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The past week has been extremely brutal for XRP, as the asset experienced a precipitous intraday decline of 60% before a slight recovery that left both institutional and retail traders in disbelief. A major drop in XRP payment volume, which has dropped by more than 50% in recent days, coincided with the drop, indicating a worrying slowdown in network activity.
Payments volume plummets
The drop was not just a technical fix. Data from the XRP Ledger shows that, as of Oct. 12, the total amount of payments made fell from highs of over 1.5 billion XRP transferred between accounts earlier in the month, to just 671 million XRP. Waning liquidity and less utility-driven movement throughout the network are the causes of this transactional volume collapse, which usually occurs before protracted consolidation phases or ongoing downward pressure.
Technically speaking, the price movement of XRP supports this cautious assessment. After breaking out of a long-term symmetrical wedge on the daily chart, the token briefly touched the 200-day MA before making a modest recovery after slicing through the 50- and 100-day moving averages. The overall structure is still brittle. Despite today’s recovery toward $2.06, the significant volume spike that coincided with the crash points to forced liquidations rather than new accumulation.
XRP's another shot
At the moment, the RSI is just above 41, just avoiding oversold territory. This suggests that although there may be some immediate respite, the general mood is still pessimistic. If volume continues to drop, XRP may retest the $2.40 or even $2.20 levels, unless the price closes steadily above the $2.9-$3.0 resistance zone, which corresponds with previous support-turned-resistance.
To put it briefly, participation was more important than price in the 60% decline in XRP. The recent decline in payment volume, a crucial indicator of the Ripple network’s health, indicates that investors should prepare for a more gradual recovery curve. Until transactional activity resumes and liquidity improves, any XRP rallies could be brief and more like dead-cat bounces than indications of fresh strength.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team