XRP Crashes Below $1.50 as Profit-Taking Overwhelms ETF Inflows

XRP crashed back below $1.50 on Thursday after briefly breaking through $1.60, despite continued inflows into US exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The token's price reversal caught many off guard, especially considering it reached a high of around $1.66 earlier in the day.

According to data from SoSoValue, US spot XRP ETFs attracted $18.04 million on September 23, with Bitwise accounting for $11.54 million and Franklin Templeton adding about $6.50 million.

Crypto analyst Ali Martinez had identified $1.60 as a major resistance area before XRP reached it, and warned that this could be a level where holders take profits. On-chain distribution data showed around 2.5 billion XRP changed hands at this level, creating a sizeable cost-basis cluster.

FXStreet analyst John Isige noted that XRP reserves on Binance had risen to about 2.68 billion tokens, suggesting investors were moving tokens to the exchange to trade or sell and lock in profits amid higher prices.