XRP Leads Crypto Pullback as Leverage Unwind Tests Rally

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In brief XRP fell 6.23% over 24 hours, the steepest drop among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap

XRP still leads the pack with a 35.55% rally over the past week.

The daily chart shows XRP retesting the $1.40 zone that flipped from resistance to support during last week's breakout, with the daily chart flashing short setups.

Crypto markets are digesting a big week. Bitcoin cleared $80,000 for the first time in months on Tuesday before cooling toward the $78,000 zone on Wednesday, and traders are bracing for tonight's core PCE inflation data and Nvidia's earnings report, the two catalysts likely to set the tone heading into Jackson Hole.

Risk appetite has broadly improved this month, but not every token is riding the wave evenly. XRP, in particular, is giving back a chunk of its own rally faster than the rest of the market.

XRP is down 6.23% over the past 24 hours to around $1.38, the worst showing among the ten largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, according to CoinMarketCap data.

That's a sharp reversal for a token that was, until this week, the market's standout: XRP is still up 35.55% over the past seven days, trailing only Hyperliquid's 38.65% weekly gain among the top 10 and comfortably outpacing Bitcoin, Ethereum, and every other major coin.

The pullback traces back to how fast the rally built up. XRP rocketed from around $1.00 on August 18 to an intraday high near $1.69 just four days later, a move so aggressive it briefly touched the psychologically important $1.70 mark before Bitcoin's own pullback from its $80,000 high started dragging altcoins lower across the board.

The one bright spot: XRP-linked ETFs, traditional funds that track the price of the crypto without the need to directly hold it, have logged nine straight days of net inflows, suggesting this is a leverage problem rather than institutions heading for the exits.

XRP price: Leverage catches up with the rally

On the daily chart, XRP opened at $1.4344, tagged a high of $1.4513 and is now trading near $1.3790, down 3.86% on the candle itself (not the last 24 hours, but the current day being traded or the candlestick under formation).

That puts XRP’s price right back at the $1.40 zone that flipped from resistance to support during last week's breakout—the same level where XRP first reclaimed its 200-day exponential moving average, a milestone chart watchers flagged as an early sign of a possible trend reversal. Whether $1.40 holds now decides if this stays a healthy pullback or turns into something uglier.

The indicators are sending mixed signals. The Relative Strength Index, or RSI, which measures how overbought or oversold an asset is on a 0-100 scale, sits at 66.7—still bullish, but closing in on the 70 line where traders typically start booking profits.

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The Average Directional Index, or ADX, which measures how strong a trend is regardless of direction, is running hot at 44.1, well above the 25 threshold that confirms an actual trend is in place, with the positive directional line (DI+) still reading above the negative one (DI-), a bullish tilt.

But the moving averages disagree. The chart's long and short-term averages (measured as EMA 200 and EMA 50) still shows the shorter-term average sitting below the longer-term one—a structural holdover from the broader downtrend that has defined XRP's chart for most of the year, even as price staged its sharpest rally in months on top of it.

Bitcoin's ability to hold the $77,000-$78,000 zone will matter for every altcoin, XRP included, and tonight's PCE print and Nvidia earnings are the next scheduled catalysts that could move that needle in either direction.

For XRP specifically, the fight is narrower and more immediate: hold $1.40 and the seven-day rally stays intact as a normal cooldown. Lose it on a daily close, and the token's own short-side signals suggest sellers could press toward the lower boundary of the support zone that's built up since August's breakout.

Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.