Ripple Price Analysis: XRP may leg behind BTC once the recovery starts

• Ripple’s coin is forecasted to lose 30% of its value against BTC.
• XRP/USD is locked in a range with critical short-term support at $0.1449.

Ripple’s XRP attempted a recovery above $0.1700 and hit $0.1756 on Friday, March 20. However, the recovery proved to be short-lived as the price retreated below $0.1500 on the weekend. By press time, XRP/USD settled marginally above $0.1500. While the coin gained over 2% since the beginning of the day, it is still nearly 5% lower on a day-to-day basis. 

Ripple takes third place in the global cryptocurrency rating with the current market value of $6.69. In the recent 24 hours, XRPs worth of nearly $2 billion changed hands, which is mostly in line with the recent figures.

Bearish forecasts flood the market

Despite a 30% decline against USD, XRP/USD has been rather stable in BTC pair due to a large scale sell-off across the market. However, some cryptocurrency experts believe that the situation is about to change.  Currently, XRP/USD is changing hands at 0.000026 (2600 satoshi). If $XRP2500 support gives way, the bearish trend may start snowballing, according to popular in crypto twitter forex and cryptocurrency trader Livercoin (@livercoin). 

Expecting another 30% drop on $XRP2500 sats support holding strong but bulls are going to throw in the towel eventually…

This view is echoed by other traders, who point out that XRP may retreat to1400 satoshi and proceed with the sell-off towards  $XRP600. Forecasted XRP’s decrease against BTC will imply that the coin will lag behind the first digital asset once the recovery sets in. 

XRP/BTC daily chart

XRP/USD: Technical picture

On the intraday charts, XRP/USD recovery is capped by the immediate resistance at $0.1520. It is created by SMA200 1-hour and the middle line of 1-hour Bollinger Band. A sustainable move above this area will allow for an extended growth towards $0.1550 (SMA50 1-hour and the upper line of 1-hour Bollinger Band. This resistance is followed by psychological $0.1600.

On the downside, the initial support comes at $0.1480 (the lower line of 1-hour Bollinger Band) and the intraday low of $0.1449. Notably, this barrier was tested twice recently on March 20 and today during early Asian hours. Once it is out of the way, the sell-off is likely to gain traction with the next focus on $0.1400 (March 18 low) and $0.1283 (March 16 low).

XRP/USD 1-hour chart