XRP’s prolonged weakness is fueling a sharper divide within the community, with some holders questioning Ripple’s strategy while others view the growing frustration itself as a possible contrarian signal.
XRP currently trades near $1.25, with CoinMarketCap data showing the asset down roughly 15% over the past 30 days. The decline has come despite a series of Ripple and XRP Ledger developments, widening the gap between expectations around adoption and XRP’s actual market performance.
Against that backdrop, XRP commentator Zach Rector argued that extreme frustration has historically appeared near important turning points.
“Usually when people are crying this much about XRP price it’s a sign we are about to absolutely rip to the upside,” Rector said.
The observation is sentiment-based rather than a technical signal and does not establish that an XRP rally is imminent.
XRP Price Weakness Fuels Stronger Criticism
The response from some XRP holders shows how deeply the latest price action has affected sentiment.
One critic argued that investors willingly took the risk of buying XRP but claimed the community had spent years supporting a vision that primarily benefited Ripple insiders. The post went further by labeling the project a scam and Ponzi scheme, but provided no evidence establishing those allegations.
Another response focused more specifically on Ripple’s growing stablecoin business.
The critic argued that banks may prefer stablecoins because they avoid the volatility associated with assets such as XRP and questioned whether Ripple USD could compete with XRP for institutional use cases. The post also claimed XRP should already trade between $15 and $20 if its utility were as substantial as supporters suggest.
That valuation claim was not accompanied by a model connecting XRP’s network usage to a $15-$20 market price.
RLUSD and XRP Serve Different Roles
The underlying concern—that institutions could favor stablecoins for certain transactions—is not without context. Ripple itself markets RLUSD specifically for payments, trading, treasury management and settlement where price stability is important.
However, Ripple distinguishes the stablecoin from XRP.
Its official documentation describes XRP as the XRP Ledger’s native bridge asset with a market-determined price, while RLUSD is a dollar-backed asset intended for transactions requiring stable value. Ripple has also described the two assets as complementary rather than interchangeable.
That distinction has also appeared in previous The Crypto Basic coverage. On-chain research found that RLUSD growth has increased XRP Ledger activity rather than simply replacing XRP, while separate data recently showed XRP being used as a bridge asset across 11,009 XRPL DEX trades.
Ripple executives have likewise continued publicly positioning XRP as central to the company’s longer-term strategy. At Swell 2026, Brad Garlinghouse described XRP as foundational to Ripple’s financial infrastructure ambitions, as covered by The Crypto Basic’s report on Ripple’s five-year XRP outlook.
None of those developments guarantee higher XRP prices.
Indeed, The Crypto Basic recently noted that XRP remained under pressure near $1.20-$1.30 despite weakening momentum indicators. Network utility, institutional adoption and price can move on very different timelines.
Sentiment Alone Cannot Confirm an XRP Bottom
Rector’s argument ultimately rests on a familiar contrarian idea: when investor frustration becomes extreme, much of the selling pressure may already have occurred.
But sentiment by itself cannot confirm a market bottom.
For XRP, the more observable test remains price. After losing the $1.30 region, the asset would need to reclaim and hold higher resistance levels before the current bearish structure begins to materially improve.
For now, the contrast is unusually sharp: Ripple continues expanding XRP and RLUSD infrastructure while some holders are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with XRP’s price. Whether that frustration marks capitulation or simply reflects continued weakness will depend on what price does next.