XRP has printed a bearish candlestick pattern on the weekly time frame, which has historically preceded significant price corrections.

Notably, prominent market analyst Ali Martinez drew the crypto community’s attention to this development in a January 10 tweet. At the time, XRP was close to forming a gravestone doji on the weekly chart following a strong price rejection.

Importantly, this bearish pattern has fully formed following a close at $2.072 last week. The timeframe of occurrence and the technical indication this candlestick suggests have sparked concern among XRP holders.

Gravestone Doji Puts XRP at Risk of Further Decline

XRP started last week on a bullish note, building on its 12% growth two weeks ago. The XRPL native token rallied nearly 13% in two days to a high of $2.41 on January 6 before the momentum faded.

Consequently, the asset has retraced 14% over five days, relinquishing all its earlier gains, and closed last week with a slight 0.88% decline. With this downtrend, XRP formed a deadly candlestick pattern, known as the gravestone doji.

For the uninitiated, the gravestone doji is a candlestick that has an inverse “T” shape. Typically, it has a long wick, showing severe price rejection. Additionally, its opening, closing, and low price are closely clustered after a swing high, indicating that bears stepped in during the uptrend and quickly pushed the coin below its opening price.

Last week, XRP did exactly this, dropping from its $2.41 high to its opening price of $2.09, then closing at $2.073. According to Martinez, this does not look good for XRP, suggesting it might fall much further.

Remarkably, this aligns with several other analyses, including one from CRYPTO CAPTAIN. He noted that XRP could drop to $1.8 after failing to hold the support around $2.10 and $2.05.

A Credible Bearish Signal?

Notably, the gravestone doji typically signals a price ceiling and the start of a larger bearish trend. Its occurrence on the higher time frame also adds to the strength, and XRP seems to be following that trend already, with today’s 1.20% correction to $2.043.

However, some analysts argue that candlesticks and trendlines are not credible indicators of a price trend in isolation. Their reliability increases when used with other technical indicators, such as MACD and RSI.

Moreover, analyst BigBlueNation views the XRP retracement differently. In response to Martinez, he noted that the downtrend was merely a retest before a broader bullish development.

I think what you’re seeing is the handle shakeout ridding weak hands. XRP broke the handle of that weekly cup for the first time since Oct 9. We know what happened on the 10th. We broke it again a few days ago and now are holding on re test. You do see however on the 4hr an… pic.twitter.com/5KgVww5tAz

— BigBlueNation (@BigBlueNation85) January 10, 2026

His chart shows that XRP broke out of a descending channel last week, and the ongoing retracement was just to shake off weak hands and retest the structure before the next impulsive move.

XRP received significant recognition in the RAND Corporation’s recent policy paper as a viable peer-to-peer payments solution.

For context, RAND is a nonprofit, global policy think tank with a massive global presence. The firm is one of the biggest and most influential policy research institutes in the world, handling thousands of projects annually.

RAND Acknowledges XRP

In its recent “Artificial Intelligence and Crypto in Financial Services” report, it acknowledged XRP’s growing reputation as a legitimate payment asset. RAND highlighted that XRP pioneers peer-to-peer payments, offering a cheap and swift way to move money, even across borders.

XRP handles transactions in under five seconds and at an average fee of less than $0.01, making it a viable rail for cross-border remittance. Notably, this mention further confirms XRP and Ripple’s growing global recognition as a tool that makes payments more convenient.

For context, RAND highlighted these XRP perks in a section of the report that focused on the deployment of AI in crypto payments. It noted that while crypto payment systems reduce transaction fees, they still lack the speed and convenience of the legal system, owing to the nature of blockchain technology.

However, with the implementation of artificial intelligence, crypto payments could outpace traditional payment systems. The load-balancing effect would allow digital assets to find broader use cases even in processing high-volume transactions.

Specifically, RAND noted that integrating AI into XRP’s payment prowess will further reduce frictions and drive transaction fees even lower. 

However, the research firm incorrectly linked XRP directly to Ripple, a narrative that enthusiasts have long sought to correct. Ripple and XRP are two distinct entities, and the former does not own the latter. Their relationship stems from the payment giant’s adoption of the XRP Ledger’s native token for its operations.

Interestingly, other reports have also acknowledged XRP and Ripple as alternatives to traditional cross-border payments. The Institute of International Finance (IIF), the American Institute of Physics, and the prominent asset manager Grayscale have all recognized XRP as a legitimate rail for global remittances.

Cryptocurrency Is Beyond Bitcoin

Meanwhile, the RAND report also sought to clarify that the cryptocurrency space has grown beyond Bitcoin. The research emphasized that there are several others, such as stablecoins, tokenized assets, utility tokens, and NFTs.

Bitcoin was the world’s first digital asset and the most prominent. However, others, such as XRP, also play important roles in the broader industry’s adoption.

For context, BTC has its reputation as a store of value. While it offers other functionalities, the prevailing sentiment is that the best approach is to buy and hold. However, this limits how large the industry can scale, especially given its capacity to solve other real-world problems.

