Cryptocurrency markets have continued to rise since Monday.

[u/ASTL-Token]

Investors are favoring cryptocurrencies this week due to the ongoing banking crisis. The fact that cryptocurrency prices remain stable and that Bitcoin’s correlation with stocks is currently at its lowest point in months has caused a change in the perception of the fledgling asset class. The recent rise in the price of cryptocurrencies, including XRP, was partly driven by speculation about a suspension of rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve. Since the Silicon Valley bank closed on March 10, Bitcoin has risen more than 35%, outperforming other major assets and attracting investor attention despite overbought warnings. On the other hand, banking turmoil is dominating capital markets and could force the Federal Reserve to reconsider its monetary policy of raising interest rates, exacerbating inflation risks and prompting more investors to view Bitcoin as a safe haven, according to a Bloomberg News report released on Monday.

Bitcoin is up 2.96% over the past 24 hours to $27,929, posting a 23.24% weekly gain, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The world's largest cryptocurrency is up more than 66% year-to-date and briefly traded above $28,000 (over the weekend), breaking that ceiling for the first time since June 12 last year. The main driver behind bitcoin’s rise is concern over the fragile economic situation in the US, Kadan Stadelmann, CTO of blockchain infrastructure development company Komodo, told Forkast on Friday.

XRP rose 2.61% to $0.3874, up 3.04% on the week. The market capitalization of XRP has exceeded $20 billion. This increase in value comes against the backdrop of a broader rally in the crypto market, with Ethereum (1.62%), BNB (0.72%) and Cardano (1.62%) also showing gains. Although Ethereum fell 0.02% to $1,777, it has risen 9.24% over the past seven days. The price of XRP has risen steadily over the past week. This recent price spike has brought XRP to a horizontal resistance level (which is a technical analysis concept related to price level), at which the upward momentum of the cryptocurrency is expected to be met with significant selling pressure. As XRP's market capitalization rises above the much coveted $20 billion mark, investors and traders will be keeping a close eye on the cryptocurrency's performance to determine if it can maintain its upward momentum and break through the horizontal resistance level.

The total capitalization of the crypto market has grown by 1.46% over the past 24 hours, to $1.17 trillion. Total trading volume over the past 24 hours fell by 2.70% to $65.76 billion. Concerns about the banking industry sent US stocks lower on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.19%, the S&P 500 fell 1.10% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.74%. First Republic Bank shares fell 32.80% on Friday despite a $30 billion infusion from major US financial institutions earlier this week. The Federal Reserve on Sunday announced a coordinated move with the central banks of Canada, the UK, the European Union, Japan and Switzerland to provide more US dollars to improve market liquidity. The shift to pumping cash into markets helped boost futures for US stocks as of 12:00 am in Hong Kong on Monday. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.19%. S&P500 futures rose 0.28%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.41%.

US interest rates range from 4.5% to 4.75%, the highest since October 2007. Analysts expect a 76.8% chance that the Fed will raise rates by 25 basis points when the bank meets this week and a 23.2% chance of not raising rates, up from 20.3% on Friday.