XRP trades at USD 1.37 this Wednesday, down 6.61% in 24 hours. That makes the token the steepest decliner among the ten largest crypto assets. The XRP pullback set in shortly after an unwind of leveraged positions stalled last week's rally.
XRP is the native token of the XRP Ledger, a blockchain built for cross-border payments between financial institutions. The network settles transfers in seconds and also aims to spare banks costly intermediate steps. By market capitalization, the token ranks fifth at USD 86.1 billion. Earlier, the price had climbed from around USD 1.00 to an intraday high near USD 1.69. The four-day gain came to roughly 69%. Bitcoin, meanwhile, lost just 1.36% over the past day and traded at USD 77,993.
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From USD 1 to USD 1.69 in just four days
On August 18, XRP still traded near USD 1.00. The US spot ETFs began their current inflow streak on the same day. So the start of the rally coincided with the onset of institutional inflows. In the middle of last week, the price then jumped 14.21% within 24 hours to USD 1.40. As a result, XRP closed above both the 50-day and the 200-day EMA. That was the first such close since the preceding "Death Cross" signal. A death cross forms when the short-term moving average crosses below the long-term one. Many market participants therefore read it as a bearish signal. Reclaiming both averages consequently counts as a counter-signal.
On August 22, XRP reached an intraday high near USD 1.69. Shortly after, the move flipped. Market-wide liquidations added up to USD 1.71 billion within 24 hours and hit 281,846 accounts. That averages about USD 6,000 per account. XRP alone accounted for roughly USD 122 million. The price dropped from around USD 1.70 back to about USD 1.51. XRP thus lost more than a tenth of its value that day. Still, the bigger part of the advance since August 18 held.
XRP has pulled off such reclaims at least three times since 2021. Each breakout held between four and eleven trading days before the price fell back below the 200-day average. Many market participants treat the 200-day EMA as the line between uptrend and downtrend. However, no fixed price level follows from it, because the average moves along each day. Overall, the latest episode stays within the familiar range. No directional call follows from that.
XRP falls harder in the pullback than Bitcoin and the broader market
Among the ten largest cryptocurrencies, none fell as hard as XRP today. The token lost 6.61% to USD 1.37 and slipped 5% below the USD 1.50 mark at times. Bitcoin, in contrast, gave up just 1.36%. Ether lost around 2% and fell below USD 2,500. BNB likewise shed 2.4% and traded below USD 700. The broader market gave up a comparatively moderate 1.6%. Such a gap is typical for assets with a high share of leveraged futures positions.
At first, Bitcoin had briefly pushed above the USD 80,000 mark on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the price hovered around the USD 78,000 zone. Market-wide, liquidations over the past 24 hours totaled more than USD 600 million. According to CoinGlass, they split almost evenly between long and short positions. Bets on falling prices therefore came under pressure as well. By comparison, the August 22 unwind was nearly three times as large at USD 1.71 billion. Both events belong to the same multi-day unwind phase.
The weekly tally stands out. Over seven days, XRP is still up 33.1% despite the setback. Bitcoin gained over the same period as well, yet at 18.4% it stayed far behind. Notably, Hyperliquid rose 34.7% and gave up only 0.79% on Wednesday. On balance, XRP trades well above its August 18 level even after the drop.
US spot ETFs post sixth straight day of inflows
The seven US spot XRP ETFs came to market only recently. That leaves a short comparison history. Nevertheless, their inflows count as an early gauge of institutional interest beyond Bitcoin and Ether products. On Tuesday, the funds took in a net USD 23.87 million, the sixth straight trading day of positive net inflows.
The streak began on August 18 with USD 5.81 million. Next came USD 2.35 million, USD 13.24 million and USD 18.38 million. Monday added another USD 13.82 million. Tuesday finally marked the strongest day of the streak at USD 23.87 million. Since the trading debut, net inflows add up to USD 1.59 billion. However, the funds' net assets stood at USD 1.46 billion at Tuesday's close. The price decline of the tokens they hold feeds through directly.
