Decentral Block Post

The development firm behind the Chainlink protocol and its native LINK token has gone live with its cross-chain protocol, aimed at providing interoperability between traditional financial firms and both public and private blockchains.

In a July 17 post on the Chainlink blog, Chainlink  Labs' Chief Product Officer Kemal El Moujahid announced that its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) has launched under early access on Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism.

Developers on these platforms will have access to CCIP on their respective testnets on July 20.

CCIP is an interoperability protocol that allows enterprises to transfer data and value between public or private blockchain environments directly from their backend systems.

Chainlink’s interoperability solution uses Swift’s messaging infrastructure, which is used by over 11,000 banks around the world to facilitate international payments and settlement.

Multiple pieces of data point to the Bitcoin price falling below $29,000 in the short term. 

Yes, you read that right.

Let’s investigate the main issues contributing to the current downside in the Bitcoin price.

Bitcoin (BTC) encountered difficulties breaking above $31,800 on July 13, resulting in a 6.3% correction down to $29,700 on July 17. The price action could reflect investors’ concerns that ongoing regulatory developments and macroeconomic headwinds could drive Bitcoin below the $29,000 level, which was last observed on June 21.

On the derivatives side, Bitcoin futures show increased demand, but Asian markets are slowing down.

Bitcoin continues to shoulder the market, as digital asset inflows saw positive movement for the fourth consecutive week, with $137 million incoming. 

According to CoinShares, this brings the four-week total to $742 million — correcting the nine weeks’ worth of outflows before the streak began and marking the largest inflow run since the fourth quarter of 2021.

The continuing positive momentum might be attributed to several factors, including a recent partial victory for the crypto community in the form of a legal decision in the Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ripple lawsuit.

Related: SEC could be waiting ‘years’ to file appeal in Ripple case — Brad Garlinghouse

The XRP (XRP) token soared on news of the ruling, and the market followed suit with a week of activity that received an overall rating of 56 on the “Fear and Greed Index” for cryptocurrency — an indication of “greed,” or increased positive sentiment. This week, however, the index saw a return to a “neutral” rating, as of July 17, despite four weeks of positive inflows into crypto investment products.