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XRP plunges 16% in worst drop among bitcoin, ether and major tokens
Feb 5, 2026, 3:48 p.m.
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What to know:
- XRP tumbled more than 16 percent to about $1.29, the weakest performance among major tokens as bitcoin slid 7 percent, with roughly $46 million in XRP derivatives liquidations amplifying the move.
- The sell-off was driven largely by leveraged long positions being wiped out as prices broke key technical levels, turning support around $1.44 into resistance and leaving $1.00 as the next psychological target.
- Recent positive developments for XRP and Ripple, including new institutional DeFi access and e-money licenses, failed to buoy sentiment, underscoring that XRP’s price remains dominated by positioning and momentum rather than fundamentals in the near term.
XRP fell more than 16% in the past 24 hours to around $1.29, making it the worst performer among major tokens as bitcoin dropped 7% on Thursday.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
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The move was amplified by forced selling in derivatives markets. Data shared by Coinglass showed roughly $46 million in XRP liquidations in the past 24 hours, with bullish bets accounting for about $43 million of that total. In other words, the selloff wasn’t just spot holders exiting. It was also leveraged traders getting wiped as the price broke key levels.
The chart itself shows a slow bleed through most of the day, followed by a sharp drop late in the session, a pattern typical of a market where buyers keep stepping back until one final wave of stops triggers.
XRP’s slump comes even as fundamentals pick up for both token and its related company.
Earlier this week, Flare and Hex Trust announced institutional access for FXRP minting and FLR staking, a setup meant to let institutions use XRP in DeFi without selling it. But the news failed to lift sentiment, suggesting traders either don’t view the structure as meaningful demand for XRP yet, or don’t believe institutional flows are close to arriving in size.
Elsewhere, XRP-linked Ripple bagged e-money licenses in Luxembourg and added Hyperliquid into its institutional prime brokerage platform, Ripple Prime, providing clients with access to on-chain perpetual liquidity. Such developments add to a token's appeal during general uptrends, but failed
That matters because XRP’s rallies are often driven less by slow adoption stories and more by bursts of positioning and momentum.
The more immediate issue is technical. The drop below the $1.44 area effectively flipped what had been a support zone into overhead resistance. Below current levels, the next obvious psychological magnet is $1.00, simply because there isn’t much recent trading history in between.
In the near term, XRP is trading like a leverage unwind disguised as a fundamentals story — and right now, neither seems done.
