The altcoin tide is receding. A day after a market update focused on the record inflows for Solana ETFs and the XRP rebound, the party has slowed down a notch. XRP has dropped more than 6% in 24 hours—the sharpest decline among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap—falling back toward $1.40. Solana is holding up better, hovering around $91.50. Ethereum, meanwhile, is watching from the sidelines, still stuck below $2,450.

Key takeaways from this article:

  • XRP has fallen by over 6%, retreating toward the critical $1.40 threshold, signaling a concerning decline.
  • Solana has better resisted the market turbulence, while Ethereum remains stagnant under $2,450 as tension persists across the crypto market.

XRP at the $1.40 wall

The recent slump almost makes us forget where XRP started. The token was at $1 on August 18. Four days later, it was brushing against $1.70—a rally so rapid that it hit the psychological $1.70 barrier before Bitcoin's retreat from $80,000 dragged all altcoins downward.

XRP has now returned exactly to the $1.40 zone, the same level that flipped from resistance to support during last week's breakout. It is also where the token regained its 200-day exponential moving average. This level is crucial for two reasons. If it holds, the correction remains healthy. If it gives way, the outlook becomes much harsher.

Solana absorbs the blow, Ethereum plays the waiting game

While XRP wavers, Solana is cushioning the blow more effectively, recovering the $100 mark. The token is down barely 1% over the same period and remains buoyed by five consecutive sessions of inflows into its U.S. spot ETFs—a record that neither Bitcoin nor Ethereum managed to match this week.

Over the long term, XRP still maintains a lead: its ETFs have accumulated $1.57 billion in net inflows, more than Solana despite the current momentum. Ethereum, for its part, is digesting its own late-summer rally without much fanfare, having captured $697 million in its ETFs between August 17 and 21.

HYPE and BNB are following the trend from a distance, without any specific catalysts this week. The Fear & Greed index, which measures overall sentiment in the crypto market, shifted into extreme greed territory on Tuesday for the first time since 2024. This type of peak rarely precedes a smooth ride.

Leverage: still the heart of the matter

The current deleveraging is no mystery. XRP had climbed on the back of a massive return of leverage—a mechanism that amplifies gains just as much as it accelerates crashes once the tide turns.

As recently as August 22, a flash crash had already sent the token tumbling by 37% in just a few minutes, liquidating about $500 million in long positions amid $1.35 billion in total liquidations across all cryptocurrencies.

This time, the scale is more contained. But the pattern is identical: a market that rises on leverage always falls faster than it climbed. Traders who reopened aggressive long positions on Binance after the price cleared $1.50 are the first to get shaken out.

Only five days separate the two episodes, serving as a reminder of how sensitive XRP remains to these liquidation purges. The $1.40 zone will determine in the coming hours whether history repeats itself or if the market has finally learned how to digest its own excesses.

Le Journal Du Coin

An editorial article. Le Journal du Coin is the leading French-language news source for cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and blockchain protocols.

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