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TL;DR
- XRP pivot point: XRP is battling the $1.404 resistance; a weekly close above this level could ignite a rally to $1.50.
- BTC's long road: Veteran trader Peter Brandt predicts Bitcoin will continue bottoming out, with no major recovery expected until after September 2026.
- SHIB sell alert: A massive 844 billion SHIB inflow to exchanges suggests holders are preparing for the sell-off of the year.
XRP may be 1% short of weekend breakout: Bollinger Bands
The first week of March is coming to an end, and today’s Friday session on the crypto market is more important than ever. Today’s report opens with a price analysis of XRP, but not just a simple overview — rather, an analysis using the Bollinger Bands on TradingView.
Right now, this tool describes what is happening on the XRP price chart more clearly than most indicators. After the turbulent developments in the middle of the week, this Friday XRP, unfortunately for bulls, is trading below the middle Bollinger Band on the daily chart, which in the medium term tells us about the weakness of buyers and suggests that the rally we saw on Wednesday and Thursday may not be sustainable.
On the positive side, XRP is separated from a return into the bulls' range by just a little over 1%. Considering that the middle Bollinger Band, represented by the 20-day moving average, is currently located around the $1.404 mark while the XRP price is trading near $1.40 per token, the key question now is whether XRP will manage by the end of the week to push the price back into the upper range.
If this happens and XRP manages to close the week above the middle band on the daily time frame, then in the coming days, there are all the chances for the XRP rally to continue up to $1.50 per token, which would correspond to the upper boundary of the Bollinger Bands range.
Peter Brandt updates Bitcoin outlook with September angle
The next story comes from well-known market veteran and analyst Peter Brandt, who updated his outlook on the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, with an important remark that a potential recovery of the price of BTC may still be possible in 2026, but most likely after September.
The logic behind this outlook is that after a series of accumulation phases that continued from September 2025 to March of this year, Bitcoin fell each time into a lower range, and there are still no clear signs of this trend changing.
According to Brandt, since the change in price behavior that began back in October, the signals indicate that until summer and stretching into September, Bitcoin may continue forming a broader market bottom. Only after September could a recovery occur and a transition into a new bullish trend begin.
Shiba Inu sees 844 billion SHIB exchange influx, sets 2026 record
Finally, the closing story of today’s report concerns popular meme token Shiba Inu, namely, the fact that yesterday inflows of SHIB to centralized exchanges broke all records seen since the start of 2026 and reached 844 billion tokens, according to Arkham.
The fact is that more SHIB is currently flowing to exchanges than being withdrawn. Repeated spikes in this metric do not automatically mean a direct bearish scenario, but with a high probability, they signal that large holders as well as retail participants may be sending their tokens to exchanges with the intention of selling.
Crypto market outlook: All eyes on U.S. jobs print
As the weekend approaches, the focus of attention on the crypto market moves toward macro indicators. In particular, today’s U.S. non-farm payrolls and unemployment rate data represent the largest macro catalysts heading into the weekend.
As described earlier, strong jobs data may support a stronger dollar and increase risk pressure on Bitcoin and altcoins. Weak data, on the contrary, may increase expectations of future rate cuts, which is typically bullish for crypto risk assets.
Bottom line, the market is looking toward the Friday U.S. jobs print to set the tone. Any surprising data could drive noticeable swings over the weekend, especially in conditions of lower liquidity that are typical for crypto markets during Saturdays and Sundays.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
