This On-Chain Metric Spells Trouble for XRP Following SPARK Airdrop

• XRP has seen some mixed price action as of late, with the cryptocurrency’s price not breaking firmly below $0.50 as the selling pressure placed on it begins mounting
• The cryptocurrency is now on the cusp of seeing a sharp decline, with analysts noting that a continued bout of trading below this level could be dire
• One analytics firm is also noting that the conclusion of the recent SPARK token airdrop to XRP holders has caused it to see a sharp decline in fundamental strength
• The number of unique addresses interacting with the network has plummeted, sliding back to its month-low levels
• With no catalysts for upside on the horizon, the potential for downside is great and growing

XRP has seen some mixed price action as of late. The cryptocurrency’s break above its long-held trading range has been caught within for the past few years.

This range existed between $0.20 and $0.30, with the selling pressure at the upper boundary of this trading range suppressing its price on multiple occasions over the past few weeks and months.

The recent SPARK airdrop was a catalyst for breaking this range, which helped boost its technical strength and spark a parabolic rally to $0.90 on some exchanges.

One analytics platform is now noting that the cryptocurrency’s underlying technical strength has declined in the time since the airdrop snapshot took place.

XRP Struggles to Gain Momentum as Price Stays Below $0.50 

At the time of writing, XRP is trading down just over 3% at its current price of $0.48. This marks a notable decline from its recent highs of $0.90 set at the peak of the recent rally.

There aren’t really any XRP-specific catalysts for upside beyond the aggregated market seeing a rise. This could mean that it will once again see a descent into another period of darkness.

On-Chain Data Points to Underlying Weakness

One analytics firm explained in a recent tweet that XRP’s active address count has been declining rapidly ever since the SPARK airdrop snapshot took place.

This seems to indicate that the even was taken as a cue to “sell the news.”

“XRP had its snapshot for the SPARK airdrop three and a half days ago. Just as the snapshot occurred at 12am UTC on December 12th, the unique amount of addresses interacting on the XRP network declined rapidly, and is back to month-low levels for now.”

Image Courtesy of Santiment.

Unless Bitcoin and Ethereum’s strength creates tailwinds strong enough to boost XRP, there’s a strong possibility the crypto will soon plunge lower.

Featured image from Unsplash.
Charts from TradingView.