Ripple price analysis: XRP/USD off recent highs despite a new major partnership with PNC bank

XRP is changing hands at $0.3255, off its recent high of $0.3361 reached on Tuesday, following the gossips about the upcoming launch of xRapid commercial operations. The third largest digital coin is down 1.6% on a daily basis, losing ground together with other altcoins amid mild downside correction. XRP's total market value reached $12.9B, while the average daily trading volumes subsided to $440M from the head-spinning $600M on Wednesday.  

Meanwhile, Ripple company announced another partnership, this time with PNC Bank, one of the top ten banks in the USA. The financial institution has joined the RippleNet, already adopted by over 100 financial institutions, including the National Commercial Bank in Saudi Arabia.   Ripple technology will allow PNC customers to send and receive cross-border payments in real-time. 

“@PNCBank has joined the 100+ financial institutions on RippleNet. It’s one of the first major U.S. banks to use #blockchain tech to streamline payments into and out of the country,” the company said in its Twitter account.
Notably, XRP's reaction to the news was muted, while PNC's shares went up after the announcement.

XRP's technical picture

XRP/USD slipped below $0.33 handle, though the downside movement still qualifies as a healthy correction from overbought territory. The coin manages to get back above this resistance to resume the upside with the first aim at Tuesday's high of $0.3361, followed by psychological $0.3400.

On the downside, the local support is created by $0.3200 and $0.3138 (SMA50, 1-hour chart). Once below, the sell-off may be extended towards  $0.3130 with a cluster of strong technical levels, including 38.2% Fibo retracement daily and SMA200 (4-hour chart).

XRP/USD, 1-hour chart