From tariffs to AGI, here are 10 current AI application trends

Saudi Arabia’s Neom has cancelled a roughly $1 billion tunnelling contract at the heart of its flagship “The Line” giga-project, according to public documents.

As Bitcoin encounters a "value winter", real-world gold is recasting the iron curtain of value on the blockchain.

Cubic Analytics founder Caleb Franzen says XRP is entering a decisive phase after months of compression, with the price structure implying a path toward the $6–$11 zone so long as the market defends what he calls the key risk line at $2.68. XRP Price Targets In a wide-ranging discussion on the Thinking Crypto podcast with host Tony Edward, Franzen stressed that his conclusions are grounded in “price, structure, and statistical signals” rather than narrative. “It’s the chart itself. It’s the structure itself,” he said. “So long as we stay above $2.68, we’re going much higher.” Franzen’s XRP view comes out of the same template he applies across digital assets: identify trend integrity, map the impulse-consolidation rhythm, and translate it into a ladder of Fibonacci extension targets on a logarithmic scale. In XRP’s case, he argues the market traced higher highs and then “tightened up” into a controlled series of lower highs—what he calls a classic volatility coil that “allows price to reset… for the next leg higher.” Related Reading: Social Media Turns Bearish On XRP: Is This A Buy Signal? He then anchors objective targets to that structure: using the most recent consolidation leg, he cites the 161.8% extension near roughly $4.40 and the 261.8% extension around $6. From the larger Q1 swing—Q1 highs to Q1 lows—he adds a second band of objectives at approximately $5.40 and $11.55. The message, in his words: “Those are the price targets that you have to be aware of if you’re holding and investing in XRP… so long as we stay above $2.68.” Risk management is central to how Franzen frames the trade. Rather than a maximalist forecast, he sets a clear invalidation level and treats it as a mechanical decision point. “If we fall below $2.68, you can get stopped out. You can reduce some of your exposure. You can slow down your DCA,” he said. “It’s okay to be wrong. It’s just not okay to stay wrong.” The Macro Angle Although the podcast also covered Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana, Franzen’s macro and cross-asset framework is meant to contextualize, not overshadow, the XRP setup. He repeatedly described himself as “time agnostic,” declining to pin outcomes to a specific month or quarter and insisting that the tape, not the calendar, dictates probability. “I’ve been sharing [cycle] targets since the middle of 2023,” he noted, adding that the prudent path is to keep raising targets within an uptrend while letting invalidation handle the rest. That stance is informed by what he characterizes as resilient, supportive macro conditions—good enough for risk assets to trend without demanding a weak US dollar as a crutch. He pointed to strong real activity data and improving earnings assumptions as evidence that risk appetite is not being forced; it’s developing naturally. Related Reading: XRP Ready For $9 Blast — ‘Break $3.10 And It’s Game Over,’ Says Analyst Among the specific markers he flagged: Q2 real GDP growth at 3.8% with expectations of roughly 3.9% for Q3; prime-age unemployment near historic lows at about 3.8%; labor force participation rising; and both real and nominal wage growth, with wages around 4.1% year over year. In credit, he underscored tight spreads and high-yield corporates printing multi-year highs—“and if we adjust them for the dividend yield, they’re trading at all-time highs”—a combination that, in his experience, does not occur when markets are bracing for imminent stress. “As we’re looking at the weight of the evidence here, everything is coming together,” he said. “Higher highs and higher lows, increasing risk appetite, decent macro conditions, the Fed is cutting interest rates… We have to continue to have an upward bias.” That macro lens matters for XRP, he argues, because it reinforces the primacy of structure over story. He criticized a common assumption that crypto rallies must coincide with a falling dollar, highlighting that the US Dollar Index (DXY) has been roughly flat since mid-April while Bitcoin—and, by extension, broader crypto beta—advanced materially. He also described a composite lens that prices Bitcoin against a basket of global currencies (effectively offsetting BTC/USD by DXY) and said that index is making fresh all-time highs too, reflecting “weak global fiat currencies, not necessarily just a weak dollar.” The implication for XRP: if the broader liquidity and risk backdrop continues to reward trend persistence, then the technical coil and extension ladder have a cleaner runway. At press time, XRP traded at $2.8593. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com