XRP Slips Near $1.17 as Mastercard Agent Pay Adopts RLUSD, Flutterwave Africa Deal

XRP News

XRP slipped back toward the $1.17 region this session, shedding more than 4% over 24 hours as a recent breakout attempt stalled near overhead resistance. The token had briefly pushed above $1.22 before heavy selling dragged it under the closely watched $1.20 mark, with buyers stepping in to defend the $1.17–$1.18 zone. Several technical analysts characterised the move as a sharp but structurally normal correction rather than the start of a deeper trend reversal. Attention also turned to the first interest-rate decision under new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, with traders monitoring whether shifting dollar-liquidity expectations would amplify near-term volatility across major altcoin markets.

Futures positioning data revealed a clear divergence across the altcoin complex, with XRP standing out as the most short-leaning major. Its aggregate long/short ratio sat at roughly 0.92, meaning short positions accounted for about 52% of exposure against 48% long — the most pronounced bearish tilt among leading tokens. By contrast, Solana and Ethereum drew concentrated long interest, with retail traders on major venues betting two-to-three times more heavily on the upside. Yet exchange whale accounts broadly flashed bearish or extremely bearish signals, underscoring a persistent gap between aggressive retail longs and cautious large-capital positioning that has left XRP’s short-term direction unresolved.

Beneath the price noise, Ripple’s real-world usage narrative gained fresh momentum. Mastercard’s Agent Pay programme — which lets AI-driven agents execute payments — settles transactions in Ripple’s RLUSD, a fiat-collateralised token rather than an algorithmic stablecoin design, on the XRP Ledger. Ripple also released an AI starter kit letting developers build apps that handle wallet creation and transaction processing using XRP and RLUSD. A separate expansion with Bitso introduced a Mexican-peso-pegged stablecoin on the same blockchain, targeting the heavily trafficked U.S.–Mexico remittance corridor. Analysts also cited institutional settlements involving JPMorgan, Mastercard and Ondo Finance clearing on the network in under five seconds.

Allocation data from high-net-worth investors reinforced a flight toward established large-caps during the volatile stretch. Bitcoin commanded the heaviest hold-and-buy weighting at 82%, followed by Ethereum at 79%, while XRP ranked third among majors at 70% — well ahead of Solana at 47%. The pattern reflected a defensive rotation toward assets with deeper liquidity and broader recognition amid choppy conditions. The same dataset flagged extreme oversold readings elsewhere, with several smaller tokens printing single-digit relative-strength-index values below 5, a level historically associated with stretched downside momentum and the potential for short-lived technical bounces rather than confirmed reversals.

Ripple deepened its stablecoin push in Africa by joining the Series E funding round of payments-infrastructure firm Flutterwave, positioning RLUSD as a settlement hub across a corridor where sub-Saharan on-chain volume topped $205 billion over the past year. RLUSD, with a market value near $1.6 billion, now ranks inside the global top-ten stablecoins. Asset manager 21Shares assigned a 30% probability to XRP reaching $2.69 by 2026, with a $2.45 base case predicated on ETF inflows and expanding utility. Notably, XRP leverage on one major exchange has fallen roughly 78% from its mid-2025 peak, pointing to a cleaner market structure with reduced liquidation-cascade risk.

A closer look at liquidity exposed XRP’s continued reliance on centralised infrastructure: centralised-exchange venues handled more than 99.9% of recent turnover, while decentralised-exchange activity registered barely $1.5 million — evidence that on-chain and DeFi usage on the XRP Ledger remains thin despite developer interest. On the regulatory front, the resolution of Ripple’s long-running case with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has eased some uncertainty and improved conditions for institutional inflows, though token-classification questions at the SEC and CFTC linger. Even against the broader bear-market backdrop, analysts stress that reclaiming the $2.00 area near former all-time-high territory would require both macro relief and tangible network adoption.

COINOTAG’s proprietary 42-indicator composite scoring engine rates the $1.1708 support at 84/100 — its strongest read — anchored by the confluence of the S1 pivot, the prior-day low and a Fibonacci 0.214 retracement, with secondary support at $1.1136 scoring 68/100 on Fibonacci 0.114 and a high-volume node. To the upside, the $1.1817 resistance scores 79/100, driven by the Fibonacci 0.236 level and the 20-period SMA, with $1.2628 (73/100) capping further gains. Derivatives positioning is mixed: funding has flipped slightly negative at -0.0040%, open interest sits near $678 million, and the long/short account ratio of 3.32 shows 76.8% of accounts long. With RSI at 43.55 and the Fear & Greed Index at 15 (Extreme Fear), reclaiming $1.1817 favours bulls, while a daily close below $1.1708 invalidates the recovery and exposes $1.1136.