A photo illustration of the digital Cryptocurrency, Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP) are seen on September 13 2018 in Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Yu Chun Christopher Wong | S3studio | Getty Images
Altcoins capped a winning week after a court decision Thursday fueled a sharp, broad crypto market rally, while bitcoin posted its third down week in a row.
Bitcoin ended the week lower by 0.28% at $30,126.40, according to Coin Metrics, which measures a week in crypto from the 4:00 p.m. ET stock market close one Friday to the next. Crypto trades 24 hours a day.
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Even with lower-than-expected inflation reported Wednesday and Thursday, the price of the flagship cryptocurrency was flat for most of the week, and after its 4% rally Thursday it was still unable to maintain the key technical level of $31,500. On Friday it gave back most of those gains.
Ripple’s XRP led the rally after a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that it’s a security in some cases but not others. XRP ended the week with a more than 49% gain. The token tied to Solana rose about 19% for the week, Cardano’s ada has gained 13% and Polygon’s matic token finished higher by 10%. Ether was up 2.5%.
XRP rallies, bitcoin ends the week flat
“For bitcoin, the $30,000 psychological level has been a reliable support for its price, but it has also been struggling to demonstrate an undeniably clear break-out for the past couple of weeks, resulting in a range-bound movement,” said Yuya Hasegawa, crypto market analyst at Japanese bitcoin exchange Bitbank. “It is somewhat difficult to comprehend the fact that the struggle is still going on.”
Most big crypto assets are in the red on Friday as investors hit the brakes on Thursday’s excitement and weighed what could come next for crypto. While the decision on the whole is considered a positive for Ripple and the crypto industry, it wasn’t a clear-cut win.
XRP was down almost 15%, while matic and ada pulled back by about 7% each.
The order was the latest development in a three-year battle between Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission. There is a possibility that some of these findings could be appealed and reversed; the filing even said that the court would issue a separate order setting a trial date.