XRP Price Analysis: XRP Market Cap Drops by 30% From January High, Ecosystem Growth Stalls

Ripple (XRP) price has dropped by 30% from its January high, erasing most of the gains made earlier this year. This retreat aligns with the ongoing Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoin crash.

Ripple (XRP) price has remained in a deep bear market this week as the broader crypto industry continued its downturn.

After surging by 60% from its 2023 low to a January high of $0.44, XRP has erased nearly all of those gains with a 30% decline from that peak. This performance comes as Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins have crashed by double digits.

Here’s a closer look at XRP’s price performance and what to expect next.

Ripple (XRP) price may be set for further weakness as data from CoinGecko showed that most XRP meme coins have plunged by double digits in the past few days.

XRP Army token has dropped by over 30% in the last 7 days, PHNIX token has fallen by 32%, while Sigma, Drop, Pongo, Ripples, and 589 dropped by over 60%.

Meanwhile, DeFi Llama data showed that the XRP Ledger’s growth has stalled with the total value locked in the ecosystem remaining at $80 million since Jan. 28.

XRPL DEX, the biggest decentralized exchange in the network, has the biggest market share with $80.3 million in assets. It is followed by OpenEden, a Real World Asset tokenization network with $5 million in assets.

However, one encouraging development within the XRP ecosystem is the growth of stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD). Its market cap has jumped to $108 million, and its daily volume averages over $150 million.

RLUSD was recently added to Zero Hash, a blockchain infrastructure provider, to enable its customers to access RLUSD to process transactions on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum networks.

We are pleased to share that we have expanded our stablecoin offering with the addition of @Ripple USD (RLUSO).

This integration allows Zero Hash customers to access RLUSD to process transactions on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum networks.

Zero Hash's API and SDK… pic.twitter.com/CqZoQ3a1y2

Another positive is that investors are largely moving their XRP tokens out of exchanges. Coinglass data showed that XRP had outflows from exchanges in the last four consecutive days.

Usually, exchange outflows are a sign that investors are moving their tokens to self-custody, which is a bullish continuation signal.

XRP price analysis: what’s next?

The weekly chart showed that XRP’s price has wavered in the past few weeks, a performance that comes after its strong surge in November. This volatility may be a sign that the coin has moved to the distribution phase of the Wyckoff Theory.

Wyckoff is an old theory that identifies four stages that assets go through. In XRP’s case, it remained in an accumulation phase between 2022 and 2024. It then entered the highly bullish markup phase in November last year.

The distribution phase is characterized by high volatility, followed by the markdown phase, which has high supply and less demand. A drop below this week’s low of $1.7900 will be a sign that it has moved to this markdown phase.

A bullish continuation will be confirmed if the coin rises above the year-to-date high of $3.3877.