Bitcoin Breaks Below $64,000; Warning of Bearish Pattern for XRP

▲ XRP and Bitcoin (BTC)/ChatGPT-generated image ©

As Bitcoin (BTC) erased its weekend rebound and fell to around $62,900 during intraday trading on February 24 (local time), XRP (Ripple) is also facing the possibility of an additional 42% decline amid whale selling pressure and bearish chart patterns.

According to investment media outlet FXEmpire, Bitcoin plunged more than 4% on Monday, retreating to $64,300. This wiped out all gains from Saturday’s rally to $68,600 within just a few hours. The current price stands 48% below its all-time high of $126,000 recorded last October and 5.5% beneath the previous bull market peak of $69,000 in 2021.

Risk-off sentiment has spread across the broader market. Over the past 24 hours, more than 136,000 traders were liquidated, with total liquidations reaching $458 million. Of these, 92% were leveraged long positions. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index has fallen to its lowest level of the year. Market turmoil intensified following hacking attempts and short-selling attacks targeting World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin and WLFI token. WLFI briefly dropped 7%, and USD1 momentarily lost its dollar peg, though the project stated that the attack ultimately failed.

In the short term, Bitcoin is trading near the lower boundary of its range, with support around the $60,000 level. However, some indicators suggest a cautious rebound may be possible. The network hash rate has fully recovered after a 25% drop in January, and large speculative players, including hedge funds, have shifted from net short to net long positions in CME Bitcoin futures. Analyst Tom McClellan noted that similar positioning changes have preceded major market bottoms in the past.

Technically, XRP has formed a “bear pennant” pattern, raising the risk of further downside. If the pattern confirmed on the two-day chart breaks downward, the price could fall to $0.80, representing an additional 42% drop from current levels. The structure formed after a sharp decline to the $1.12 range, and analysts suggest that a close below $1.20 could lead to subsequent tests of $1.11 and $1.00.

Whale activity is also adding pressure. More than 31 million XRP were transferred to Binance last Saturday, with over 88% of the volume attributed to large holders. Notably, wallets holding at least 1 million XRP sent 14.5 million XRP to exchanges. CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost estimated this represents approximately $45 million in potential selling pressure and warned that continued sell-offs could make a short-term rebound difficult.

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