XRP gained as much as 14.21% in 24 hours and climbed to $1.40, becoming the best-performing asset among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap on Friday. The token closed a trading day above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages for the first time since early August, when those same lines formed a bearish death cross.
XRP's rally is riding the same short squeeze hitting the Bitcoin derivatives market, which pushed the coin above $72,000 this week and, as of today, above $77,000 with an intraday high of $79,000. For XRP, this is the strongest week since the pre-election rally of 2024.
What Happened on the XRP Chart
A death cross forms when the shorter-term 50-day exponential moving average slips below the longer-term 200-day line. Traders read that pattern as a signal that bearish momentum has taken hold. This particular cross formed in early August, when XRP traded around $1.05 to $1.10, essentially the same zone as today's "golden zone" support. The token then spent a month grinding sideways under that pressure, and every news-driven rally attempt got sold right back into the same ceiling. The pattern held for a month.
Friday's candle didn't just tag that ceiling, it closed above both averages entirely. That's the first daily close above both lines since the cross formed. Still, that's not quite the same as the signal reversing. The 50-day average remains below the 200-day one. The lines themselves haven't crossed back into what traders call a golden cross.
Technical Indicators Back Up the Breakout
The token's Relative Strength Index (RSI) reached 83.5, well above the 70 level that already counts as overbought territory. The Average Directional Index (ADX) sits at 32.4, comfortably above the 25 threshold traders use to confirm a real trend, with the buy-side directional line reading above the sell-side one. The Squeeze Momentum Indicator has flipped to "off," meaning the volatility squeeze has already fired and momentum is building.
Where the Fuel for the Rally Came From
The main driver this week was the US Treasury's decision to nearly double its long-bond buybacks starting September 9. Traders have already nicknamed the move "QE Lite," since loosening bond market conditions this way echoes old Federal Reserve stimulus playbooks, even though it's coming from a different part of the government. The decision triggered a record short squeeze on Bitcoin. Traders who had bet on lower prices were forced to buy back their positions, which pushed the price even higher.
A short squeeze works like this: traders holding short positions in expectation of a drop are forced to buy the asset back once the price moves against them, just to cap their losses. The higher the price climbs, the more of those positions get liquidated, and the buying itself pushes the price further up. That exact cascade rolled through Bitcoin first this week, then through XRP.
Risk assets across the board caught the same bid, but XRP reacted the hardest. Bitcoin currently trades above $77,000, and holders watching the rate who want to exchange Bitcoin for dollars are seeing exchanger quotes update several times a day.
Ripple Adds Its Own Catalysts
Beyond the broader market backdrop, XRP picked up news of its own. Ripple placed a $275 million bond sale, and regulators approved new crypto exemption rules under the SEC. Both headlines gave holders extra confidence right as the chart was trying to break out of its bearish pattern.
The new SEC exemption rules cover how companies can issue tokenized financial instruments without going through a full securities registration process. For Ripple, which spent years fighting that same regulator in court, any step toward looser rules reads to traders as a symbolic win, even when the document has no direct bearing on XRP's price.
Less than ten days ago, the picture looked the opposite way. We covered it when Ripple expanded its partnership in Korea while XRP fell below $1. A mood swing that fast shows just how sensitive the token remains to the news cycle.
The Levels Traders Are Watching Now
Resistance sits at $1.43, Friday's high, then at $1.60, the top of the descending channel that has capped XRP since late 2025. Support sits at $1.34, and deeper down lies the "golden zone" between $1.0754 and $1.0965, with a floor at $0.9862.
That descending channel has held for months, and over that stretch it has survived at least four attempted breakouts to the upside. None of them held above $1.60. That level remains the key marker for traders looking for confirmation of a genuine new uptrend rather than just another short-lived spike.
Tellingly, Bitcoin itself still hasn't closed a day above its own death cross lines. This time, XRP is out ahead of the coin it usually follows.
What Comes Next
- Bitcoin hasn't cleared the same technical marker yet, so XRP's next move partly depends on whether the market leader catches up.
- On September 9, the US Treasury steps up its long-bond buybacks, the next real test for market liquidity.
- On September 15, the Senate returns to voting on the Clarity Act, and another delay this time could cool risk appetite.
- Technical risk: an RSI of 83.5 signals overbought conditions, so a short pullback wouldn't be a surprise even if the broader uptrend holds.
Together, these numbers show that XRP's rally rests on several supports at once. A technical breakout on the chart, a macro decision from the Treasury, and Ripple's own corporate news are all working in the same direction. The next two weeks, anchored by the September 9 and September 15 dates, will show whether the token holds above $1.40 or whether this turns out to be another short-lived spike before a return to the channel that has held it for months.
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