bullish

Bitcoin

when

XRP (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/xrp-price-index" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">XRP</a>) was down 13% in the last 24 hours to trade at $2.30 on Dec. 5., going in the opposite direction from Bitcoin (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">BTC</a>), which smashed through the $100,000 level.&nbsp;
The decline is <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/xrp-price-retreats-2-multiyear-high-top-in" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">part of a correction</a> that started on Dec. 3 and has seen the <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/why-is-xrp-price-down-today" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">XRP price lose 25%</a> of its value since reaching a multi-year high of $2.90.&nbsp;
<figure>
 <img alt="RIP altseason? XRP price tumbles 13% despite Bitcoin’s $100K surge" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/019395f9-456e-7a69-928b-6c6dc049cfe5" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 XRP/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.tradingview.com/x/LJpMBOV1/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://www.tradingview.com/x/LJpMBOV1/">TradingView</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
This drawdown has also seen XRP’s market capitalization decline by 8% over the same period to $133 billion, slipping below Tether USD (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/tether" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">USDt</a>) to fourth place.
Let’s look closer at the factors behind XRP’s ongoing sell-off.
<h2 id="strong-xrp-wipes-out-all-december-gains-against-bitcoin-strong">XRP wipes out all December gains against Bitcoin</h2>
XRP has outperformed Bitcoin since November, rallying about 354% between Nov. 1 and Dec. 5, compared with BTC’s 45.5% uptick over the same period.&nbsp;
<figure>
 <img alt="RIP altseason? XRP price tumbles 13% despite Bitcoin’s $100K surge" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/019395fa-2ff4-7018-927f-0882b62bd491" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 XRP/USD vs. BTC/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.tradingview.com/x/sRlfDWql/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://www.tradingview.com/x/sRlfDWql/">TradingView</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
As a result, XRP trended higher against Bitcoin in November, reaching a 3.5-year high of 0.00003012 on Dec. 3, buoyed by high network activity and a generally positive market sentiment.&nbsp;
This ratio dropped to 0.00002334 on Dec. 5, wiping out all the gains made between Dec. 1 and Dec. 3.
Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ripple-rlusd-stablecoin-launch-2024" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ripple-rlusd-stablecoin-launch-2024">Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin: Here’s what you need to know before launch</a>
Interestingly, this happened as Bitcoin price <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-price-hits-100-000-first-time-new-all-time-high" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">smashed through the much-anticipated $100,000 mark</a> to set a new all-time high of around $104,000.
<figure>
 <img alt="RIP altseason? XRP price tumbles 13% despite Bitcoin’s $100K surge" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/019395fa-8e99-7e59-88db-45e61154492b" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 XRP/BTC daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.tradingview.com/x/Xm4cXM7V/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://www.tradingview.com/x/Xm4cXM7V/">TradingView</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
At the same time, more than $12.8 million long XRP positions have been liquidated on Dec. 5, compared to $7 million short liquidations, as per data from CoinGlass. This likely contributed to the downward pressure on price.
<figure>
 <img alt="RIP altseason? XRP price tumbles 13% despite Bitcoin’s $100K surge" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/019395fb-4580-7f15-a4a2-de8eb760c505" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 XRP liquidations across all exchanges. Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.coinglass.com/currencies/XRP" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://www.coinglass.com/currencies/XRP">CoinGlass</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
The wipeout of long positions coincided with a drop in XRP’s futures’ <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/explained/what-is-open-interest-in-the-crypto-futures-market" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">open interest</a> (OI), down from $4.3 billion a day earlier. However, the OI remains high compared to the $722 million seen at the beginning of November.
Meanwhile, XRP’s eight-hour funding rate jumped from 0.0163% to 0.0553% over the past day, suggesting that traders may be bullish on altcoins like XRP.
<h2 id="strong-bull-flag-suggests-xrp-s-upside-is-not-over-strong">Bull flag suggests XRP’s upside is not over</h2>
&nbsp;From a technical perspective, XRP’s price action has led to the formation of a bull flag pattern in the four-hour timeframe, as shown below.
A <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/what-is-a-bull-flag-chart-pattern-and-how-to-spot-it" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">bull flag</a> is a bullish continuation setup that forms after the price consolidates inside a down-sloping range following a sharp price ascent.&nbsp;
The pattern will resolve after the price produces a decisive close above the upper trendline of the flag at $2.37 and rises by as much as the previous uptrend’s height. 
This puts the upper target for XRP price at $4.83, a new all-time high.
<figure>
 <img alt="RIP altseason? XRP price tumbles 13% despite Bitcoin’s $100K surge" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/019395fb-d49a-7e71-99a4-974d9054ac40" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 XRP/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.tradingview.com/x/UiwKI7WA/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://www.tradingview.com/x/UiwKI7WA/">TradingView</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
Conversely, XRP’s <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/here-s-3-ways-the-relative-strength-index-rsi-can-be-used-as-a-sell-signal" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">relative strength index</a> (RSI) dropped from overbought conditions at 82 to 52 between Dec. 3 and Dec. 5. If the RSI maintains this downward trajectory, it would increase the chances of a deeper pullback.
Therefore, a retreat from $2.37 could see a retest of the flag’s lower trendline at around $2.05, embraced by the 50-period simple moving average (SMA). Lower than that, the price risks testing support at the 100 SMA around $1.68.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

RIP altseason? XRP price tumbles 13% despite Bitcoin’s $100K surge

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Cointelegraph

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