XRP Price Prediction: XRP Slips 2% As Analyst Warns It Could Drop Below $1

The XRP price dropped 2% in the past 24 hours to trade at $1.86 as of 2:53 a.m. EST amid a selloff in the broader crypto market. 

With that recent pullback, the altcoin has flipped its weekly performance back into the red zone, data from CoinMarketCap shows. Additionally, the crypto has added to its losses over the past month. As such, the crypto is down more than 15% on the longer-term time frame. 

That drop in the XRP price is likely to continue, warns renowned crypto analyst and trader Ali Martinez. 

Analyst Warns XRP Price Could Plunge To As Low As $0.80

In a Dec. 29 X thread, Martinez said that selling pressure for XRP continues. 

He also noted that the number of daily active addresses on the blockchain have fallen to around 38,500, which Martinez said is a sign of “fading participation and interest.” 

Meanwhile, large investors known as whales have turned into sellers, according to the analyst. He said that these investors have dumped over 40 million XRP tokens in recent days. 

He subsequently warned that the XRP price risks losing the $1.77 support. If this happens, he said that the next major support zone for the altcoin is around $0.80.

Galaxy’s Mike Novogratz Questions Relevance Of XRP And ADA

The fading interest in XRP comes around the same time that Galaxy’s Mike Novogratz questioned the relevance of the altcoin and Cardano’s ADA.

In an interview with Galaxy’s chief of research Alex Thorn, Novogratz argued that XRP and ADA both still need to prove that they are useful in the real-world, and that they’re not just popular tokens with loyal communities. 

XRP supporters responded by pointing to Ripple’s payment systems. However, Novogratz’s point is not that these payment systems have zero use today, but rather that projects will get left behind if they do not transition from “interesting experiments” to boring, “everyday infrastructure” that people and companies rely on. 

Technicals Lean Bearish As XRP Falls Out Of Sideways Channel

The daily chart for XRP supports Martinez’s bearish outlook for the altcoin. 

Daily chart for XRP/USDT (Source: GeckoTerminal) 

In the past 48 hours, the crypto has dropped below the lower boundary of a medium-term consolidation channel between $1.8283 and $1.8866. This exposes the XRP price to downside risk.

What’s more, technical indicators such as short-term Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), the Relative Strength Index (RSI), and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) all show that sellers have an upper hand over buyers. 

The shorter 9 EMA recently crossed below the 20 EMA, signaling that short-term momentum has shifted from bullish to bearish. Additionally, the two EMAs are also acting as dynamic resistance levels that are pushing the XRP price down.

Meanwhile, the MACD line has crossed below the MACD Signal line, which is a classic bearish technical flag. Since the two lines intersected, the MACD line has continued to break below the MACD Signal line. Traders might see this as an indication of bearish momentum picking up steam. 

Sellers have an advantage when it comes to strength as well, as suggested by the RSI reading below the neutral 50 mark. 

Unless the XRP price can reclaim the support of the $1.8283 level, the crypto remains at risk of further downside in the short term.