As Bitcoin’s price fell last week, the broader altcoin market retreated even further, surrendering gains made in the previous days. XRP also declined sharply, sliding from a high of $0.79 to $0.45 in three days. The $0.45 area proved a solid support level, and XRP quickly rebounded to the current $0.64. Following the drop, XRP bounced back among the top 10 coins, outperforming BTC and ETH in its recovery. While the entire crypto market recovered, XRP’s rebound stood out.
Looking at the XRP/USD chart, the price has broken out of the triangle consolidation zone, making a new test of the previous $0.79 high appear likely.
Does on-chain activity support a stronger XRP versus its peers?
Data indicate that social media activity around XRP surged as the price rose, and social volume for XRP is now approaching ETH levels. Bitcoin still leads by a wide margin, but XRP is rapidly gaining broader attention as the next-most discussed coin after three relatively quiet years, despite significant ecosystem development. Investors may finally be recognizing how much XRP has progressed, and price is beginning to reflect that. Social mentions of XRP are at a three-year high, comparable to the 2017 bull market peak.
But do the fundamentals match the attention XRP is receiving? If fundamental growth in the ecosystem keeps pace with the rising attention, the rally could be sustained. If the surge is driven primarily by speculative activity without meaningful ecosystem development, the rally may fade over time.
Fundamentally, the XRP ecosystem has been progressing: partnerships with financial institutions have been announced and expanded. In August, India’s largest private bank, HDFC Bank Limited (HDB), was revealed to have joined RippleNet. Later, Ripple confirmed a collaboration with Bank of America (BAC), making the second-largest U.S. bank one of RippleNet’s clients.
Recently, the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) published a report highlighting XRP. OMFIF noted that the DLT technology behind XRP could address five key issues—security, speed, transparency, traceability, and cost and risk management—for wholesale fund transfers, and stated that “Ripple is positioning itself as an alternative to SWIFT.”
The report suggests banks could use a pool of XRP to replace SWIFT, making transactions more efficient. Banks would retain their domestic currencies while maintaining accounts funded with XRP, which could serve as the medium for major payment obligations. This approach would minimize intermediaries and the markups they impose. Ripple’s objective of positioning XRP as a de facto transfer agent for banks appears to be gaining traction—an encouraging development for adoption that could sustain demand for XRP.
Developer activity within the XRP community has also increased since August, indicating more projects and builders working on the network.
Although social mentions of XRP have declined roughly 50% from the recent spike, they remain at historically high levels. Current social volume is comparable to pre-peak figures and should continue to support XRP’s price by exposing newcomers to the asset. With the snapshot for the Spark token airdrop still two weeks away, elevated social volume and buying pressure around XRP are likely to persist at least through December 12, the anticipated snapshot date.
Given the upcoming airdrop and sustained social media attention, a sharp drop below $0.40 is not expected in the near term. The earlier $0.45 dip may have been an interim low. This rapid rise in social volume could attract many curious new buyers, potentially allowing XRP to outperform both BTC and ETH in the short term. Whether the $1.00 threshold is within reach remains uncertain, but momentum and attention suggest it could be part of the ongoing discussion.
*Disclaimer: Price information is averaged to account for the high volatility of these assets.
About Kim Chua, market analyst at PrimeXBT:
Kim Chua is a specialist in institutional trading with experience across major banks such as Deutsche Bank and China Merchants Bank. She later launched a hedge fund that delivered triple-digit returns over seven consecutive years. Chua is also an educator who developed a proprietary trading curriculum to train a new generation of analysts. She actively follows both traditional and cryptocurrency markets, seeking investment and trading opportunities as the two asset classes increasingly converge.