XRP Price 15% Crash Warning: Did Ripple Betray Developers?

XRP price dropped below a key support level, abandoning its planned rally on September 3, following BTC’s decline below $57,000. At the same time, the Ripple community is engaged in a heated debate over the XRP Ledger core development team’s plan to launch a new sidechain in 2025. The question remains whether XRP’s price can withstand both the broader market’s selling pressure and the growing negative sentiment within its community.

Xahau Devs Cry Foul, XRP Price May Suffer

The controversy centers around the creators of Xahau, a fully functional XRPL sidechain that has been in development for some time now. 

Hooks already work in production on Xahau 😉 It's no longer an idea, not a proof of concept, not a beta release: it's live. It's working. Choose wisely @RippleXDev 🤗

Another advantage of the Hooks stack is that by the time you would get this ready for mainnet, we'll have… https://t.co/4OOdRYFAGj

— WietseWind (🪝🛠 Xaman @XRPLLabs) (@WietseWind) September 3, 2024

Xahau has hooks, which are smart contracts already integrated into the network, which is exactly what the upcoming sidechain in 2025 promises to offer.

The Xahau lead developer, Wietse Wind, has been vocal about his frustration, claiming that the sidechain is not an idea or a proof of concept but a live, working solution.

In his open letter to the XRPL ecosystem and stakeholders, Wind explained that Ripple’s recent embrace of L1 smart contracts, a concept he championed years ago, conflicted him and his company, XRPL Labs.

In response, Ripple Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz said RippleX had been in constant communication with the Xahau creator, and was aware of all the plans.

Wietse – To be fair, the RippleX team had a call with you before any post went live. Ripple supported (and funded) Hooks from the beginning, and we told you many times we'd support Hooks as an amendment on mainnet. I think there's a lot of innovation in Hooks as XRPL Labs…

— David "JoelKatz" Schwartz (@JoelKatz) September 3, 2024

In the meantime, the Ripple price has dropped 2.8% in the last 24 hours, and the trade price has dropped to $0.5510 as the community continues to debate the course of action Ripple took. 

Traders Overwhelmingly Short on Ripple, 15% Crash In Sight

Data from Coinglass shows an overwhelming amount of shorts on XRP price stacked up in the last 30 days compared to longs. The imbalance shows a bearish sentiment is dominating the market because traders anticipate further downside potential for the asset.

XRP is in a bearish trend, indicated by the sharp decline from the recent highs, followed by a consolidation that resembles a bearish flag pattern. This suggests the potential for further downside. If this pattern completes, it would likely result in another leg down.

The next resistance for XRP is the horizontal line at $0.5600, which marks the top of the consolidation range and aligns with the upper boundary of the bear flag pattern.

XRP price chart also shows a support level at $0.5326. A break below this level would confirm the bear flag and likely trigger a 15% drop to $0.47, which is the measured move from the height of the flagpole, projected downwards from the breakout point.

If XRP price defies this bearish pattern and breaks to the upside, it may show market strength, invalidating the current bearish thesis. XRP may surge back to $0.62 before aiming for higher prices.