XRP Price Drops After RLUSD Launch Delay: Will Ripple Recover?

In the latest development, Ripple has postponed its RLUSD stablecoin launch as it awaits a final nod from the New York Department of Financial Services. In an official X post, it noted “Despite some speculation, $RLUSD isn’t launching today. We’re in lockstep with the NYDFS on final approval and will share updates as soon as possible.”

RLUSD, a 1:1 U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, will be fully backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S. government Treasury securities and cash equivalents. Since early August, the RLUSD stablecoin has been in beta testing on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and the Ethereum mainnet. Ripple plans to gradually expand RLUSD to include new blockchains and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. The RLUSD stablecoin is expected to play a significant role in the Ripple ecosystem.

XRP Loses Its Position

XRP had recently been on a rally amidst a broader altcoin rally. However, this announcement took XRP’s price down to $2.31 within 24 hours. This also took away XRP’s position of the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap, as Tether bounced back. 

XRP is currently trading at $2.39, down over 6% in the last 24 hours. Its market cap stands at $135 billion, down by over 7% in the past day. Nevertheless, XRP continues to stay ahead of Solana (SOL) and Binance token (BNB) even as the latter reached its all-time high on Dec. 4. 

Increased Selling Pressure

While the news of the postponement of RLUSD preceded the drop in price, speculations also suggest the panic selling. This is further highlighted in the increased selling pressure, where both price and trading volume has come down over $32 billion to $16 billion on Dec. 4, which suggests that the market is in a cooling-off period at the moment.

Bullish Sentiment Prevails

Notably, the XRP price has crashed by 25% from the year-to-date high, ending a strong rally that pushed it to its highest level since 2018. Surprisingly, the drop comes even as Bitcoin price crossed the historic level of $100k. However, if the price of XRP ends the day above $2.1793, it will likely lead to a rebound. Analysts believe that there is more upside momentum to XRP this bull run.

Many analysts believe that the current bullish cycle is very similar to the ones in 2020 and 2017. “If this pattern holds true, the first major price correction (15% to 30%) won’t come until Bitcoin hits $135,000 or even $159,000,” noted a prominent on-chain analyst, Ali Martinez. The broader market is riding high waves amidst Bitcoin breaching a significant level. Bitcoin’s gains could soon be mirrored amongst the altcoins, propelling newer highs for coins like XRP.

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