The XRP ecosystem understands this, which is why it focuses on facilitating cross-border payments. This brings banks and institutions to use the technology for their day-to-day operations, boosting adoption.

XRP also has a use case in real-world asset tokenization, another emerging narrative tipped to drive the next crypto bull cycle.

Leading XRPL-based wallet Xaman has offered fresh insight into robust activity on its platform, revealing that more than 538 million XRP have been active so far this year.

In a recent commentary, Xaman noted that users of its self-custodial wallet entered 2026 with strong momentum. Notably, the volume of active XRP on the platform surpassed 500 million within just the first 11 days of the year.

According to a post on X, a total of 538,103,677.93 (538.10 million) XRP have been active on Xaman Wallet from January 1, 2026, through the time of the update. This figure underscores the significant amount of XRP that users are actively transferring and interacting with via the Xaman platform. 

The Gateway to XRP Ledger 

Interestingly, Xaman positioned itself as “the gateway to the XRP Ledger,” emphasizing its focus on self-custody. Unlike centralized platforms where users hold their assets through intermediaries, Xaman gives them full control over their private keys while still accessing the full functionality of the XRP Ledger ecosystem. 

Meanwhile, the surge in activity on Xaman during the early days of 2026 has coincided with XRP’s strong bullish performance. After opening the year at $1.84 on January 1, 2026, XRP rallied to $2.41 by January 5, marking a gain of nearly 31%. 

Typically, such rallies attract heightened trading activity. As a result, some investors sold to lock in profits, while others, anticipating further upside, moved XRP from centralized exchanges to their Xaman wallets or swapped other assets directly for XRP using the wallet’s swap functionality. 

Consequently, these combined actions pushed the number of active XRP on Xaman above 538 million within the first few days of 2026. 

Flare Network Says Xaman Users Can Do More With XRP 

Notably, Flare Networks’ official X account responded to Xaman’s post. Flare positioned itself as a ready infrastructure layer for Xaman users looking to do more with their XRP by tapping into decentralized finance (DeFi) opportunities.

For context, Flare provides a framework that enables XRP holders to access yield-generating DeFi without transferring their assets to centralized platforms. Through this mechanism, users can lock XRP into a Flare Network vault and mint a wrapped version of the asset, known as FXRP. They can then deploy FXRP across various DeFi protocols on Flare to earn yield.

Moreover, in October, Flare integrated support for Xaman, streamlining the process of minting FXRP and deploying it into DeFi applications directly from the self-custodial wallet. At press time, users had locked approximately 86.43 million XRP in Flare vaults, resulting in the minting of about 87.41 million FXRP. 

A well-known crypto trader has revealed how a single XRP trade generated a $302,000 profit in just two weeks.

Cameron Fous, a veteran trader with nearly two decades of experience, explained that the trade was built around what he calls an “alignment strategy,” where Bitcoin and XRP were positioned to break out at the same time. According to him, this alignment created a short window for a high-probability move.

Why the XRP Trade Worked

Fous said the setup came together when Bitcoin entered what he describes as a “force pattern,” a late-stage bullish structure that often triggers strong momentum. At the same time, XRP was still in a “survival phase,” consolidating below key resistance after an earlier run.

This combination mattered. With Bitcoin preparing to break higher and XRP lagging just enough, the conditions were set for XRP to follow Bitcoin’s move once resistance gave way. As Bitcoin broke out, XRP soon followed, triggering a rapid upside move.

Entry, Exit, and Results

The trader explained that he began scaling into XRP around the mid-$2.60 range as the price approached the breakout zone. XRP later surged toward the mid-$3 range, where he exited the position after signs of weakening momentum.

Based on the figures he shared, the trade delivered over $300,000 in profit in roughly 14 days, making it his largest single trade to date. He noted that the position was closed once a bullish continuation failed to hold, prioritizing capital preservation over chasing further upside.

View on XRP and Altcoins

Beyond the single trade, Fous highlighted a more general issue affecting many altcoins. He argued that most losses happen when traders buy altcoins after Bitcoin has already completed a major move. In those cases, altcoins often fail to keep up and are vulnerable to sharp pullbacks.

In contrast, the XRP trade succeeded because both assets were nearing breakout points at the same time. This alignment, he said, is rare but powerful when it appears.

Repeated History

Meanwhile, this is not the first time Fous has reported massive profits from XRP. In March 2024, Fous, author of Wolf Principles, shared how XRP transformed his trading journey. After retiring from forex and stock trading in 2018, Fous re-entered the markets in late 2019 on a friend’s recommendation to buy XRP at $0.20.

His $20K investment grew to $100K as XRP hit $1, and further trading across various cryptocurrencies boosted his portfolio to $1.7 million within 420 days. Fous described XRP as his first altcoin to deliver defining gains and a major turning point in his financial life.

As XRP continues to attract attention from traders and long-term holders, stories like these highlight why market timing remains critical in determining outcomes.