Ripple Price Predictions, Shiba Inu (SHIB) Developments, and More: Bits Recap March 18

TL;DR

Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of over $73,500 but dropped to $65,000, now recovering to over $68,600. Upcoming FOMC meeting and BTC halving could drive another price surge.
Shiba Inu (SHIB) saw a decline but performed better than BTC, with a significant price increase.
XRP remains stable between $0.60-$0.63, with predictions of a significant upcoming rally influenced by technical analyses and market trends.

How’s BTC Doing?

The price of the primary cryptocurrency reached a fresh all-time high of over $73,500 on March 14, following an impressive performance since the end of February. However, it could not keep the momentum, and its valuation plunged significantly over the weekend to as low as $65,000 (per CoinGecko’s data).

BTC has recovered some of its losses and is currently trading at more than $68,600. Meanwhile, some upcoming events could ignite another rally for the asset. One example is the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting scheduled for March 20. 

America’s central bank previously promised to start reducing the interest rates, and we are yet to see whether the pivot will begin this week. Lowering the benchmark could allow more individuals and entities to deal with risk-on assets by securing outside funding, resulting in a surging price for Bitcoin. A survey conducted in 2022 estimated that 21% of the participants have taken loans to invest in crypto.

Another factor worth observing is the BTC halving, which will take place next month. The event occurs roughly every four years and cuts in half the rewards distributed to miners for validating new blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain, thus reducing the rate at which new coins are produced. 

It is a key part of BTC’s anti-inflationary feature that will make the asset scarcer and potentially more valuable in time. Those willing to learn more about it, feel free to check our video below:

SHIB is Well in the Green

The popular meme coin – Shiba Inu (SHIB) – also nosedived over the weekend but recorded more impressive comeback that BTC. As of the moment, the self-proclaimed Dogecoin-killer trades at approximately $0.00002876, an 13% increase on a 24-hour scale. Meanwhile, it remains one of the best performers in the past month, with its price skyrocketing by 200% for that period.

Numerous analysts think SHIB is about to experience another substantial uptick in the near future. The X user JAVON MARKS noted the “massive strength” shown by the token as of late, predicting a nearly 150% rally in the event of overcoming a vital resistance level.

“A break and hold above $0.000081 may only open up room for another +90% upside to $0.0001553,” the analyst concluded.

Elements like the burning mechanism and the further advancement of Shibarium can also trigger a price ascent. Earlier this month, the burn rate exploded to a whopping 30,000% at one point, while today, it spiked by over 2,000%.

For its part, total transactions on the layer-2 scaling solution Shibarium exceeded the 400 million mark, with wallet addresses inching toward 4 million.

XRP Forecasts

Ripple’s XRP has consolidated at the $0.60-$0.63 zone in the last week, but experts remain optimistic that a significant rally will be just behind the corner. 

The X user EGRAG CRYPTO envisioned a bright future for the token and “life-changing, double-digit price targets.” They claimed XRP is currently in a so-called “bouncy-bounce” range, meaning the bull’s actions can greatly affect the valuation.

EGRAG CRYPTO claimed that a breakout above the so-called “Fib 0.382 level” might result in a price rally to almost $1 in April. 

Dark Defender also chipped in, doubling down on their previous stance that XRP is poised for a jump toward $1.88 and an all-time high of $5.85.