• Polygon erased all of its 2023 gains
• The technical picture is bearish
• Only a move above parity will change the bearish bias

What a ride it has been for Polygon investors. Since its inception, the cryptocurrency rallied strongly, only for the move to be faded.

Twice, it had tried at the $2.8 area, failing both times. The market has put a double top pattern there, as it was unable to break above the horizontal resistance area.

Following the double top, it all went wrong for Polygon investors. Another bearish pattern formed, a descending triangle, with a scary measured move for those that bought at the top.

The measured move sent the market all the way down to $ 0.4 before bouncing in the last part of 2022.

When cryptocurrencies rallied at the start of 2023 on the back of Bitcoin’s move higher, optimism emerged again. Polygon rallied, too, trading above $1.4, but those gains are long gone. However, Bitcoin still holds on most of its 2023 gains, which spells trouble for Polygon investors.

Polygon chart by TradingView

Polygon remains bearish while below $1

For the bearish bias to end, the market needs two things. First, it must break the bearish trendline on the chart above. Ideally, it should also break the series of lower highs.

Second, it must trade above parity with the dollar. That is a pivotal level; holding there builds energy for further advances.

• Ripple erased all the gains following the July federal court ruling
• Dynamic resistance held
• All eyes are now on the major support area seen at $0.3

Crypto investors cheered Ripple’s price reaction in July following news that the XRP token is not a security when sold to the general public. The price spiked from the $0.4 area to close to $1, and finding a single bearish trader following the news was impossible.

But markets often mislead traders.

As it turns out, the SEC (Security and Exchange Commission) wants to appeal the federal court ruling in Ripple’s case. Investors did not wait and sold, sending the XRP/USD rate back to where it was before the July news.

The round trip was completed recently when Ripple fully retraced the move following July’s announcement.

One can build both a bullish and a bearish case for Ripple by looking at the technical picture. But the main thing is that Ripple is back in the range, unable so far to break above or below major resistance and support areas.

Ripple chart by TradingView

The bullish case for Ripple

In 2021, Ripple’s price surged to over $1.8 as investors hurried to get exposure to the cryptocurrency market during the COVID-19 pandemic. But sellers quickly emerged, and a bearish triangle formed.

The triangular consolidation held until 2022. In the first half of that year, Ripple’s price broke lower. It did so by breaking support given by the lower edge of the triangle, and since then, it has not looked back.

Until this July.

Previous support turned out to be dynamic resistance. It is this resistance that kept bulls at bay following the July news.

However, despite the rejection, one can build a bullish case for Ripple. The $0.3 area acted as a major support in 2022, and the market has built a series of higher highs and higher lows ever since. As long as it holds above support, Ripple’s price might recover and attempt to break and hold above dynamic resistance again.

The bearish case for Ripple

On the other hand, the recent selloff alone has scared many traders. Optimism vaned, and with it, capital fled, too. If Ripple’s price drops below $0.4, the momentum then builds for further downside toward the major support area seen at $0.3. A break there, and it is game over for bulls that were so sure that Ripple’s time has come.

The Musk Twitter era is off to a rocky start, with several high-profile users vowing to leave the site after the controversial billionaire bought it. So far undeterred, the new leadership at Twitter has taken its first steps toward becoming a payment processor.

In a filing with the U.S. Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement Network or FinCEN, Twitter has applied to become a money service business.

Twitter Payments LLC registered and filed its application as a money transmitter on November 4, 2022. The application says Twitter plans to conduct money services in the United States and several of its international territories.

FinCEN defines a money transmitter as a person or organization providing money transmission services or any other person who transfers funds.

Musk’s takeover of Twitter has yet to create meaningful change for his favorite meme coin, Dogecoin, despite the hopes of its fans.

After an initial pump, the original meme coin has not fared well in the recent crypto market crash. Currently, Dogecoin is down 40% for the last week and is currently trading at $0.08 per coin, according to CoinGecko.

In October, Dogecoin hit $0.12 on news of Musk’s completion of a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter and the leak of documents that hinted that Musk was working on a “wallet prototype” that would support deposits and withdrawals of cryptocurrency.

Those hopes and the “Musk pump” for Dogecoin were dashed a week later when tech journalist Casey Newton of Platformer reported that any plans for a wallet were on hold.

Making Twitter a payment processor would not be Musk’s first foray into digital money. In 1999, Musk founded the online bank X.com, which in 2000 was rolled into the newly founded PayPal.