XRP has formed its first death cross in 2024, a technical indicator that is often considered a bearish sign for the market.
A death cross is formed when a short-term moving average (MA) crosses below a long-term MA, suggesting bearish implications for the price.
XRP’s 50-day simple moving average (SMA) crossed below its 200-day SMA, marking the first death cross for the coin since September 2023.
The death cross is typically regarded as a lagging indicator, implying that the downtrend has already been in place for some time and that the cryptocurrency might already be oversold by the time the death cross appears. More often than not, XRP death crosses have initiated a bottoming phase for the XRP price.
For instance, XRP bottomed at lows of $0.483 shortly after the formation of a death cross on its charts last September and went ahead to reach highs of $0.75 in November, less than two months later.
XRP has been on a steady decline since November 2023, when it reached a high of $0.75. Since then, the coin has lost more than 34% of its value, trading down 2.58% in the last 24 hours to $0.495.
What’s next for XRP price?
XRP has fallen below the $0.50 market price for the first time since Oct. 19. According to Santiment, XRP experienced the most $1 million whale transactions on the network, reaching 217, since prices surged following a judge’s finding that Ripple had breached no securities laws in July 2023. Santiment remarked that the whales do not appear to be panicked.
As it stands, bulls are desperate to get the XRP price back above $0.50. If the price remains below $0.50, XRP may fall to the next key support level at $0.46.
The daily moving averages represent the first major hurdle on the upward trend. If bulls surpass this hurdle, XRP might rise to $0.623, ahead of $0.70. The bears are expected to defend these levels aggressively.