- BTC, ETH, and XRP defended crucial near-term support levels.
- Will they return to their new highs before Christmas?
On Wednesday, December 18, the US Fed made another 0.25% interest rate cut, but its aggressive projection for 2025 led to Bitcoins [BTC] drop to $100,000.
During the same trading session Ethereum [ETH] decreased while 6.8% Ripple [XRP] Dumped 10%. All major digital assets fell near short-term support levels analysts remained bullish on risky assets.
So will the big three bounce back or slide down the stretch? Let’s explore charts for insights.
Bitcoin Defends $100,000: Will ETH and XRP Recover?
Source: BTC/USDT, TradingView
Since December 12, the BTC bulls have defended $100,000. The recent sell-off at the FOMC meeting has subsided on a psychological level. This confirmed it as a support.
Interestingly, the 100-day EMA (exponential moving average), which stopped past the BTC dumps since October, was in line with the channel lows. This made the $98K-$100K strong short-term support for BTC.
The mid-range of $104,000 and highs of $108,000-$109,000 could be attainable if support holds.
On the other hand, a break under the support could further escalate the carnage and embolden the bears. In such a case, $90,000 and $85,000 could become reachable for bears.
That said, the recent decline was also driven by a liquidity chase, which was currently concentrated at $102.5K, $105K, and $108K levels (bright yellow lines).
Source: Coinglass
The upside liquidity made a BTC recovery most likely unless low trading volume over the Christmas holidays led to more sell-offs.
How will ETH and XRP react to the above BTC price scenarios?
ETH, XRP price prediction
For ETH, the king altcoin has consolidated between $3.5K and $4K since early December. Like BTC, it fell from $4.1K but bounced off a low of $3.5K at the time of writing.
Source: ETH/USDT, TradingView
A rise to $3.7K and $4K could be feasible if the lower range holds. A decisive move above the trendline support (white) could confirm a recovery from the uptrend that started in November.
That said, if channel support were to break, ETH bears could drag the altcoin to $3.3K or $3.1K.
Interestingly, XRP’s chart looked solid among the big 3. Despite the 10% decline, XRP remained above the Q4 trendline support and could be the key level to watch for the remainder of 2024.
Source: XRP/USDT, TradingView
Bulls could reach the $2.8 level or move higher to the 2021 cycle high of $3.3, using support as a springboard. This bullish bias was supported by the recent launch of the stablecoin RLUSD and ETF expectations in 2025.
Read Bitcoin [BTC] Price forecast 2024-2025
However, a crack below that could allow short sellers to push XRP down to $2 or $1.6.
In conclusion, the major cryptocurrencies, BTC, ETH and XRP, defended significant levels, indicating a potential reversal of the market trend to the upside. But will a likely low trading volume over the Christmas period impact the recovery?