In the last two months (December, 2017 and beginning of January, 2018), one of the most influential cryptocurrency worldwide, the Ripple (XRP), has seen very unprecedented price movements.
At the beginning of December 2017, the Ripple assumed an uptrend never experienced in its History. The uptrend continued for the rest of December and on into the beginning of January 2018. At this time the market participants had all started to get very excited about these developments with most eyeing to invest in this coin.
However, when things just seemed to be going smoothly, the Ripple “decided” to take a break and pull back. It was not just a small pull back since at the moment, its value is still declining and investors are starting to get worried.
A token of the Ripple (XRP) is now going for $1.85, just a week after the coin had reached its all-time high of $3.49. This represents a 46.99% drop, which is such a great drop considering it is within a week.
Historical data for Ripple (Dec 16, 2017 – Jan 15, 2018)
Currency in USD
Open/Close in UTC time
| Date | Open | High | Low | Close | Volume | Market Cap |
| Jan 14, 2018 | 2.02 | 2.02 | 1.81 | 1.86 | 1,978,200,000 | 78,195,800,000 |
| Jan 13, 2018 | 2.05 | 2.12 | 1.98 | 2.02 | 2,130,170,000 | 79,469,700,000 |
| Jan 12, 2018 | 1.94 | 2.16 | 1.87 | 2.04 | 3,330,810,000 | 75,172,500,000 |
| Jan 11, 2018 | 1.98 | 2.25 | 1.62 | 1.95 | 6,296,120,000 | 76,711,800,000 |
| Jan 10, 2018 | 2.13 | 2.16 | 1.70 | 1.97 | 4,833,640,000 | 82,511,000,000 |
| Jan 09, 2018 | 2.44 | 2.53 | 1.98 | 2.10 | 3,694,700,000 | 94,657,500,000 |
| Jan 08, 2018 | 3.36 | 3.36 | 2.07 | 2.46 | 3,315,260,000 | 130,302,000,000 |
| Jan 07, 2018 | 3.09 | 3.49 | 3.08 | 3.38 | 2,395,150,000 | 119,819,000,000 |
| Jan 06, 2018 | 3.02 | 3.24 | 2.99 | 3.09 | 2,777,560,000 | 117,033,000,000 |
| Jan 05, 2018 | 3.30 | 3.56 | 2.83 | 3.05 | 6,288,500,000 | 127,870,000,000 |
| Jan 04, 2018 | 3.12 | 3.84 | 3.12 | 3.20 | 8,103,660,000 | 120,763,000,000 |
| Jan 03, 2018 | 2.46 | 3.28 | 2.44 | 3.11 | 6,635,880,000 | 95,457,200,000 |
| Jan 02, 2018 | 2.37 | 2.49 | 2.25 | 2.48 | 3,171,010,000 | 91,791,800,000 |
| Jan 01, 2018 | 2.30 | 2.39 | 2.15 | 2.39 | 1,894,230,000 | 88,945,900,000 |
| Dec 31, 2017 | 2.10 | 2.39 | 1.87 | 2.30 | 4,642,080,000 | 81,162,600,000 |
| Dec 30, 2017 | 2.20 | 2.85 | 2.04 | 2.16 | 8,108,390,000 | 85,187,400,000 |
| Dec 29, 2017 | 1.44 | 2.27 | 1.44 | 2.21 | 7,545,740,000 | 55,767,500,000 |
| Dec 28, 2017 | 1.39 | 1.50 | 1.26 | 1.43 | 2,843,300,000 | 53,998,200,000 |
| Dec 27, 2017 | 1.18 | 1.47 | 1.18 | 1.40 | 2,854,260,000 | 45,875,700,000 |
| Dec 26, 2017 | 1.12 | 1.19 | 1.09 | 1.19 | 938,847,000 | 43,455,400,000 |
| Dec 25, 2017 | 1.05 | 1.13 | 1.00 | 1.12 | 686,014,000 | 40,506,000,000 |
| Dec 24, 2017 | 1.18 | 1.18 | 0.911226 | 1.04 | 754,959,000 | 45,541,100,000 |
| Dec 23, 2017 | 1.17 | 1.21 | 1.08 | 1.17 | 1,497,590,000 | 45,167,600,000 |
| Dec 22, 2017 | 1.17 | 1.38 | 0.741013 | 1.14 | 4,644,700,000 | 45,189,500,000 |
| Dec 21, 2017 | 0.782515 | 1.24 | 0.782515 | 1.19 | 3,626,110,000 | 30,314,000,000 |
| Dec 20, 2017 | 0.787171 | 0.789044 | 0.730953 | 0.775964 | 1,007,420,000 | 30,494,300,000 |
| Dec 19, 2017 | 0.777447 | 0.863536 | 0.756724 | 0.791257 | 1,449,670,000 | 30,117,600,000 |
| Dec 18, 2017 | 0.728036 | 0.792014 | 0.689323 | 0.778407 | 1,342,720,000 | 28,203,500,000 |
| Dec 17, 2017 | 0.754125 | 0.765981 | 0.719929 | 0.728366 | 805,200,000 | 29,214,200,000 |
| Dec 16, 2017 | 0.755493 | 0.815923 | 0.741667 | 0.758642 | 1,334,770,000 | 29,267,100,000 |
But, what had really caused the surge in Ripple prices?
Before starting to panic, investors should first understand what had caused the surge and later the fall in the XRP market prices. This would help in knowing how to handle the coin.
Before 8th January, the prices of the Ripple coin were on a strong bullish trend. The coin seemed to have found its call in the cryptocurrency markets!
The drop in the market prices is allegedly due to the decision of CoinMarketCap to de-list the coin from the Korean exchange platform on 8th.
On that specific day, the market shares dropped to $103 billion from $123 billion signifying a drop of a staggering $20 billion. And that same day the prices of the XRP coin also dropped the previous’ day $3.09 to $2.67 which was a huge decline occurring just in a couple of hours.
Also, for the technical analysts, a closer look would indicate that the market was anticipating a pullback due to the formation of the Hammer candlesticks. If you look at the market closely, you will realize there are several hammers which formed but the market only pulled back a little before continuing with the bullish trend. This indicates that there was also some forces from the market participant to push it down may be due to being over bought. Combining this with the announcement on 8th January, Ripple (XRP) could not hold any longer; it had to give in.
And as it stands, investors will have to brace for a bit more drop in prices for the short term period before the coin absorbs the shock to regain its bullish trend.
