XRP Fooled Traders in 2021, Let’s Hope History Doesn’t Repeat

Before XRP (XRP-USD) became a regulatory battleground and a potential gateway for institutional crypto, it played host to something far messier: a chaotic pump-and-dump chapter that left countless retail traders reeling. It wasn’t just speculation — it was a full-blown event. And for many, it ended with portfolios gutted and lessons learned too late.

XRP Attracted Telegram Pumps that Set the Trap

Back in early 2021, XRP wasn’t being analyzed for ETFs — it was being targeted by Telegram groups staging coordinated buy-ins. A detailed academic study later dubbed “The Doge of Wall Street” confirmed what many traders experienced firsthand: XRP was one of the most heavily manipulated tokens in organized crowd pumps.

These weren’t whales or algorithmic pumps — they were regular retail traders, often thousands strong, hyping each other into timed buy-ins. The plan was to post alerts, spike the price, and dump it before outsiders knew what hit them. It worked — until it didn’t.

One trader later described how “I just watched 40% of my portfolio vanish in minutes,” after buying in on a supposed breakout that reversed almost immediately.

XRP Crashed after Reddit Traders Bought the Hype

Reddit threads from r/XRP documented just how fast things went south. One user said they watched the price drop to $2.13 “without explanation” during what was supposed to be a bullish run. Others debated whether the crash was algorithmic, coordinated, or simply the fallout from overhyped buying pressure with no real support.

Most never got answers. They just got losses.

What made the XRP pump saga so painful was that it didn’t look like a scam — it looked like momentum. But the truth was more brutal: it was a carefully timed exit for insiders, and anyone buying the top had nowhere to go.

There Was No Exit When the Music Stopped

The underlying pattern was consistent. XRP would spike sharply, drag in the FOMO crowd, and then collapse just as fast, leaving anyone slow to sell stuck in red. Traders later described the feeling as whiplash — with one admitting they were up “40% one minute, then down deeper than they started” the next.

The worst part? It was all happening in the open. The groups were public, the strategy was transparent, and still, thousands participated hoping they’d be early — not realizing they were the exit liquidity.

Fast forward to today, and XRP has matured on the surface: legal clarity, institutional attention, and a more sophisticated market structure. But the scars from its earlier chaos still linger. For many retail traders, the 2021 pump-and-dump wasn’t just a trade gone wrong — it was the moment they stopped trusting the charts.

And while XRP’s narrative may have changed, its volatility hasn’t forgotten how to bite. At the time of writing, XRP is sitting at $2.25.