Ripple made lower highs and found support at the 0.4400 level to create a descending triangle on its 4-hour time frame. Price is currently testing the triangle bottom and might be due for a bounce to the top.
However, the 100 SMA is below the longer-term 200 SMA to signal that the path of least resistance is to the downside. This could mean that support is more likely to break than to hold. In that case, Ripple might fall by the same height as the triangle formation, which reaches up to 0.5600. The moving averages are currently holding as dynamic resistance as well.
RSI appears to be turning back down to signal that selling pressure is picking up without even seeing overbought conditions. Stochastic is also moving up but may be changing its mind halfway through to suggest that sellers are trying to regain control.
Ripple appears to have distanced itself from bitcoin well enough recently to not follow in its footsteps. While the latter had a strong rally and similarly large pullback recently, Ripple has been mostly moving sideways.
For now, traders are still holding out for actual catalysts that could push this in a particular direction. It’s worth noting, however, that Ripple has kept itself busy striking partnerships with large financial firms and may be prime for a surge in investor interest down the line.
Meanwhile, the dollar is holding its head higher thanks to a hawkish FOMC statement and safe-haven flows. Resurfacing trade tensions between the US and China have been enough to draw traders back to lower-yielding assets like bonds and the dollar, dampening demand for riskier holdings like cryptocurrencies.
Besides, Ripple and its peers took some jabs on the HitBTC outage and negative remarks from Paul Krugman. It didn’t help that South Korea is also looking into ending tax breaks for cryptocurrency exchanges in reaction to the sharp surge in volumes recently.