XRP’s price retraced a couple of percent of its weekly gains but still up 7.2% for the seven-day period after a boisterous rally for the second half of the week.
The RippleNet tokens, valued at over $30 billion in total market cap this weekend, jumped the gun on crypto exchanges last Thursday with a price surge to above $0.57 per token.
But it wasn’t until the following day that Bitcoin, Ether, and other top cryptos reflected a similar boost in fortunes on the open market. News of Grayscale’s new XRP trust product blew the top off Ripple markets.
So, is there more left in this Ripple rally, or will the wave spread to other altcoins in September?
Here are three bullish indicators for XRP in September, and two bearish ones.
1. Grayscale’s XRP Trust
Grayscale, a Park Avenue crypto asset manager that specializes in private placement investments with high net worth individuals (HNWI), announced Thursday that it’s offering “investors the opportunity to gain exposure to XRP” in the first US XRP trust product.
“We believe Grayscale XRP Trust gives investors exposure to a protocol with an important real-world use case,” Grayscale’s Head of Product & Research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary said.
“By facilitating cross-border payments that take just seconds to complete, XRP has the potential to transform the legacy financial infrastructure,” said Sharif-Askary.
The news thrilled the XRP army on social media, which sees it as a step closer to an XRP ETF in the United States. Grayscale was pivotal in bringing the first Bitcoin ETFs to market by suing the SEC and winning.
The difference between an ETF and a trust is the number of shares issued by an ETF can change to meet demand. Furthermore, ETFs are traded through the day. Trusts have a fixed number of shares and are traded once daily near the market close.
Another on-ramp for Wall Street investors to participate in the Ripple economy is very bullish news for XRP’s price.
2. Fine XRP Technicals
Meanwhile, XRP’s price on crypto charts is showing some fine technical signals for Ripple bulls.
TradingView rated XRP a strong buy on Sunday based on its simple (SMA) and exponential (EMA) moving averages over the 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, and 200-day spans.
Moreover, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator (MACD) for Ripple formed a bullish cross for the cross-border payments token Friday.
Accordingly, based on XRP’s chart technicals, a move above key resistance at $0.60 could set off a Ripple bull run to $0.68.
Source: TradingView3. Robinhood Expected to Lists XRP in EU
Another especially bullish portent for XRP’s price this month: the popular smartphone trading app Robinhood appears poised to list XRP to trade for its European Union customers.
The company had yet to make an official announcement Sunday, but European users found Saturday that they can access an XRP price tracker on the zero-commission trading platform.
Robinhood offers a number of cryptos, including BTC, ETH, DOGE, SHIB, AVAX, and several others. In June last year, Robinhood delisted Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), and Solana (SOL) after getting a Wells notice from the SEC.
XRP’s appearance on the trading app signals a bright future for the token in the light of regulatory clarity as the dust settles from a years-long suit with the US regulator.
4. Fmr XRP Bull Raoul Pal Flips
With the SEC case in the rearview mirror, XRP army is pumped about the Ripple network, but not all investor analysts agree it is the best choice for crypto investors today.
Real Vision Group’s Raoul Pal, a former Goldman Sachs exec who now leads crypto investors on social media, used to be a massive Ripple bull. But now he says it isn’t the best place for laptop capitalists to stash their funds on the blockchain.
That’s a turn on a dime for Pal, who said as recently as December 2023 that he saw XRP as “the opportunity of a lifetime” when he first bough the tokens in Dec. 2020. He told Ripple amicus brief lawyer John Deaton in a podcast that it’s “time to put your capital to work” in a crypto with a real use case.
But this August, Pal said not to buy older coins like XRP and Cardano. He made his remarks in an interview posted to X by Good Morning Crypto.
He apparently holds his new outlook with high conviction about newer altcoins, because he cautioned that Ripple boosters are inviting crypto newbies into “a cult” of “irrelevant coins.”
“Our job is to be mercenaries. We’re in it to make money,” Pal said. “Cardano, XRP— there’s a whole bunch of these. I really hope you’re right, but hope is not an investment strategy.”
5. Competition From Other Altcoins
After the Bitcoin market swell on Friday, several of XRP’s main competitors were up by higher percentages for the week, including: BNB, DOGE, TON, NEAR, ICP, TAO, and Nervos Network.
XRP’s price bagged gains around 10% for the week (before declining on Monday), while TON and ICP were up over 13%. SUI and AAVE hopped up the charts by 15% of their market cap a week earlier. Another Layer-1 chain, Bittensor (TAO) gained nearly 30% in market exchanges.
Meanwhile, Nervos Network (CKB) posted 100% gains for the seven day period. The intense competition from other base chains in Web3 means Ripple has its work cut out for it to hold and grow its market cap.