Ripple (XRP) has formed a descending triangle but inside that triangle, it has formed a falling wedge. So, which way is the price going to break out? Well, under the present circumstances the probability of the price breaking to the upside is a lot higher. If that happens, we should be able to see XRP/USD climbing towards $0.50 around late December. The price is still in a downtrend long term and is yet to break out of the descending channel it is trading in. That being said, the chances of a reversal at this point are very high, even if Ripple (XRP) has to return back to current levels for a double bottom in the future.

While most crashed hard in the last 24 hours with more than 5% losses, Ripple (XRP) held its ground against both Bitcoin (BTC) and the US Dollar (USD). This is a new development that would have made no sense until recently. Previously, Ripple (XRP) was the go to coin for going long hard or going short hard. The cryptocurrency had the potential to make aggressive moves both ways depending on market direction. However, ever since Ripple (XRP) overtook Ethereum (ETH) in market cap, that trend seems to have changed completely. Now Ripple (XRP) holds its ground even while the rest of the market falls and it makes aggressive gains when the market rises. It is hard to say if this transition is completely organic or induced, but it has made a big difference as far as investor confidence is concerned.

The cryptocurrency that until recently was termed as a bank coin and a centralized coin has now the same people as investors that once heavily criticized it. This goes on to show how sentiments take no time to change. Ripple (XRP) had strong fundamentals but the sentiment was against it. The team behind Ripple (XRP) was competent enough to recognize the real interests of its target audience and they successfully acted on them to lure in those investors that once criticized it. Ripple (XRP) initially adopted a strategy of directly confronting Bitcoin (BTC) but that did not serve it well as the entire crypto community stood up to it. Later when it focused more on the cross border payments use case, it was able to achieve a lot more adoption and penetration in the crypto community.

Ripple (XRP) might be on the verge of a bullish breakout against the US Dollar (USD) but things do not look as good with Bitcoin (BTC). In fact, XRP/BTC has one chance to break past this resistance at this point. If it fails to pull this off, it will have to fall back into the descending channel. The reason things look different with Ripple (XRP) is that it did not follow the same trajectory as the rest of the cryptocurrencies. This is why it is reasonable to assume that it might be due for a short term retracement against Bitcoin (BTC). However, if it faces a rejection at the top of the channel, then it will have to fall a lot more.