Can the New Wave of Ripple Customers Cause XRP to Break Above the Current Trading Range?

  • Ripple has recently announced a new wave of customers that now have access to their platform.
  • The market is trading within a range between $0.3943 and $0.3635.
  • Support moving forward: $0.3635, $0.3449, $0.35, $0.3185, $0.3028, $0.2858.
  • Resistance moving forward: $0.3943, $0.40, $0.4280, $0.4542, $0.4617, $0.5098, $0.5157, $0.5384, $0.5414.

Latest Ripple News

Ripple continues to expand, with a new wave of customers that are interested in using their services to reduce settlement times and transaction costs by removing costly intermediaries.

One of the most interesting new partnerships is with Euro Exim Bank, a St. Lucia-based bank that has publicly announced their excitement about the potential benefits that the Ripple network will have for their customers. Euro Exim Bank will implement the xRapid API into their system to automate and speed up their cross-border payments.

The director of the bank, Kaushik Punjabi, stated that their customers had historically been restricted from obtaining funds or settling transactions in a “cost-efficient and timely manner.” With the help of Ripple, they have “designed, tested and are implementing both xCurrent and xRapid in record time” and are looking forward to the benefits that these services will provide to their customers.

The Ripple network is said to be able to reduce costs of a wire transfer by up to 70%. A Ripple transaction can be executed within 3 to 5 seconds; in comparison a transaction with SWIFT can take up to 3 days to settle. The system also removes the need for the bank to have funds locked in foreign accounts, thus protecting them from volatility risks prevalent with foreign currencies.

Aside from Euro Exim Bank, a big Islamic bank has also started to use the Ripple Network to provide instant cross-border remittance services for their customers.

Let us continue to take a look at XRP/USD over the short term and continue to highlight any potential areas of support and resistance moving forward.

XRP Price Analysis

XRP has seen a price increase over the past 24 hours of trading which totals 2.58%, bringing the current trading price up to around $0.3824. After a wave of breaking news for Ripple, the cryptocurrency behind the company has now undergone a price surge over the past 30 trading days totaling 23.71%

Ripple is now ranked in 3rd position in the market cap rankings as it currently holds $15.34 billion. The project is now, once again, closing in on Ethereum which sits only $470 million higher in market cap value.

The 65-month old project is now trading at a value that is 89% lower than its all-time high value.

Ripple Analysis

Analyzing price action from the 4-hour chart above , we can see that after XRP/USD had rebounded during December 2018, it went on to rally aggressively until it hit resistance at the bearish .618 FIbonacci Retracement level (drawn in red) priced at $0.4617.

The market then went on to retrace until it found support below at the short-term .618 FIbonacci Retracement level (drawn in green) priced at $0.3449.

Price action attempted to travel higher but hit resistance above at the bearish .382 Fibonacci Retracement level (drawn in red) priced at $0.3943 and has not been able to overcome this level of resistance.

As trading unfolded during 2019, we can see that XRP has now been trapped within a narrow range between the $0.3943 handle as the upper boundary of the range and the short-term .5 Fibonacci Retracement level (drawn in green) priced at $0.3635 as the lower boundary of the range.

Trend: Neutral

During trading in 2019, the market has been trapped within the narrow range as defined above. For this market to be considered bullish again, we would need to see price action break above the trading range and continue above the $0.46 handle.

If price action was to break below the range and penetrate beneath $0.34, we could consider this market bearish.

Where is the Support for XRP Below the $0.3635 Handle?

If the sellers begin to pressure price action lower and the market drops below the currently established trading range beneath $0.3635, we can expect further support toward the downside to be located at the short-term .618 and .786 Fibonacci Retracement levels (drawn in green) priced at $0.3449 and $0.3185.

If the bearish momentum continues to push price action further lower, we can expect more support toward the downside to be located at the short-term .886 Fibonacci Retracement level (drawn in green) pried at $0.3028.

If the sellers continue to break below the $0.30 handle, the final level of support to highlight is at the previous downside 1.414 Fibonacci Extension level (drawn in lilac) priced at $0.2858.

Where Will the Market Meet Resistance Above the Trading Range?

If the bulls regroup and begin to push price action for XRP/USD above the trading range at $0.3943, higher resistance can be located at the bearish .5 and .618 Fibonacci Retracement levels (drawn in red), priced at $0.4280 and $0.4617.

If the buyers can bring price action above the $0.50 handle, we can then expect further higher resistance to be located at the bearish .786 and .886 Fibonacci Retracement levels (drawn in red), priced at $0.5098 and $0.5384 respectively.

More resistance toward the upside can be located at the medium-term 1.414 and 1.618 (not seen on the chart)  Fibonacci Extension levels (drawn in blue), priced at $0.5414 and $0.5785 respectively.