XRP price is down about 9% on the week, yet it fell less than every other major large-cap token over the same stretch. The altcoin trades near $1.16 after a rough month.
That relative strength is not luck. Multiple signals across flows, positioning, and accumulation explain how XRP outlasted its peers, and what needs to happen for the move to extend.
XRP Price Fell, but Less Than Everything Around It
Start with the scoreboard. XRP dropped roughly 9% over the past seven days, and that number only means something next to its peers.
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Bitcoin (BTC) fell about 11% in the same window. Ethereum (ETH) lost around 16%, and Solana (SOL) slid close to 17%. XRP was the least-damaged major large cap.
Even BNB is weaker than XRP on the weekly timeframe.
The whole market leaned risk-off. Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs posted record outflows into early June, and capital drained from higher-risk tokens.
XRP sat in that same selling pressure yet bent less. This is relative strength, where one asset declines slower than the group, and it often marks where buyers return first. The first clue to why XRP held its ground sits in the smart money data.
First Reason: Smart Money Kept Buying the Slide
Here is the first piece of the answer. The Smart Money Index, which tracks whether informed traders buy or sell at key points in the session, moved in the opposite direction from the price.
Between February 6 and early June, the XRP price trended lower. Over that exact stretch, the Smart Money Index trended higher.
Price fell while the gauge that proxies informed positioning climbed. It is now curling back toward its signal line, a sign that pressure may be turning.
That informed buying softened each leg down. It explains part of why XRP gave back less than BTC, ETH, or SOL. The second reason shows up in where the coins actually went.
Second Reason: Coins Left Exchanges as Price Dropped
The XRP exchange flows deepened sharply. Net exchange position change, which tracks coins moving in and out of exchanges, fell from roughly negative 8 million XRP on June 3 to about negative 92 million by June 8. That’s a 1,050% rise in net outflows.
Coins leaving exchanges while the price drops suggest holders moved to cold storage rather than selling. That behavior tightens the available supply.
This signal stacks neatly on top of the smart money climb.
Together, those two forces explain the past. The third reason points to what could happen next.
Shorts are Stacked for an XRP Price Squeeze
The setup that cushioned the fall could also power the rebound. On Bybit’s XRP perpetual market, 30-day short liquidation leverage sits near $134 million against roughly $80 million in longs.
That imbalance means an upside move could force shorts to cover, triggering a short squeeze where forced buying speeds up a rally.
The XRP price chart frames the trigger. Using the swing from the March 17 high to the April 5 low and the May 14 peak, XRP price found a floor near $1.04, just above the 1.618 extension at $1.01.
The previous swing held. Now, the first bull-case hurdle is $1.22, then $1.29. A reclaim of $1.34, the level lost in late May, would confirm real strength. Yet, crossing $1.22 alone could trigger the short squeeze setup, per the liquidation map shared earlier.
The caveat is the buy pressure. If demand fades before $1.22 breaks, the squeeze loses fuel, and the price can retest $1.04. That’s the bear case. The $1.22 level separates a smart-money-fueled short squeeze from another slide toward the $1.04 floor.
