Ripple Price Market Update: XRP/USD jumps past $0.23 as recovery takes a breather

• Ripple price struggles to hold above the short term support at $0.23.
• Ripple over-the-counter sales of XRP reported to have hit $17 million in February.

The cryptocurrency market is relatively in the green towards the end of the Asian session on the second day of March 2020. Ripple price has advanced 0.85% on the day from an opening value of $0.2273 to $0.23019 (market value). The existing trend is bullish, however, volatility is shrinking. In other words, XRP could remain in the hands of the bulls but investors should settle for little to no upside movement above $0.23 (immediate resistance) in the short term.

Ripple-owned XRP wallet remains active

Ripple, the blockchain startup that issues the XRP token is reported to have transferred one billion XRP from its escrow account. The coins are approximately $225 million. Ripple owns over half of the total supply of XRP tokens and sells the tokens monthly to third parties in support of the company’s operations and expansion.

A Ripple-owned XRP wallet, set aside specifically for over-the-counter sales of XRP to institutional buyers has been very active throughout February. The wallet has released at least 75 million XRP approximately $18 million to different wallets of unknown identity. There have been questions of Ripple ‘dumping’ XRP tokens and jeopardizing XRP performance. However, Ripple maintains that it has no power over the price of XRP.

Ripple price technical picture

XRP/USD can barely hold above $0.23 even though the trend is bullish. The immediate upside is capped by the seller congestion zone at $0.24. Marginally above this zone is the next resistance provided by the 38.2% Fibo took between the last drop from $0.3463 to $0.1760. Ripple price is trading under the moving averages where the 200-day SMA at $0.2530 and the 50-day SMA at $0.2575 on the daily chart are in standby to limit upward movements.

The initial support holds the ground at $0.22 assisted by the 23.6% Fibo (marginally under $0.22). If push comes to shove and XRP dives under the first support, $0.20 is holding firm to stop losses that could test last December’s support at $0.1760.

For now, the RSI shows that the path of least resistance is sideways especially with its horizontal motion at 38.00. It is essential that support is established above $0.23 to allow bulls to focus on pushing the price above $0.24.

XRP/USD daily chart