XRP price entered the new week under pressure after suffering a correction of roughly 7% last week. The token is trading around $1.36 at press time, leaving traders wondering whether the latest decline signals more trouble or is simply another pullback within a much larger bullish structure.
One analyst we regularly cover, Celal Kucuker, is firmly in the second camp. Despite the recent weakness, Kucuker described XRP’s chart as a “perfect correction” followed by a breakout from its broader downtrend.
His long-term chart points to a sequence of increasingly ambitious targets: $2.50, $3.50, $6 and eventually $13.
Meanwhile, software engineer and longtime XRP supporter Vincent Van Code has offered a very different explanation for XRP’s persistent weakness, arguing that repeated market-wide liquidations may be disproportionately weighing on XRP relative to Bitcoin.
At the same time, developments involving Ripple and XRP continue to build in the background, creating an unusual contrast between weak short-term price action and a stream of institutional developments.
What you'll learn 👉
XRP Breakout Has Analyst Looking Toward $2.50 First
Kucuker’s weekly XRP/USD chart provides some useful context for the recent selloff.
XRP spent months moving inside a broad declining structure following its previous surge. Rather than interpreting that decline as the beginning of a completely new bearish cycle, Kucuker views it as a correction of the earlier advance.
The important development on his chart is the apparent break above the descending resistance line.
That is why the analyst remains bullish despite XRP’s latest decline. In his interpretation, the market has completed a large corrective structure and is attempting to transition back into an expansion phase.
However, the chart also shows why $2.50 is considerably more important right now than the headline-grabbing $13 target.
Kucuker marks an initial area around $2.42-$2.50. XRP would first need to recover substantially from current prices and establish itself above that region before the more aggressive targets become relevant.
Above it sits a major resistance zone extending toward approximately $3.65. That area roughly corresponds with Kucuker’s second stated target of $3.50 and represents the next major technical hurdle.
If XRP can eventually clear that zone, his chart maps subsequent targets around $6.89 and $13.57.
Interestingly, the chart uses a measured-move comparison of roughly 270%. Kucuker appears to be comparing the size of XRP’s previous major expansion with what could happen if a similar percentage move develops after the current corrective phase.
That doesn’t mean XRP is destined for $13. It is a technical projection based on the assumption that the breakout holds and the larger bullish structure continues.
For the immediate outlook, therefore, $2.42-$2.50 is the first meaningful test. The $6 and $13 targets only become substantially more credible if XRP can first reclaim the resistance levels sitting much closer to its current price.
Why Does XRP Keep Falling Despite Positive News?
Vincent Van Code approaches the latest XRP decline from a different perspective.
He argues that repeated market selloffs have forced leveraged traders out of their positions and that XRP has progressively weakened against Bitcoin during these episodes.
Van Code goes considerably further, speculating that large Bitcoin holders could have an incentive to suppress competing crypto assets because another token becoming highly valuable could weaken Bitcoin’s own value proposition.
There is an important distinction to make here: Van Code explicitly acknowledges that he cannot confirm this theory.
Another dump, another close of leveraged positions.
— Vincent Van Code (@vincent_vancode) August 30, 2026
The cycle continues.
But a subtle plan is playing out if you look carefully.
As the market dumps, lead by BTC Whales IMO, the other pairs like XRP/BTC show a downward trend, ie each dump, XRP price compared to BTC and market…
There is no evidence in the material presented that Bitcoin whales are coordinating XRP’s decline or deliberately suppressing its price. His comments should therefore be treated as a personal explanation for a pattern he believes he sees rather than evidence of market manipulation.
The simpler explanation is that XRP remains part of a highly correlated crypto market. When Bitcoin falls and leveraged positions are liquidated across exchanges, altcoins frequently experience larger percentage declines as traders reduce risk.
Still, Van Code’s broader question is interesting: why has XRP struggled to translate a steady stream of positive developments into stronger price performance?
Read also: Claude AI Predicts If XRP Can Turn $1,000 Into $10,000
Recent Ripple-related announcements make that disconnect particularly noticeable.
Ripple Prime Expands Its Institutional Business
One of those developments comes from Ripple Prime, Ripple’s institutional prime brokerage business.
Ripple Prime has launched a Delta One desk, expanding the company’s institutional offering into total return swaps covering U.S.-listed equities, equity indices and digital assets.
For hedge funds and asset managers, these products can provide economic exposure to an underlying asset without requiring them to directly own it.
Ripple says its prime brokerage operation brings more than $1 billion in regulatory net capital to support the business.
Strategically, the development matters because it pushes Ripple further beyond its original payments-focused identity and deeper into institutional financial infrastructure.
However, investors should separate Ripple’s business expansion from direct XRP demand. The launch of new institutional brokerage products does not automatically mean those institutions need to purchase XRP, so it should not be treated as an immediate XRP price catalyst.
Evernorth Moves Closer to Nasdaq Listing
Another development is taking place much closer to XRP itself.
The SEC has declared effective the Form S-4 registration statement connected to Evernorth Holdings, a digital-asset treasury company holding more than 473 million XRP.
Evernorth is pursuing a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company that would result in the combined business trading on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN, with the listing targeted for late Q3 or early Q4 2026.
A publicly traded company holding hundreds of millions of XRP creates another potential bridge between traditional capital markets and direct exposure to the asset.
But here again, the distinction between a structural development and an immediate price catalyst matters. An SEC registration becoming effective does not guarantee that XRP will immediately appreciate, nor does it eliminate the technical and broader market pressures currently affecting the token.
What Comes Next for XRP Price?
XRP’s current setup creates an interesting contradiction.
Price action remains weak, and last week’s roughly 7% correction shows that sellers have not disappeared. At around $1.36, XRP also has a substantial distance to travel before Kucuker’s first major target around $2.50 comes into play.
Yet the analyst’s weekly chart suggests the larger structure may be improving beneath that short-term weakness.
The most reasonable way to interpret the setup is therefore confirmation first, ambitious targets later.
If XRP can stabilize after the latest correction and continue holding above its broken descending trendline, the breakout argument remains intact. A sustained recovery would then bring the $2.42-$2.50 region into focus, followed by the much tougher $3.50-$3.65 resistance area.
Clearing those levels would make Kucuker’s $6-$6.89 projection considerably more interesting. Only after a much larger structural breakout would the roughly $13-$13.57 target become a realistic technical objective under his scenario.
Conversely, falling back decisively into the old descending structure would weaken the idea that XRP’s correction has already ended.
For now, the latest dump doesn’t necessarily destroy the bullish case. But XRP still has plenty to prove before a chart projecting $6 or $13 can become anything more than an aggressive long-term scenario.
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