XRP prices remained volatile on Wednesday even as Bitcoin retested all-time highs in overnight trading. Ripple, the seventh-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is trading at $0.5255, a few points higher than this week’s low of $0.4900.
Ripple will fall in 2024
The price trend of XRP is noteworthy as it continues to underperform other major coins such as Ethereum and Bitcoin. After falling 16% this year, Bitcoin retested its all-time high of $73,800.
The company’s poor performance continued this month after co-founder Chris Larsen announced a donation to Kamala Harris.
Harris is seen as a more anti-crypto candidate than Donald Trump. For example, she is said to be considering appointing Gary Gensler to be the next Secretary of the Treasury. Harris will also have the ear of popular crypto critics like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has called for stronger regulation.
As a result, many crypto traders who support President Trump have sold their XRP tokens in protest, which explains why the token’s performance continues to be poor.
Ripple faces a more fundamental problem. First, the company has struggled to sign up more banks to use RippleNet and its on-demand liquidity (ODL) capabilities to move funds internationally.
Read more: XRP price prediction as Ripple forms rare death cross
Instead, some large banks such as JPMorgan and ANZ have adopted tokenization capabilities, and analysts believe stablecoins will have a big role in the future. In fact, sanctioned countries such as Russia and Iran have found stablecoins easier to transfer funds.
Second, Ripple’s XRP Ledger network has not attracted developers, with data showing that the total value locked (TVL) is only $14 million. Developers instead chose other chains such as Base Blockchain, Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche, and Sui.
Third, it is unclear whether Ripple’s upcoming stablecoin will be able to gain market share in the industry. Tether has a market capitalization of over $120 billion, while USD Coin, Dai, Athena USDe, and First Digital have market capitalizations of over $34 billion, $4.9 billion, $2.69 billion, and $2.25 billion, respectively. It will be difficult for RLUSD to gain market share.
XRP price analysis
Ripple Chart by TradingView
The weekly chart shows that the XRP token has remained within a narrow range for the past few months. A symmetrical triangular pattern is formed and is shown in yellow. This pattern is currently nearing a confluence, indicating a major move ahead.
The ripple and relative strength index (RSI) form a symmetrical triangular pattern, approaching the confluence level. The MACD indicator has fallen slightly below the zero line.
Therefore, Ripple price will remain in a narrow range for the next few weeks. A bullish breakout will be confirmed if the price breaks above the key resistance level at the September high of $0.6640. Such a move could lead to a further rally to USD 0.9250, around 75% above current levels.
Read more: Bitcoin deja vu? Bernstein predicts BTC to soar 200%
