What occurred
A number of cryptocurrencies rose throughout a little bit of an up-and-down week as merchants noticed the debt ceiling drama and contemplated the Federal Reserve’s subsequent transfer on rates of interest.
XRP (XRP 0.44%) was buying and selling roughly 8.7% increased for the week as of 1:22 p.m. ET Thursday, in response to information from S&P Global Market Intelligence. In the meantime, the worth of Litecoin (LTC 0.37%) was 8.7% increased, whereas Solana (SOL 0.53%) was up by roughly 6.4%.
So what
All week, traders had speculated that the Fed is poised to boost rates of interest at its subsequent assembly later this month. Rising rates of interest have typically been dangerous for all cryptocurrencies.

Picture supply: Getty Pictures.
However feedback made Wednesday by Federal Reserve Board Governor Philip Jefferson appeared to ease these fears, as he indicated that the Fed would doubtless maintain rates of interest the place they’re at its June assembly. Nevertheless, he additionally cautioned that the Fed might nonetheless increase rates of interest additional this 12 months if the info would not present that inflation is clearly declining again towards its 2% goal.
Nonetheless, XRP, Litecoin, and Solana appeared to profit from traders being extra bullish on these particular tokens, which does not at all times occur on this planet of crypto.
XRP, which was created by the corporate Ripple, loved a pleasant bump this week after Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expressed optimism that the long-running lawsuit between the corporate and the Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) will come to a conclusion in “weeks, not months.”
The SEC’s swimsuit towards Ripple alleges that the corporate raised $1.3 billion by promoting unregistered securities. The SEC believes many cryptocurrencies don’t qualify as commodities, however are actually securities, and due to this fact have to be registered with and controlled by the SEC. Nevertheless, in latest months, feedback by SEC officers point out that Ripple could also be on the verge of victory within the case, which might doubtless bode properly for many cryptocurrencies.
Litecoin has been on the transfer lately forward of an anticipated halving occasion in August. After that happens, the rewards miners obtain for approving transactions on the Litecoin community shall be minimize in half. This may naturally make new Litecoin tokens extra scarce, creating a positive supply-and-demand dynamic that traders count on to drive up the token’s value. Litecoin’s community had extra congestion in Could in anticipation of the halving.
Solana could have benefited from some bullish commentary from the community’s cofounder, Raj Gokul, who informed TechCrunch earlier this week that he thinks Solana might grow to be “the Apple of crypto.” Gokul stated the iPhone and the App Retailer turned what they’re at present by way of “relentless concentrate on a easy interplay that needed to work completely,” which is precisely what Solana’s engineers are specializing in. Solana additionally lately launched its personal web3-focused Android smartphone, the Saga.
Now what
Broadly talking, I feel the market’s expectations on rates of interest will influence how crypto performs for the remainder of the 12 months, which is why Friday’s jobs report and people within the months forward, in addition to information on client costs, are going to be crucial.
Of those three cryptocurrencies, XRP and Solana are definitely intriguing given their technical capabilities, so I feel it is OK to carry some smaller speculative positions in them, however I nonetheless favor the bigger cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum over them.
Bram Berkowitz has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and XRP. The Motley Idiot has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Idiot has a disclosure policy.