XRP’s (XRP-USD) impressive bull run might be over, at least for now. Its price recently dropped by 10%. This happened as whales sold off large amounts of the token, and wider market liquidations spread across altcoins.
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XRP hit its highest daily and weekly close above $3.45 last week. However, its price then fell by nearly 10% in just a few days. Wednesday’s 10.33% dip marked XRP’s steepest daily correction since April 6.
XRP’s Open Interest Plunges
This pullback also caused a sharp drop in XRP futures open interest. It fell to $9.10 billion from $10.94 billion. That’s a 16.8% decrease since Tuesday. This suggests that leveraged traders are either closing their positions or facing liquidations. It points to reduced speculative confidence in the short term.
Third-Largest Liquidation Event Hits XRP
XRP’s recent decline seems worse because of bearish whale activity. It also suffered a surge in long liquidations. Crypto analyst Darkfost noted that a wallet linked to Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen saw major XRP outflows. Reports indicate over 50 million XRP moved, with $140 million sent to exchanges. The pace of these withdrawals has picked up significantly since July 15. On Thursday, 42 million XRP were withdrawn. This amount is still below the 84 million seen last Friday.
This sharp price move triggered the third-largest XRP long liquidation event on Binance this year. Roughly $86 million was wiped out in a matter of hours.
Can XRP Bulls Hold Key Support?
Even with the recent price swings, XRP’s longer-term market structure remains bullish. Last week’s multi-month high confirmed the ongoing upward trend. This remains true even after this week’s 10% pullback. On the four-hour chart, the immediate area of interest sits just above the psychological $3 level. The $2.95 mark acts as a key liquidity zone. It was touched during Thursday’s dip.
If the price breaks above $3.25, it would confirm a bullish market structure shift on the shorter timeframes. This could potentially establish $2.95 as a local bottom. On the other hand, if selling pressure continues, XRP might target the next liquidity cluster. This cluster sits between $2.66 and $2.86.
Strong support lies at $2.64. This level was a former multi-week resistance from the second quarter. It could potentially turn into a demand zone now. Therefore, XRP bulls remain in control. That control only changes if the price breaks below $3.00 and $2.64 one after the other. Such a move would indicate a possible change in the trend structure and extend the risk of further price drops.
At the time of writing, XRP is sitting at $3.0552.
