XRP price extended its breakout above $1.40 on Aug. 21 as regulatory optimism, whale accumulation and forced short covering lifted the token from its recent $1.00 floor. Summary XRP price climbed roughly 20% in 24 hours and reached an intraday high of $1.43. Whales accumulated more than 300 million XRP over 96 hours, according to Ali Charts. The daily Supertrend turned bullish at $1.14 as Chaikin Money Flow rose to 0.17. Liquidation data places the next major pocket of leveraged positions between $1.43 and $1.48. XRP price action today According to data from crypto.news, XRP (XRP) price was trading near $1.39 at the time of writing after reaching $1.43. The token gained about 20% over the previous 24 hours, with its daily candle up 9.5% from an opening price of $1.27. The move marked a sharp reversal from the decline that pushed XRP to approximately $0.99 earlier this week. Buyers first reclaimed $1.10 before driving the price through resistance between $1.18 and $1.26. Breaking that band accelerated the rally because XRP had traded below it since its June sell-off. The token also cleared its May and July swing highs, ending a sequence of lower highs visible on the daily chart. The 4-hour chart shows that XRP reached $1.43 before pulling back toward $1.31 and then recovering. Buyers defended the dip, allowing the token to return to the upper $1.30 range. XRP price 4-hour chart — Aug. 21 | Source: crypto.news Momentum has expanded with the rally. The 4-hour Awesome Oscillator rose to 0.2332, its highest reading on the displayed chart, showing that short-term buying pressure remains stronger than the recent price trend. What is driving the XRP rally? The recovery followed President Donald Trump’s Aug. 19 meeting with crypto executives, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. Trump called on Congress to pass what he described as a “fair version” of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. The proposed legislation would establish a federal framework for digital assets and divide oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Its passage remains uncertain because Senate Republicans would need Democratic support to reach the required 60 votes. XRP may be particularly sensitive to the debate because Ripple spent years contesting the SEC’s claims over its token sales. A clearer statutory framework could reduce the policy uncertainty facing US exchanges and companies using digital assets, although Trump’s comments do not guarantee that Congress will pass the bill. Broader liquidity conditions also supported the cryptocurrency market. The US Treasury raised the maximum size of planned buybacks for certain longer-dated government bonds from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The announcement initially weighed on long-term yields and the dollar, helping high-risk assets attract demand, though Treasury yields later recovered. XRP-specific buying added to the move. Crypto analyst Ali Martinez, known as Ali Charts, said wallets tracked as whales acquired more than 300 million XRP in 96 hours. His Santiment-based chart showed their combined holdings rising from about 16 billion to nearly 16.3 billion tokens. Ripple, Clearpool, and Cicada Partners also announced plans to build an institutional lending market on the XRP Ledger. The proposed system would use the RLUSD stablecoin and XRPL’s planned lending and single-asset vault features. The credit platform is still under development and depends on the relevant XRPL amendments. It should therefore be treated as a future network catalyst rather than active lending volume. XRP technical indicators turn bullish The daily chart recorded a bullish Supertrend reversal as XRP crossed $1.14. The indicator had remained bearish throughout most of the token’s decline from above $2.00 in January. XRP price daily chart — Aug. 21 | Source: crypto.news XRP’s daily Chaikin Money Flow also jumped to 0.17. A reading above zero indicates that buying volume is outweighing selling volume, supporting the price breakout with stronger capital inflows. On the 4-hour chart, XRP trades well above its major moving averages. The 20-period simple moving average has risen to $1.12, while the 50-, 100-, and 200-period averages sit between $1.04 and $1.07. The wide distance between the market price and those averages confirms the strength of the breakout but also raises the likelihood of short-term volatility. A rapid rally can leave limited support immediately below the price if buyers begin taking profits. The first support area sits between $1.34 and $1.35, where XRP consolidated after its initial spike. A deeper pullback could test $1.26, the upper boundary of the former resistance range. The daily Supertrend level near $1.14 represents the broader bullish invalidation zone. Losing that level would place XRP back below its breakout structure and raise the risk of a decline toward the clustered moving averages around $1.04–$1.07. Liquidation map points to $1.48 CoinGlass’s three-day XRP liquidation heatmap shows that price advanced through several clusters of short liquidation leverage between $1.10 and $1.40. Those forced closures likely added buying pressure as bearish traders repurchased XRP to cover their positions. Ethereum liquidation heatmap | Source: CoinGlass Remaining liquidity is concentrated above the market around $1.43–$1.45, followed by another band near $1.47–$1.48. A clean move above the intraday high could draw XRP toward those levels as exchanges close additional leveraged shorts. The heatmap also shows large liquidity bands below the price. The closest clusters sit near $1.34, $1.29, and $1.26, while a heavier concentration appears between $1.20 and $1.22. Markets often move toward areas containing dense leveraged positions, but a liquidation map does not determine direction. If XRP fails to break $1.43, long positions opened during the rally could instead face pressure on a retreat toward the lower clusters. Can XRP hold the breakout? A daily close above $1.40 would strengthen the bullish case and leave $1.48 as the next technical and liquidity target. Clearing that zone could open a move toward $1.50, a psychological level that also contained several price reversals earlier in 2026. The rally still carries downside risks. XRP has moved more than 35% from its weekly low in a short period, while the White House catalyst depends on a bill that remains subject to difficult Senate negotiations. Continued whale accumulation, positive money flow, and support above $1.26 would provide stronger evidence that the advance is more than a short squeeze. Failure to hold that former resistance zone would expose $1.20 and, eventually, the daily Supertrend level near $1.14. Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
