XRP no more fifth-largest crypto after surprise market shakeup

• SOL has replaced XRP as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency.
• There has been a decline in demand for XRP in the past few days.

Ripple’s XRP lost its reign as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization during the trading session on 20th December, succumbing to a surge in Solana’s native token SOL.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, SOL’s market cap rallied past $35 billion, growing by 12% in the past 12 hours. At press time, the altcoin’s market cap was $36.24 billion, its highest since April 2022. 

XRP trailed behind with a market cap of $33.28 billion. It initiated a decline on 12th September and has since dropped by 8%. 

XRP’s demand craters

While other leading assets have seen considerable price growth in the last month, XRP’s value has only managed a 1% uptick. At press time, the altcoin exchanged hands at $0.61.

Source: CoinGecko

Price performance observed on a daily chart revealed that XRP initiated a new bear cycle on 12th December. On that day, its MACD line (blue) crossed below its trend line (yellow)

When such an intersection occurs, a bearish shift emerges. Many traders view this crossover as a potential sell signal, and it is often followed by a decline in an asset’s price. 

As of this writing, the MACD line was positioned below the zero line at -0.0021. This showed that XRP’s short-term price trend was less bullish than its longer-term trend, confirming that the price decline would continue till sentiment improves.

Moreso, the coin’s Directional Movement Index (DMI) showed that the bears had control of XRP’s daily market at press time. Their re-emergence coincided with the MACD downward intersection of the trend line on 12th December.

The DMI’s positive directional index (green) fell below the negative directional index (red) on the same day.  This intersection suggested increased downward pressure on XRP’s price as traders favored token distribution.

At press time, XRP’s negative directional index was 21.51, while its positive directional index was 17.24.

Further, the coin’s key momentum indicators showed a decline in demand for XPR since the bear takeover occurred. 

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Poised to breach its center line at press time, the token’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) was 50.43. On the other hand, its Money Flow Index (MFI) was spotted at 47.59.

At these values, these indicators suggested that XRP traders have stayed their hands from any significant token accumulation and have sold more of their holdings. 

Source: XRP/USDT on TradingView