Bitcoin, XRP, Hedera, Chainlink, and more: Cryptocurrencies to watch this week

Bitcoin came tantalizingly close to the historic $100,000 mark, reaching $99,645 on November 22. Since then, however, the cryptocurrency has shown signs of hesitation, struggling to break through this milestone. The upward momentum seen recently was sparked by renewed investor interest in spot Bitcoin ETFs, following notable outflows observed on November 25 and 26.

As of Monday, Bitcoin is trading at $96,000, marking a 2% decline over the past week. This pullback has added an air of suspense as traders and analysts alike speculate whether Bitcoin will finally breach the elusive six-figure barrier. The coming days could be pivotal for the world’s leading cryptocurrency as market dynamics continue to shift.

XRP is the native token of the XRP Ledger, an open-source blockchain. It is used by the Ripple payment network to facilitate cross-border transactions and is designed to act as a bridge currency. It’s important to note that Ripple, the company, operates the network but does not own XRP.

XRP has skyrocketed to its highest level since May 2021, peaking at $2.44 on Monday morning. The rally is fueled by mounting speculation over a potential XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF). On Monday, global ETF provider WisdomTree took a significant step by registering an XRP ETF in Delaware. Adding to the momentum, the European XRP ETP has been rebranded as the Bitwise Physical XRP ETP as Ripple said it will invest in the fund.

Currently, XRP is trading at $2.44, with over 69% gain in the past week.

Shiba Inu is Dogecoin’s main rival and another popular memecoin that has a position among the major cryptocurrencies. If you’d invested $100 in Shiba Inu (SHIB) in November 2020, you would have a mind-boggling $52,288,492 today.

SHIB has experienced a notable surge over the past week, propelling the memecoin into the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

As of now, Shiba Inu is trading at $0.00002921, reflecting an impressive 13% increase over the past seven days.

Chainlink (LINK), a decentralized blockchain platform and cryptocurrency, is designed to bridge the gap between blockchain networks and real-world data. In a notable development, President-elect Donald Trump recently announced that his ambitious crypto initiative, World Liberty Financial, has partnered with Chainlink to integrate its data feeds into the platform’s decentralized finance (DeFi) project.

Currently, the cryptocurrency is trading at $21.37, reflecting a 20% rise over the past week.

Hedera is a decentralized public network designed to build secure, scalable, and fast decentralized applications (dApps). Hedera is on a remarkable upward trajectory as Canary Capital has filed an S-1 registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an HBAR exchange-traded fund (ETF). If approved, this ETF would offer investors a streamlined way to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency’s price, fueling optimism in the market.

Currently, Hedera is trading at $0.2815, reflecting an impressive 75% growth over the past seven days.