XRP hovers near $0.50 as Ripple CTO addresses concerns related to stablecoin launch

• XRP is hovering near $0.53 on Friday, spending nearly all week below $0.55. 
• Ripple CTO David Schwartz addressed concerns on stablecoin and XRP utility on Thursday. 
• Ripple’s clients will have the option to choose between using the stablecoin and XRP depending on what works best, Schwartz said. 

Ripple price (XRP) edges higher near the $0.53 level on Friday. The altcoin is range bound below $0.55 since Tuesday, struggling to break from sticky resistance at this level. 

The XRP holder community and crypto experts recently posed questions regarding the altcoin’s utility in Ripple’s On Demand Liquidity (ODL) amid increasing concerns that XRP Ledger’s native token may fall out of use with the stablecoin’s launch set for later this year. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) David Schwartz addressed these concerns in his tweets on X, implying that both coins will have their own use and suggesting that XRP is unlikely to be overshadowed. 

Daily digest market movers: Ripple CTO addresses concerns regarding XRP utility

• Ripple’s announcement regarding its stablecoin in April 2024 came as a surprise to XRP holders. Experts have raised concerns regarding XRP utility in Ripple’s ODL platform once the stablecoin is launched. Find out more about this here. 
• Some XRP holders also raised concerns about the future of the altcoin as it may become less useful once the firm introduces the stablecoin on the XRP Ledger. 
• David Schwartz, Ripple CTO, explained that Ripple’s idea is to get clients using the payment software that can settle with XRP. Schwartz says that it may not be the best solution for all and “it would be kind of silly to try to get people to use a solution when it’s inferior.”
• The CTO believes that, where XRP works best, it will continue to be used and there will be no barriers to its adoption or utility. Ripple is, therefore, using the stablecoin to address the situations in which XRP is not the ideal solution or offers “an inferior experience or worse economics.”

Technical analysis: XRP hovers above key support at $0.51

XRP price traded within a tight range between resistance at $0.5576 and support at $0.5137 this week, with the exception of Monday. A breach of the resistance level would allow XRP traders to explore the possibility of a rally to April 9 top of $0.6431. This level coincides with the upper boundary of the Donchian Channel. 

The $0.60 level remains a psychologically important resistance level and the $0.50 level is an important support for XRP. A breach above the former and below the latter could signify a shift in the altcoin’s price trend. 

XRP price is currently hovering around the midpoint of the channel, so traders who enter a trade at this price could look for the $0.6431 target, which would represent a 20% increase. 

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is a technical indicator that helps traders identify entry points in the market and shows whether there is positive or negative momentum. In XRP’s case, the MACD shows green bars above the neutral line, and there was a recent bullish crossover on April 21. This indicator points towards gains in XRP price. 

XRP/USDT 1-day chart

If XRP price declines towards the lower boundary of the channel, it could signal a trend reversal. The bullish thesis would be invalidated should prices close below support at $0.5137, making it more likely for the altcoin to sweep the $0.4717 level (23.6% Fibonacci retracement of the decline from April 9 top of $0.6431 to April 13 low of $0.4188).