After attempting to regain bullish sentiment in the second and third week of March, XRP/USD has gradually signaled a bearish outlook. The large-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of about $236 billion and a 24-hour average trading volume of around $3.3 billion, dropped nearly 4 percent in the past 24 hours to trade at $2.36 on Thursday, March 27, during the mid-European session.

As a result of the sudden decline, more than $10 million was liquidated from XRP’s leveraged trading, with over 97 percent involving long traders.

What Caused XRP Price Decline?

In addition to the bearish technical outlook, XRP price has experienced low demand from whale investors. According to on-chain data from Santiment, XRP whale investors, with an account balance of between 1 million and 10 million coins, have been silent in the past week and currently hold about 5.82 billion coins.

Meanwhile, the closure of the SEC vs Ripple case after years of litigation has turned into a classic sell-the-news event. Moreover, more speculative traders have been set up and have recently accelerated profit-taking.

Nonetheless, XRP’s long-term fundamental outlook remains extremely bullish catalyzed by legal clarity and the rising adoption of Ripple products by institutional investors.

Midterm Targets 

As Coinpedia has previously reported, XRP price has possibly formed a reversal pattern characterized by head and shoulders (H&S) coupled with a falling divergence of the daily Relative Strength Index (RSI). Following Wednesday’s close below $2.37, XRP price is now aiming to retest the next major support range between $1.9 and $2.

However, a potential reversal and close above the resistance level around $2.5 will result in a fresh pump toward price discovery ahead.