TLDR
- XRP is trading at $1.31, up 18% in 24 hours and more than 31% for the week
- Analyst Steph Is Crypto flagged a technical setup matching the 2020 pattern that came before a major rally
- Institutional inflows into spot XRP ETFs have grown even as the broader crypto market stayed cautious
- XRP faces resistance between $1.20 and $1.35, an area that has capped past rallies
- Weekly ETF inflows have dropped about 93% from their recent peak, and RSI readings show XRP is overbought
XRP price hit $1.31 on August 21, up 18% in the past 24 hours. The token is also up more than 31% for the week, according to CoinGecko.
The move caught many traders off guard. Short sellers had to cover their positions, which added more fuel to the rally.
Analyst Steph Is Crypto pointed to an unusual technical setup on the two-week chart. He said XRP had spent 28 days below the Gaussian channel indicator.
That stretch matches the exact pattern from 2020, right before XRP turned sharply higher. The token also pushed above a downward trend line first drawn in 2020, something that hasn’t happened since 2024.
A gold-denominated version of the same chart shows a similar pattern. Every earlier bull run traces back to that same trend line, and each past touch marked a bottom rather than a breakdown.
Steph Is Crypto cautioned that XRP could still drop another 10 to 20 percent before a bottom is confirmed. That means the breakout is not guaranteed to hold yet.
Ripple President Monica Long commented on the shift in market conditions. She said, “We’ve seen the veritable light switch flip.”
Institutional Demand Grows
Quarterly filings showed bigger institutional allocations into spot XRP ETFs. Net inflows kept coming in even while the rest of the crypto market stayed cautious.
On the XRP Ledger, transaction volume and active addresses both climbed. Ripple also kept issuing more of its RLUSD stablecoin.
The company announced new banking partnerships during this period. These developments came alongside the price move.
Resistance And Risk Signals
Not every signal points higher. Weekly inflows into spot XRP ETFs have slowed sharply, dropping about 93% from their recent peak.
Total assets under management in those funds fell below $1 billion. That is a sharp drop from earlier this year.
XRP is also nearing a resistance band between $1.20 and $1.35. Stacked moving averages in that zone have capped past rallies before.
RSI readings above 80 suggest XRP is overbought on shorter time frames. The $1.00 to $1.05 support zone is seen as key for the price to hold.
The CLARITY Act, which would set clearer federal rules for crypto, still has not moved through the Senate. That adds uncertainty to the picture.
At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $1.31, still below its 2021 and 2025 cycle highs of $1.96 and $3.65. A close above $1.35 would strengthen the bullish case, while a drop under $1.05 would put it in doubt.
