BTC traders see 'limited upside' in short-term after SBR twist — Analyst

Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy praised Ohio's new strategic crypto reserve bill as powerful and thoughtful.

Introduced by State Representative Steve Demetriou and backed by six co-sponsors, the bill, known as House Bill No. 18 , would allow the state treasurer to invest up to 10% of the state's general fund, budget stabilization fund, and prizes trust fund into a reserve of digital assets, including Bitcoin.

Demetriou said that the move is necessary to protect the state's funds from the eroding effects of inflation. Investing in digital assets like Bitcoin would enable Ohio to diversify its holdings and hedge against economic uncertainty.

"By allowing an option to invest in a strategic Bitcoin reserve we can hedge against inflation and keep Ohio on the cutting edge of monetary and technological innovation," Demetriou wrote on X.

Instead of explicitly mentioning "Bitcoin," Ohio's new proposed legislation adopts the term "digital asset." According to Dennis Porter, CEO and co-founder of the Satoshi Action Fund, this approach allows Ohio to maintain technological neutrality and avoid potential political friction.

The legislation sets strict criteria for crypto investments, requiring them to be exchange-traded products with an average market capitalization of at least $750 billion over the preceding 12 months.

With a current market cap of around $2 trillion, only Bitcoin meets this requirement. However, the bill's language allows for other digital assets to qualify if they reach this market cap threshold in the future.

"The average market capitalization of the digital assets over the preceding twelve months is at least seven hundred fifty billion dollars, as determined by the treasurer of state using a commercially reasonable method," the bill's text says.

The bill also sets strict requirements for secure custody solutions if the state chooses to hold digital assets directly. Alternatively, the state can utilize qualified custodians, such as banks or trust companies, or invest through regulated investment companies.

If passed, this bill would represent a major step for Ohio in embracing digital assets as a potential investment vehicle for state funds and retirement systems.

This marks Ohio's second attempt at a Bitcoin reserve bill, following House Bill 703 introduced last month by House Republican leader Derek Merrin, a bid to establish an "Ohio Bitcoin Reserve." According to Porter, eleven states have joined the Bitcoin reserve race as of Jan. 23.

The latest state-level initiative came after President Donald Trump signed a crypto-focused executive order, which mandates the creation of a working group tasked with developing a federal regulatory framework for digital assets, including stablecoins, and evaluating the establishment of a national digital asset reserve.

Ramaswamy, who recently stepped down as co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E), is expected to announce a bid for Ohio governor next week, a source familiar with the matter told Politico.

XRP, the native cryptocurrency of the Ripple network, has seen its price grow massively in recent months, allowing it to overtake many other large-market cap cryptocurrencies. At the time of writing, XRP is the third-largest crypto by market cap, and current buying trends suggest it might stay there for a while.

As of January 25, 2025, the altcoin has a total supply of 100 billion tokens, with approximately 57.64 billion currently in circulation. Notably, a significant portion of this circulating supply is concentrated among a small number of wallets. Specifically, the top 10 addresses hold about 20.99% of the circulating supply, while the top 50 addresses control approximately 53.3%, which raises the question about the distribution of wealth in the ecosystem and who stands to benefit the most from the price rally.

Top 20 Wallets And Their Dominance Over XRP Supply

The largest XRP holdings are primarily associated with Ripple Labs, its founders, and major cryptocurrency exchanges. In terms of numbers, data from Coincarp shows that out of the 4,840,747 addresses, the top 20 holders, the top 50 holders, and the top 100 holders hold 50.31%, 63.74%, and 71.76% of the circulating supply, respectively.

According to distribution data, Ripple Labs currently owns around 46 billion XRP tokens, although most are locked in escrow. These tokens are released periodically in pre-set amounts, limiting Ripple’s ability to freely access or manipulate the escrowed funds. Even with these restrictions, Ripple Labs holds a considerable amount of liquid XRP. Data from blockchain explorer Bithomp indicates that one of Ripple’s wallet addresses alone contains over 1.3 billion XRP.

Also, Ripple Labs co-founder Chris Larsen is the largest individual holder of XRP, holding over 5 billion tokens, making him one of the wealthiest individuals in the ecosystem. Major exchanges like Binance and Uphold also manage significant reserves. For instance, one of Binance’s wallets holds over 1.3 billion XRP, accounting for approximately 1.33% of the circulating supply. South Korean-based crypto exchange Upbit also holds about 4.38% of the total supply, among a few other exchanges.

Holding Distribution: Anything To Fear?

These large-scale holdings by exchanges and Ripple-related entities paint a picture of an XRP ecosystem dominated by a relatively small group of stakeholders. However, when you think about it, these large holdings are not in the hands of any private company or individual that would potentially be at risk of manipulating the price for their benefit.

Furthermore, the bulk held by exchanges represents aggregated assets belonging to thousands, if not millions, of individual users. As such, their concentration in exchanges does not pose any unnatural risk to the natural price dynamics for XRP.

At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $3.10, having recently reached a seven-year high of $3.38.

Ethereum (ETH) declined by 5.68% in the last week in line with the majority of the crypto market. The prominent altcoin currently trades around $3,290 as investors await the crypto bull run’s return to form. On the other hand, rising institutional adoption provides a positive development for the Ethereum community.

BlackRock’s ETHA Lead Spot ETF Market With 1.2 Million ETH

According to a recent X post by Burak Kesmeci, Ethereum is currently experiencing a surge in institutional adoption as evidenced by developments in the Spot ETF Market. Kesmeci highlights that BlackRock’s ETHA accounts for the majority of this demand with net assets of 1.2009 ETH valued at over $3.19 billion. According to data from SoSoValue, this record is largely unsurprising as ETHA has experienced the highest net cumulative inflows of $3.97 billion in the Ethereum Spot ETF market.

Fidelity’s FETH occupies second place with 432,750 ETH valued at around $1.46 billion. Bitwise’s ETHW and VanEck’s ETHV follow with holdings of 105,974 ETH and 45,766 ETH, respectively. Meanwhile, all other Ethereum Spot ETFs except the Grayscale ETHE have accumulated at least 7,000 ETH since their launch in July 2024.

A rise in institutional demand of Ethereum as Indicated by the data above indicates strong confidence in the asset’s long-term profitability. While Ethereum Spot ETFs may not replicate the performance of Bitcoin counterparts, the institutional demand these funds command could enhance ETH market stability and liquidity, paving the way for broader regulatory acceptance and mainstream adoption.

Short Transactions Dominate Ethereum Market

In other news, bearish sentiments currently prove dominant in the ETH market as dominated by a higher proportion of short-term transactions to long transactions.

According to Kesmeci, short orders represent 57% of all Ethereum futures trades indicating that the majority of traders are betting the altcoin to experience a further price decline. This negative development is particularly observed on the Bitmex and Bitfinex exchanges.

At the time of writing, Ethereum trades at $3,297 after 0.17% loss in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the asset’s trading volume has dipped by 24.24% and is now valued at $25.36 billion.

Based on its daily trading chart, Ethereum appears to be consolidating despite recent losses. With any price rally, the altcoin could reach around $3,700, moving past which would spur a return to around $4,000. On the other hand, another fall in Ethereum’s price could result in a slump to around $3,100, which lies its next significant support level.

With a market cap of $396.85 billion, ETH retains its position as the largest altcoin and second-largest cryptocurrency in the world.