After a relatively quiet week for altcoins, XRP, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu received a fresh wave of attention thanks to a major update from Gemini. The US-based crypto exchange announced that it is now officially allowing these three tokens, as well as Bitcoin Cash and Solana, as cross-collateral assets for its derivatives platform.
Major Boost For XRP, Dogecoin, And Shiba Inu
Gemini’s decision allows XRP, DOGE, and SHIB holders to use their tokens as collateral for GUSD-settled perpetual contracts, a feature that was previously limited to BTC, ETH, USDT, and Gemini stablecoin GUSD. All five newly supported tokens come with varying collateral “haircuts,” meaning only a portion of their value is counted toward margin requirements. XRP and Solana each have a 15% haircut, while Dogecoin and Shiba Inu face a more severe 30% haircut due to their higher volatility profiles.
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Gemini has made it easier for users to trade derivatives using a broader range of holdings by bringing these newer assets into the fold. This move not only deepens the utility of these cryptocurrencies but also opens up new use cases for traders who want to leverage their holdings in perpetual contracts without converting to stablecoins.
It’s a particularly meaningful step for XRP, which has been working to strengthen its institutional appeal and global payments utility. The move is also beneficial for meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, which are seeing increasing demand outside of the meme coin niche. This expansion also shows a larger trend in crypto derivatives. Many crypto exchanges, especially those in the US, are increasingly opening their doors to altcoins. It is also a drastic turnaround from the state of the crypto market some years back.
For nearly three years, XRP was delisted or unavailable on most US-based trading platforms due to the legal battle between Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It wasn’t until July 2023, following Judge Analisa Torres’s partial ruling that XRP was not a security when sold on exchanges, that the token began to make its return to major US platforms, including Gemini.
Price Action Trending Downwards
At the time of writing, XRP is trading around $3.13, a 1.4% decline from the previous day but still holding within its recent range between $3.06 and $3.18. Dogecoin is trading at $0.2226, with modest intraday movement after failing to sustain its push above $0.23. The king of meme coins is down by 3.2% and 14.2% in the past 24 hours and seven days, respectively.
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Shiba Inu, meanwhile, is trading at $0.000013, also down by about 4% in the past 24 hours and over 13% in the past seven days.
Nonetheless, many analysts still maintain a bullish long-term outlook for these cryptocurrencies. Forecast models project that Dogecoin could climb to $1 in the current bull cycle, while SHIB is expected to reach at least $0.000045. XRP’s trajectory is even more ambitious among many crypto analysts, with price targets ranging from $9 to $10 if adoption momentum continues and pending US Spot ETF applications finally receive approval from the SEC.
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com