XRP, now the fourth largest altcoin in the market has not had the best few months. In the recently concluded Q2 2020, the altcoin saw a quarterly price gain of less than 2 percent, its market dominance which now stands at 3.16 percent of the total crypto market fell by 1.3 percent between March and July. In this quarter, XRP was overtaken by the stablecoin Tether owing to its massive trading volume, pushing the former to the fourth spot on the market, with total market capitalization of $8.81 billion to Tether’s $9.1 billion.
Looking at the short-term hourly price chart of XRP, trading range is getting tighter and tighter and a big-squeeze is expected. Since rising as high as $0.21 last week, XRP’s price has been declining, forming a wedge in the process. Although this wedge can be placed even at $0.204, which was realized on 11 July, a larger wedge would provide more context.
Since the formation of the wedge, XRP has had three lower-highs, each hitting the top of the wedge successively from 11 July to 13 July. On the lower end after dropping below the support at $0.197, the price has been increasing but forming consistent lows over the past four days at $0.198.
Source: XRPUSD via Trading View
As the trendlines from above and below look to coincide, volatility for XRP has decreased. Bollinger Bands have severely contracted in the past week, and its simple moving average is not coinciding with the price, pointing to a stable trading range between resistance at $0.202, which XRP fell below on 11 July and the lower support at $0.198.
Chaikin Money Flow for the altcoin was increasing from July 12 to July 13, and even briefly moved past 0, but was pushed below on 13 July. At present it is trending in the negative at -0.03, and will push further down if the price continues to say stable, Since hitting the high of $0.21, XRP has been trading with extremely low volume. Data from Coinmarketcap puts the 24-hour trading volume of XRP between 8 July to 10 July at an average of $1.6 billion, but over the past few days the volume has dropped down to less than $1 billion per day, on average.
This low volume coupled with the squeeze courtesy of the wedge and the negative CMF valuation is a bearish sign for the altcoin’s price. If the price does drop, which is likely, the immediate support levels at $0.198 and $0.197 should be looked at with caution.
