XRP and Terra LUNA Sustain Gains as Market Declines

XRP (XRP) and Terra (LUNA) are outperforming the top 20 by sustaining gains as of press time. Both tokens are presently in the green on a 24-hour basis amid a backdrop of market declines. At press time, Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, was trading at $45,633, representing a 2.28% drop throughout the day. Ethereum was likewise at $3,778, down 3.74% for the day.

XRP briefly spiked to reach intraday highs of $0.915 before declining to where it presently trades at $0.832. As U.Today reported, nearly 450 million XRP have been shifted in the last 14 hours, coinciding with the recent price increase.

$LUNA (+16%), $MANA (+11%), $HBAR (+11%), and $LINK (+8%) have headlined a great 24-hour performance from the top 100 assets in #crypto. Whether the #altcoin party continues will be dependent on $BTC's on-chain & social metrics retain #bullish divergences. https://t.co/ryUuBDi5eg pic.twitter.com/NQjUu11p6A

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) December 19, 2021

Terra (LUNA) is up 28% on a seven-day basis at a present price of $75.61. On-chain analytics notes a decoupling of selected altcoins, such as Terra (LUNA), from the general market trend.

Market declines despite Chinese central bank rate cut

The Chinese central bank has announced a cut in its benchmark loan rate for the first time in almost two years amid mounting economic pressures. The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) was cut from 3.85% to 3.8%, the People's Bank of China (PBoC) reported on Monday.

Interest rate cuts tend to be beneficial for cryptocurrencies as they inject liquidity into the system. However, the present market action seems to suggest that China's rate slash might be minute compared to the impending tightening by the Fed and other central banks. In the previous week, the Fed indicated three rate hikes in 2022 and the Bank of England delivered a surprise interest rate hike.