When the U.S. SEC first announced a lawsuit against Ripple Labs Inc. back in December 2020, XRP fell to a 6-month low of $0.17. Fast forward to the next four months, its value jumped to a high of $1.96 in April as XRP gradually repositioned itself as a major altcoin in the market.
What was even more impressive is that these gains were made while Ripple lawyers were battling it out against SEC representatives. However, a bullish Bitcoin was likely the primary catalyst for XRP’s rapid acceleration in such a short period of time. Since the 19 May Bitcoin plummet, market dynamics seemed to be flipped.
XRP Daily Chart
Source: XRP/USD, TradingView
A look at XRP’s daily chart showed that the cryptocurrency shed over 60% of its value in just 5 days, falling from $1.64 to $0.64 Several recovery attempts have been made by the bulls but gains have been limited to $1.06-$1.08 resistance. While lower highs have been formed in the process, XRP’s price was in a sensitive position.
Reasoning
While it was no surprise that XRP’s 20-SMA (red) and 50-SMA (yellow) slipped below the candlesticks after the sharp sell-off on 19 May, 200-SMA (green) was catching up to the short-term moving averages. A death cross seemed distant, but the state of its market was inclining towards a crossover in the coming days. MACD still remained below the half-line and even closed in on another bearish crossover.
Moreover, RSI has failed to climb above 50 over the past two weeks but higher lows did create some optimism. Since bearish signals were persistent throughout the market, it seemed like the buyers were running out of time to initiate a comeback towards May highs.
Conclusion
Since the market reflected some neutrality, XRP could see rangebound movement between $0.90 and $1.06 over the coming days. However, selling pressure was tipped to eventually take over and drag the cryptocurrency to lower levels.
