitcoin Commands Real Demand, Not Just Hype

After making all these mistakes in her broadcast, Maddow finally undid her own case completely with her closing thoughts on this segment.

“Imagine Trump had just announced that the US government was going to buy up tons of Beanie Babies,” the MSNBC host said. “We are going to establish a federal government reserve of billions of Beanie Babies.”

“What do you think would happen to the value of Beanie Babies? Turns out there’s a huge guaranteed buyer for these things. They’re buying billions of them.”

The answer to her question is: Their value would probably go up like most analysts expect of Bitcoin. Since there’s a huge guaranteed buyer and that buyer is the US government.

Not bad for a scam.

The largest altcoin by market cap has been among the biggest underperformers during the late 2024/early 2025 bull run, which saw many assets, including BTC, chart fresh peaks.

ETH’s most recent performance has been even more painful, as the asset dumped to its lowest level since November 2023 at under $1,800. The question raised now by analysts is whether ETH will continue losing ground and dump to $1,250.

ETH at $1,250?

Remember 2021? Back then, ETH was charting massive gains and its price soared toward $5,000. In fact, speculations emerged about a potential event called the ‘flippening,’ in which Ethereum could surpass Bitcoin and become the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

Fast-forward some three and a half years later and that seems as distant from reality as fiat money becoming disinflationary. ETH bottomed below $1,000 during the 2022 bear market but went on the offensive again two years later. It failed to decisively overcome the $4,000 target despite its numerous attempts to conquer it in 2024. The latest rejection came in mid-December.

Since then, ETH’s price has nosedived hard, which culminated (for now) earlier this week with a drop below $1,800. As such, Ethereum not only erased all the gains registered after Trump’s presidential election victory but even plunged to its lowest levels since November 2023.

According to Ali Martinez, a crypto analyst with over 130,000 followers on X, the asset’s price drop meant that it had broken out of a years-long parallel channel, which could spell further trouble. In fact, he forecasted a slump to $1,250 – a level not seen in over two years.

#Ethereum $ETH targets $1,250 after breaking out from this parallel channel! pic.twitter.com/XS3N9p8Unr

— Ali (@ali_charts) March 14, 2025

But ETH Whales Keep Buying

CryptoPotato has repeatedly reported in recent weeks Ethereum whales’ predominantly bullish behavior. Recall that within a 48-hour period alone, they accumulated 1.1 million ETH, which is nearly 1% of the total supply. At the prices back then, it was worth over $2 billion in USD.

Martinez brought another chart showing that these large entities acquired more than 420,000 ETH in the following five days, valued at $800 million at today’s prices. Such massive accumulations should benefit the underlying asset as they decrease the immediate selling pressure. However, ETH’s price is yet to stage a notable recovery as it still sits below $2,000.

Whales have bought more than 420,000 #Ethereum $ETH in the last five days! pic.twitter.com/ZFF57gbq0e

— Ali (@ali_charts) March 14, 2025