XRP Price Prediction: Consolidation Persists as SEC Delays ETF Decision – XRP to $2?

XRP (XRP) holders are probably a bit frustrated as they have spent weeks watching the price of the token bounce back and forth between $2 and $3 after November’s massive rally.

Back then, it took a big catalyst – Ripple’s victory over the SEC in a long-standing case – to push the token to the $3 area for the first time in years.

Right now, Ripple has reached a ‘higher plateau’ but has failed to break its all-time high even though the crypto community agrees that altcoin season could be about to start.

With Ethereum rising above $4,000 already, BNB Coin (BNB) and Bitcoin (BTC) making new all-time highs every other week, when will it be XRP’s turn to shine?

SEC Pauses Rally as It Delays Its Decision on XRP ETFs

The SEC postponed its decision this week on multiple XRP spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This could have cooled off the rally for a bit as market participants were expecting an imminent yes after Solana (SOL) got its first spot and staking vehicle approved not long ago.

XRP Open Interest in USD – Source: CoinGlass

Open interest in the futures market remains relatively high even though it has dropped from its recent record of $11 billion to $8 billion at the time of writing. OI is at the same level it was back in January when XRP climbed near $3.4 for the first time.

Hence, traders’ positioning is still quite bullish. At this point, either the market pushes the token lower to blow up these leveraged longs or late buyers could see the $3 support as the launch pad for XRP’s next explosive move.

Either way, we could expect a big move within the next few days as the token has hit a critical area of decision and one where liquidity is quite high.

XRP’s Retreat from Key Resistance Favors Bearish Outlook

The weekly chart favors a bearish short-term outlook for XRP as we can see a sustained retreat from the $3.42 resistance already.

XRP/USD Weekly Chart (Coinbase) – Source: TradingView

XRP has closed three out of the past four weeks in red and has started this week with losses as well. The first support level to watch would be the $2.5 area as this level acted as resistance previously and has already been broken.

Significant liquidity may be found there as deep-pocketed bears could close up their shorts if XRP drops to that level and catalyze a strong recovery with their short-covering. That would also be a convenient area of discount for late buyers based on Fibonacci retracement levels.

Next up, if $2.5 doesn’t hold, the next stop for XRP would be the $2 area. This would complete a full ticket back to the lower bound of the consolidation rectangle and we could also expect a big move from that level.

What seems highly unlikely at this point is that we will get a much sharper correction below $2 as market conditions remain quite favorable for cryptos as a whole. The only thing that could fully derail this bull market is a decision from the Fed to scrap its planned interest rate cuts for the year.

Even if they scaled back the plan from two cuts to one, that could have a dramatic impact on XRP’s price and the market as a whole.