XRP remains stuck in consolidation as speculative demand cools, even as partnership milestones and new DeFi rails lend long-term support. What happened - Sellers have dominated since XRP’s December peak at $2.40, consistently defending overhead supply and selling into rebounds. They accelerated the downtrend by dumping through $1.7305 and then forcing a secondary breakdown below $1.5017 that triggered stop-loss liquidity, according to TradingView. - Price fell to about $1.15, tapping the 100% Fibonacci retracement at $1.1479. That low drew profit-taking from shorts and opportunistic buyers, producing a rebound and subsequent compression around $1.43–$1.45. - Bulls bought defensively around the 78.6% Fib level at $1.3998 and the $1.15 base, seeking asymmetric risk, but failed to reclaim the $1.50–$1.60 zone as supply reloaded and conviction remained thin. Technical picture and derivatives flow - Momentum indicators underline the cautious environment: MACD remains negative and RSI sits near 42, signaling muted demand and sustained downtrend pressure. That technical structure increases chop risk and discourages aggressive long entries while favouring range traders playing clearly defined support and resistance. - Leverage fragility is evident in the derivatives market. At press time funding rates on Binance plunged to -0.035%, indicating crowded short positioning paying premiums without producing short squeezes, per CoinGlass. Open Interest has collapsed to $2.35 billion from 2025 highs, pointing to exhausted speculative demand rather than fresh constructive positioning. - The long/short ratio printed roughly 49.1% longs to 50.9% shorts—a slightly bearish-to-neutral sentiment—while options skew and rising implied volatility show downside hedging concentrated around $1.40 and $1.15. Together, these metrics amplify chop risk, reward fades into resistance, and keep the setup vulnerable to liquidation cascades. On-chain and sentiment developments - Social sentiment has trended more positive, reaching a five-week high as conversation shifted partly away from BTC and ETH toward XRP, according to Santiment/X. That increase in retail attention has supported defensive demand near the $1.15 Fib base. - Utility narratives are also strengthening. Flare’s milestone—100 million FXRP—has been highlighted as a factor tightening liquid supply by funneling tokens into staking and bridge-based DeFi yields. This movement of liquidity into yield and bridge channels could reduce circulating supply and encourage institutional experimentation. What could come next - If staking and DeFi yield participation on networks like Flare scale meaningfully with broader network usage, that could prompt short covering and help push XRP back toward $1.73. If not, speculative flows may remain muted, leaving consolidation intact and exposing downside risk beneath $1.15. Disclaimer: AMBCrypto's content is meant to be informational in nature and should not be interpreted as investment advice. Trading, buying or selling cryptocurrencies should be considered a high-risk investment and every reader is advised to do their own research before making any decisions. © 2026 AMBCrypto Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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