Important Ripple v SEC Lawsuit Developments, Bitcoin (BTC) Price Consolidation and More: Bits Recap Jan 29

TL;DR

Bitcoin experienced significant price swings in January, currently stabilizing around $42,000.
Ripple is engaged in an escalating legal battle with the SEC, which has demanded certain financial documents.
Shiba Inu has seen a significant increase in its token burn rate, with over 9 billion assets destroyed since January 1, 2024.

BTC Hovers the $42K Level

The primary cryptocurrency has experienced severe volatility during the first month of the year, with its price spiking to as high as $49,000 on January 11 and dropping to a low of $38,600 on January 23 (per CoinGecko’s data). The rapid swings could be attributed to the historic approval of the first spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US and the confusion surrounding the process.

BTC bulls took the offensive as of late, pushing the asset’s value to approximately $42,000, a mark that has been evident in the past three days.

Many experts believe the year has so much more to offer, predicting a bright future for Bitcoin. Samson Mow (CEO of JAN3) recently suggested that those investors waiting for a price crash toward the $30K level “will be disappointed.”

He previously forecasted that BTC would sooner or later explode to a staggering $1 million per coin. Mow maintained that the potential uptrend could cause “max pain” to most people around the globe due to not entering Bitcoin’s ecosystem on time.

Others think the leading digital asset is poised for a rise in the following months due to the upcoming halving (slated to take place in April this year). This will reduce the supply, which could trigger a price rally for BTC (assuming the demand stays the same or increases). Those willing to learn more about the halving, feel free to take a look at our dedicated video below:

Ripple v SEC

The legal battle between the two parties escalated in the last few weeks after the SEC insisted that Ripple hand over its financial statements for 2022 and 2023 and its post-complaint XRP sales contracts. The company labeled those records untimely and unrelated to the case, which caused the regulator to re-file its motion.

Ripple’s attorneys asked to present a sur-reply letter seeking “to correct a significant factual mischaracterization made by the SEC.” The US magistrates greenlighted their wish at the end of last week.

The two organizations are scheduled to meet at a grand trial on April 23. Ripple seeming has the upper hand, having three partial court victories on its account.

Shiba Inu Developments

The second-largest meme coin by market capitalization has witnessed a severe spike in its burn rate since the beginning of 2024, with over 9 billion tokens already destroyed. Most recently, the metric exploded by 4,200% on a daily scale.

The mechanism aims to reduce the tremendous circulating supply of SHIB, making it scarcer and potentially more valuable in time. Last week, the team behind Shibarium (Shiba Inu’s layer-2 blockchain solution) introduced an essential update designed to minimize the burden of manual token burning and automate the entire system.