Ripple Prices Could Climb to $1.50 by May 1, 2018

Although Ripple (XRP) prices have dropped 76.08% since Jan. 1, business director Kunal Patel believes things should look up for the cryptocurrency this month.

He told Finder.com that he projects XRP prices will climb to $1.50 by May 1, 2018. From today's price of $0.55, that's a potential gain of 172.72%.

He also has a bullish outlook for the end of 2018, projecting prices will climb 445.45%, to $3, by Dec. 31.

Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin continued to slide toward a dreaded $6,500 level as cryptocurrency markets continue a broader sell-off.

Cryptocurrency researcher Matt Odell noted that two major entities – Fortress and a Mt. Gox trustee – have been selling Bitcoin on public exchanges over the last four months, to the tune of more than a half billion dollars.

The selling of Bitcoin on public exchanges, rather than over-the-counter, created a ripple effect across the markets, according to the Financial Times.

Here is a recap of the top cryptocurrency prices at 8:30 a.m. EDT (returns in last 24 hours).

Bitcoin: $6,716.35, -5.44%
Ethereum: $377.38, -2.49%
Ripple: $0.481, -4.33%
Bitcoin Cash: $625.76, -6.23%
Litecoin: $117.18, -3.58%
Now that we know all of today's price movements, here's what has been moving these cryptocurrencies…

Cryptocurrency News Today
On Thursday, the market capitalization of the global cryptocurrency sector fell to $252.62 billion.

Bitcoin comprised 45.1% of the total cryptocurrency market, with a market cap of $113.90 billion.

The top performer in the space was TRON, which gained 19.74% over the last 24 hours.

Other top performers from the top 50 cryptocurrencies included Ontology (up 17.93%), Augur (up 6.51%), RChain (up 2.43%), Bytom (up 1.10%), BitShares (up 0.72%), and Binance Coin (up 0.23%).

The worst performers from the top 50 cryptocurrencies included Ardor (down -20.23%), Verge (down -14.53%), Lisk (down -13.33%), Bitcoin Diamond (down -13.18%), Steem (down -12.45%), ICON (down -12.32%), Status (down -10.99%), Stellar (down -10.97%), and Cardano (down -9.64%).

Bitcoin Battered by Bearish Call
Today's downturn provided another notable Bitcoin bear to roar a prediction of doom.

London-based Capital Economics predicted that Bitcoin's price would fall further than other leading assets in the months ahead, because it believes Bitcoin has no fundamental worth.

"Bitcoin's correlation with equity prices has strengthened recently, but we think that this will be just temporary," the firm said in a research note released this morning.

"We still think that Bitcoin is essentially worthless, meaning that it is likely to fare much worse than other assets in the coming months."

Ethereum Gets Big Boost in India
According to Quartz, Ethereum has surpassed Bitcoin in online search popularity in India.

The firm reports that Ethereum captured 34.4% of the search traffic, compared to 29.9% for Bitcoin, between October 2017 and February 2018.

India's central bank and regulators have cracked down on Bitcoin, a factor that has reduced the number of transactions on the nation's most popular crypto platforms by 90%.

CoinNest CEO Arrested for Fraud
Finally, cryptocurrency markets are reacting to the news that South Korean officials have detained Kim Ik Hwan, co-founder and CEO of CoinNest.

The executive was charged with fraud and embezzlement alongside two other executives and the head of another unnamed exchange.

The prosecutors say that the defendants moved customers' digital assets into their personal accounts and made off with "billions."

CoinNest was one of three South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges raided by officials last month.