TL:DR;

• Investors with lots of conviction for certain assets tend to utilize deep corrections to stack more of those coins, and this seems to be the case in regards to the two of the largest cryptocurrencies – DOGE and XRP.
• On-chain data shows that large wallets poured millions into both during the recent market meltdown.

The market-wide crash that began in the middle of the business week caught many by surprise, given the billions of dollars worth of liquidations that were evident on a couple of occasions.

All crypto assets headed south vigorously, with BTC leading the way by plummeting from over $108,000 on Tuesday to $92,000 on Friday. As it typically happens, the altcoins were not sparred, just the opposite.

Dogecoin and Ripple were among the worst-performing assets at one point. The largest meme coin stood north of $0.41 before the correction began but dumped by over 35% to its low on Friday of $0.26.

XRP’s price plummet was almost identical as the asset came crashing down from $2.72 on Tuesday to $1.96 – a 28% drop. However, both have bounced off since those lows, with DOGE trading close to $0.34 (30% higher) and XRP at $2.3 (up by 17%).

On-chain data shared by the popular crypto analyst Ali Martinez shows that whales tracking both assets didn’t sit on the sideline but actually went on an accumulation spree. In Ripple’s case, they stacked up on 80 million tokens since the retracement began on December 17.

Whales bought 80 million $XRP since the price correction began on December 17! pic.twitter.com/nakUKEIzYC

— Ali (@ali_charts) December 20, 2024

Dogecoin whales also opened up their wallets by accumulating over 250 million DOGE. Such big purchases tend to positively impact the underlying assets’ prices due to the declining immediate sell pressure.

Whales bought over 250 million #Dogecoin $DOGE during the recent market dip! pic.twitter.com/qH7JSkkdhK

— Ali (@ali_charts) December 21, 2024

After a few consecutive days of price slumps, bitcoin’s trajectory has finally reversed as the asset popped above $99,000 earlier today.

The altcoins are also in the green following the market-wide crash, with many recovering by double-digit increases on a daily scale.

BTC Begins Recovery Mode

The business week began in a highly positive manner for the primary cryptocurrency, as its price surged from around $101,000 to over $108,000 by Tuesday to mark its latest all-time high. While the community was expected to rise toward $110,000, especially after Wednesday’s rate cut in the US, the landscape took a sharp turn.

Instead of heading further north, BTC actually started to retrace hard. It first lost the $100,000 mark, but that was just the start, as the bears kept the pressure on. The culmination came on Friday when the cryptocurrency plummeted to a three-week low of $92,000, and the conversation turned to whether this was a normal correction or the end of the bull market.

So far, though, it seems to be the former. Bitcoin stopped the freefall and bounced off rather impressively. Just earlier today, its price surged past $99,000 before calming to its current level of around $98,500.

Its market capitalization has recovered to $1.950 trillion, while its dominance over the alts stands at 54.6% on CG.

Altcoins Finally See Green

The alternative coins suffered even more than BTC during the market-wide crash, as expected. However, they have turned green now on a daily scale after the Friday massacre. ETH dumped to $3,300 but now sits close to $3,500 after a 6% daily increase. XRP is back above $2.3 after plummeting to under $2 on Friday.

BNB, SOL, TRX, and HBAR have gained around 5-6% each since yesterday. More impressive price increases come from the likes of DOGE, ADA, AVAX, LINK, SHIB, TON, DOT, and many others, all of which have jumped by double digits.

The total crypto market cap slumped below $3.4 trillion yesterday but has risen to over $3.550 trillion now.

TL:DR;

• The entire cryptocurrency market went through a massive crash in the past few days, but Ripple’s cross-border token was among the poorest performers.
• Since then, though, XRP has gained roughly 20%, leading to the question of whether it has found its bottom.

XRP Bounces Off

The developments at the start of the business week couldn’t really foresee what would transpire just a few days later. On Monday, Ripple announced that its long-awaited stablecoin will finally see the light of day on the next day (December 17) after it was greenlighted by the NYDFS.

XRP’s price reacted positively to both the announcement and the subsequent launch as its price skyrocketed from $2.35 to a multi-day peak of over $2.7 by Tuesday. After a minor retracement to $2.6, things went sour on Wednesday after the latest US FOMC meeting.

XRP, alongside the rest of the market, plummeted to under $2.25, losing nearly 20% of its value in 36 hours. Although that was already a painful retracement, the landscape worsened on Thursday and Friday as the asset plunged to below $2 for just the third time since December 1.

Thus, Ripple’s token had dumped by 28% from Tuesday to Friday, going from $2.72 to $1.96. The bulls finally stepped up at this point and didn’t allow any further declines. Just the opposite, XRP bounced off and has gained about 20% since then, currently sitting at $2.35.

According to popular X analyst Dark Defender, XRP “double tap on 4-hour charts for both on RSI and Price,” which, alongside the “tremendous bullish pin” on the daily chart, suggests that the asset has already bottomed and is ahead of more gains.

XRP double tap on 4-hour charts for both on RSI and Price.

Additionally daily frame has a tremendous bullish pin bar.

These are initial signals for momentum to continue.

Time will tell pic.twitter.com/85zgnzOhvC

— Dark Defender (@DefendDark) December 20, 2024

It’s About Perspective

During the lows, many crypto commentators started to speculate whether the overall bull cycle had ended. After all, the entire crypto market cap lost roughly $500 billion in just days at one point.

However, Moon Lambo outlined a different view for those retracements, including XRP’s plunge. The YouTuber talked about having a perspective, as XRP, for instance, stood below $0.5 less than two months ago. Consequently, going from over $2.7 to under $2 is indeed painful, but looking at it on a broader scale, it still shows that the asset is a lot higher than it used to be just weeks ago.

As someone who has been holding $XRP for over 7 years, while the price has been well under $1.00 for almost 100% of that time, and having never sold a single $XRP ever, I must say…

I find it amusing that people are freaking out that $XRP *dropped* to $2.15.

Bitch it was 49… pic.twitter.com/1FoohjdxUv

— Moon Lambo (@MoonLamboio) December 20, 2024