tl;dr
The cryptocurrency market has experienced a downturn, with XRP being one of the biggest losers despite positive news for the company. Ripple CEO's announcement led to a brief surge in XRP's value, but it quickly plummeted. XRP's decline may be attributed to market-wide correction and whale activitie...
XRP has experienced a significant price decline despite positive news, potentially linked to market-wide correction and whale activity. Ripple CEO's announcement led to a brief surge in XRP's value, but it quickly plummeted. This decline may be attributed to market-wide correction and whale activities, with a significant amount of XRP being offloaded, raising concerns about further price crashes.
Although the entire cryptocurrency market has been hit in the past several days, some altcoins are performing worse than others. XRP, one of the biggest losers, saw a brief surge to $2.60 on March 19 after the announcement of the end of the lawsuit between Ripple and the US SEC. However, this turned out to be a 'sell-the-news' event as the price nosedived shortly after and failed to recapture the momentum. XRP has since plunged below $2.10, losing roughly 20% of its value since the peak and is close to breaking below $2, which could spell further trouble even though everything seems to be going in Ripple’s way.
The market-wide correction, which has pushed BTC to $82,000, ETH to $1,800, and SOL to $125, could be blamed for XRP’s decline. However, Ripple’s cross-border token has taken this retracement the worst from the top 20 alts, having lost 14.5% on a weekly scale, while BTC is down by 5.5%, SOL by 9%, and ETH by 11.6%. Another possible reason behind XRP’s particularly painful decline could be linked to the recent activities of whales. These large market participants went on an accumulation spree after the US elections and during XRP’s surge from $0.6 to $3.4, within months. Now, though, they have switched tactics by disposing of large amounts of XRP, which could trigger even a more violent price crash.