Ripple (XRP) Crashes: Falls 40% from Its September High

By Swati Kishore

It has been a whirlwind year for cryptocurrencies, and this includes Ripple (XRP) which as of September 2018 was the world’s third largest coin by market capitalisation. The Token has witnessed a lot of volatility with its price swinging rapidly.

XRP, owned and developed by Ripple, has seen lot of change in its price over the last few months. At a time when the crypto community was of the view that the bad times are long gone, we are now witnessing the decline of this famous cryptocurrency. In fact, it has crashed by over 40 percent from its September 2018 high when its price was around USD 0.7694. At the time of writing this news XRP’s price stood at USD 0.409841.

To explain the sharp fluctuations in price that the token has witnessed recently, analysts mentioned that it is due to the changing sentiment among the masses. Tim Ennneking, Managing Director of Digital Capital Management, was quoted as saying, “ XRP skyrocketed because of the hype surrounding Ripple announcement and events but, fundamentally, nothing changed.” He added, “The drop is simply XRP returning to earth, back to the range it ‘should be trading in.”

Chris McClure, Chief Marketing Officer of the digital currency data provider Svandis, said that the sharp changes in value took place at a time when there was low volatility in the cryptocurrency markets. He added, “The sell pressure has really lost its momentum within these current ranges.”

McClure is of the view that Ripple’s XRP made surprising runs past the recent resistance levels. But the cause of these runs can be explained by the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) mindset in the market. As per McClure, the essential issue with a run like this is that in a market of low volume, it means that it has little support.

Eric Ervin, CEO of Blockforce Capital, elaborates that going forward the cryptocurrency is likely to keep experiencing wild price fluctuations. He said, “We believe hype-driven volatility will continue causing XRP prices to vacillate in the short-term while searching for, potentially asymptotic, long-term equilibrium.” 

With various experts weighing in their opinions, it is to be seen how the cryptocurrency markets go from here.