XRP was one of the main beneficiaries of the cryptocurrency market bull run that began in November — however, its upward trajectory seems to have stalled out as of late.
At press time, XRP was changing hands at a price of $2.63, marking a 24.44% gain on the year-to-date (YTD) chart.
The digital asset’s momentum was severely curtailed in early February by President Trump’s tariffs, following which XRP dropped below the key $3 level, which now functions as resistance. February has historically been one of the worst months for XRP returns — to put things into perspective, the asset was trading at $3.03 at the end of January and has dropped by 13.2% since.
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Despite the setback, several bullish catalysts are present. The market is expecting a relatively speedy conclusion to Ripple Labs’ longstanding lawsuit with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), now that former chair Gary Gensler has resigned.
On top of that, CoinShares recently filed for an XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the NASDAQ exchange, in a move that could prove to be a watershed moment in terms of XRP adoption.
The most recent positive development is the fact that XRP whales — those who own more than 1,000,000 units of the cryptocurrency, to be precise, seem to be accumulating XRP rather than selling it.
XRP whales are bullish — but have slowed down on buying
Noted cryptocurrency technical analyst Ali Martinez pointed out the fact that XRP whales bought 60 million units of the digital currency within 24 hours in a February 17 post on social media platform X.
Large accumulations on the part of XRP whales have historically preceded large moves to the upside. The reverse also holds true — when whales begin dumping, prices tend to drop soon after.
This latest development seems to support an earlier thesis made by Martinez on February 16, in which he noted the development of a cup and handle pattern. If the pattern is legitimate, the price of XRP could reach a level as high as $3.35.
Readers should note, however, that the cup and handle spotted by Martinez occurred in a relatively short timeframe — and as it is a long-term chart pattern, the veracity of the one shown by Martinez is questionable.
In addition, this latest round of acquisitions made by XRP whales is on the smaller side — for example, on February 8, they bought 540 million XRP — and no significant moves the the upside occurred for almost an entire week, so traders should exercise patience and temper expectations.
Featured image via Shutterstock
