Ripple, a major blockchain-based payment network, has completed a $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, marking one of the largest deals in the crypto industry, but despite this, XRP’s price has seen a significant decline.
Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road, a London-based prime brokerage firm, is intended to enhance its ability to serve more clients by integrating traditional and digital financial systems. Hidden Road provides financial services across various asset classes, including foreign exchange, digital assets, derivatives, and swaps, and currently serves over 300 leading financial institutions. The firm plans to adopt the XRP Ledger (XRPL) for managing post-trade documentation, aiming to reduce operational costs and improve efficiency. This move demonstrates XRPL’s value for large financial institutions. Additionally, Ripple Labs intends to offer custody services to Hidden Road clients, allowing secure storage of digital assets.
Despite the significance of this development, XRP’s price has remained relatively unaffected, likely due to prevailing market sentiment. According to AMBCrypto’s technical analysis, XRP is still in a downtrend following the breakdown of a bearish head and shoulders pattern. At the time of writing, XRP was trading below the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) on the daily timeframe, indicating strong bearish sentiment. Investors and traders typically view this as a signal for a potential sell-off, especially if the price experiences a short-term rally.
At press time, XRP was priced at around $1.82, having dropped more than 9.5% in the past 24 hours. Trading volume also fell 21% in that time, showing weaker activity from both traders and investors. If XRP fails to break above the $1.95 level, there is a strong possibility it could initially drop by 20% to the next support level at $1.50. Furthermore, if market sentiment remains unchanged, it could drop an additional 20% to reach the $1.20 level in the future.
Intraday trading data reveals that traders are leaning heavily toward bearish bets, with $33 million in long positions and $54.85 million in shorts placed at key levels between $1.732 (support) and $1.864 (resistance). These on-chain metrics highlight traders’ bearish outlook on XRP despite major developments in the company’s history. The broader context, including an ongoing tariff war and generally negative market sentiment, is also dampening the potential positive impact of Ripple’s acquisition on XRP prices.