The Ripple price went parabolic in November, making it one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies.
Ripple (XRP) surged to a high of $2.50, climbing over 400% from its monthly low. This rally pushed its market cap beyond $130 billion, allowing it to overtake popular coins like Solana (SOL), BNB, and Dogecoin (DOGE).
The primary catalyst for XRP’s surge was Donald Trump’s election victory, which is expected to pave the way for more favorable crypto regulations. This development is significant as Ripple Labs has been embroiled in a legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission since 2020.
The election also raised the possibility of a spot XRP exchange-traded fund by 2025. Earlier this week, asset manager WisdomTree, overseeing $111 billion in assets, filed for a spot Ripple ETF.
Crypto analysts suggest that XRP’s recent rally was largely driven by whale activity, triggering a fear of missing out among retail investors.
In an X post, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju highlighted that whale activity on Coinbase played a significant role, as exchange premiums surged to 3%-13%. Conversely, South Korea’s Upbit exchange, which has a substantial XRP trading base, showed no such premium.
— Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) December 2, 2024Coinbase whales are driving this $XRP rally.
Over the past 30 days, Coinbase's minute-level price premium has ranged from 3% to 13% during the surge.
Meanwhile, Upbit—a Korean exchange with more XRP investors than Binance—has shown no significant premium so far. pic.twitter.com/ENESB2Zrkv
Santiment, a leading analytics firm, reported that wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP added 671 million coins in three weeks. This marked the first increase in non-empty wallets in eight years, driven by FOMO.
🚀 XRP has skyrocketed to an astounding $2.49 market value for the first time since January 8, 2018. The 6-year (nearly 7-year) high comes as wallets with 1M-10M XRP have accumulated 679.1M tokens (currently worth $1.66B) in just 3 weeks. Also, total non-empty XRP wallets have… pic.twitter.com/bIsfOqdCQX
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) December 2, 2024
XRP price could suffer a mean reversion
Ripple’s price may face a potential pullback in the coming weeks. First, the coin could experience mean reversion, as it currently trades significantly above its short- and long-term moving averages. Mean reversion suggests that assets often return to their average price over time.
Additionally, XRP’s Relative Strength Index and Stochastic Oscillator indicate overbought conditions, signaling potential weakness. Furthermore, XRP may be in the markup phase of the Wyckoff Method, characterized by high demand outpacing supply.
This phase is often followed by the distribution phase, which typically leads to a sell-off. Ripple’s price could retreat to retest support at $1.9697, a key level last seen in April 2021.