Why is XRP price not rallying after Ripple CTO completes his eight-year selling spree?

XRP price saw a bullish thrust from  July 18, which made it seem like it was going to overcome any hurdles standing in the way. Moreover, the wallet belonging to Jed McCaleb, the ex-CTO of Ripple, was finally empty after eight years of non-stop selling.

After the creation of Ripple and XRP, the founders were allocated a vast amount of XRP tokens. McCaleb was given nine billion tokens. Due to the fallout, the ex-CTO started selling his holdings in 2014 and completed it early this week in July 2022. 

Despite being a bullish development, XRP price is slow to react, perhaps due to the market conditions. Regardless, the short-term outlook indicates that the sentiment is neutral-bearish. Moreover, technicals further suggest the possibility of a correction if XRP bulls fail to flip a certain resistance level into a support floor.

XRP price comes close to its target

XRP price broke out of a declining trend line on July 18, ending the 63-day downtrend. This bullish development was followed by a retest to confirm the breakout. 

After a successful bullish confirmation, XRP price climbed nearly 9% and revisited the $0.380 hurdle. However, buyers were not strong enough to sweep the equal high formed at $0.387. As a result, the remittance token retraced roughly 8% and is currently trading at $0.363.

A failure to flip the $0.380 hurdle into a support floor will most likely be met with selling pressure from investors booking profits. This development could see XRP retrace and revisit the $0.311 support floor and sweep the liquidity resting below it.

In a bearish case, this move could extend to $0.296. 

XRP/USDT 1-day chart

Regardless of the bearish outlook, bulls can easily take control. If XRP price produces a daily candlestick close above the $0.380 hurdle, flipping this resistance level into a support floor, the bearish thesis will face invalidation.

In such a case, XRP price might revisit the $0.439 hurdle after a 15% ascent.