XRP posted one of its sharpest one-day declines of 2026 on Feb. 5, falling 15% in 24 hours and touching a low of $1.22 before stabilizing slightly. The move pushed the token down more than 45% from its Jan. 6 peak of $2.40, effectively erasing a large portion of the gains accumulated since late 2024. The sell-off came amid broader weakness across the crypto market, with bitcoin also sliding to its lowest level in more than a year.
Market Value Drops as Selling Accelerates
According to the source material, XRP started the day trading above $1.50 before a wider market downturn sent it sharply lower. Although the token recovered modestly to around $1.26 by 11:35 a.m. EST, the damage to market structure had already been done. XRP’s market capitalization fell to roughly $80 billion, a level not seen since late 2024.
The recent drawdown has been severe even by crypto standards. Over the previous seven days, XRP had already lost nearly 30%, making it one of the poorest performers among major digital assets during that stretch. The latest decline deepened concerns that XRP was facing stronger downside pressure than many other large-cap altcoins, even within a generally weak market environment.
Derivatives Liquidations Added to the Pressure
The drop in spot price was accompanied by a notable flush in derivatives markets. The report says approximately $43 million in long positions were liquidated, compared with about $4.2 million in short liquidations. That imbalance suggests bullish leveraged traders took the brunt of the move, with forced unwinds likely accelerating the pace of the decline.
In practice, this kind of liquidation cascade can intensify volatility far beyond what would be expected from spot selling alone. When leveraged long positions are closed automatically, they can add immediate sell pressure into a falling market, creating a feedback loop that pushes price lower and triggers additional liquidations. XRP’s sharp intraday slide appears to have followed that familiar pattern.
Why XRP Fell Harder Than Some Peers
While XRP moved in the same broad direction as bitcoin and other major altcoins, analysts cited in the report argued that its weakness was amplified by technical deterioration rather than a single fundamental shock. Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget, said the break below important support zones signaled an intensifying bearish setup. Once those levels failed, chart structure shifted toward bearish continuation patterns, while thinner liquidity conditions made it easier for sellers to overpower buyers.
Lee described two main forces behind the accelerated decline. First, elevated leverage and increased short exposure compressed market structure and helped turn an ordinary pullback into a steeper sell-off. Second, a broader risk-off backdrop, shaped by geopolitical concerns and uncertainty around interest rates, reduced investor appetite for higher-beta assets such as XRP. In that type of environment, market participants often rotate toward assets perceived as relatively safer, including bitcoin or gold.
This framing is important because it suggests XRP’s decline was not presented as the result of one specific protocol issue, legal headline, or project-level failure. Instead, the sell-off appears to have been driven by a combination of technical breakdown, positioning stress, and deteriorating sentiment across risk markets.
Social Media Sentiment and the Limits of ETF Support
The report also highlights the role of bearish sentiment on social media. Some influential accounts reportedly urged XRP holders to exit positions immediately. Even if many market participants dismissed those posts as alarmist, such commentary can still affect short-term behavior in an already fragile market. When fear is elevated, viral calls to sell can reinforce caution and contribute to heavier near-term supply.
Notably, even positive net inflows into XRP spot exchange-traded funds were not enough to arrest the decline. That detail underscores an important point about market structure: ETF inflows may reflect underlying interest, but they do not always provide immediate support when technical levels break and leveraged positioning unwinds rapidly. In periods of intense risk reduction, sentiment and forced flows can outweigh otherwise constructive demand signals.
Broader Context for XRP Investors
From a broader perspective, XRP’s fall illustrates how quickly sentiment can shift in digital asset markets, especially when macro uncertainty and technical weakness overlap. A token can face pressure not only because of its own chart or positioning, but also because capital across the market is being re-priced toward lower-risk assets. In such moments, correlations across crypto tend to rise, and assets with higher volatility profiles may experience outsized drawdowns.
For XRP specifically, the key figures from the report frame the scale of the reset clearly: a fall from $2.40 in early January to $1.22 intraday on Feb. 5, a weekly decline approaching 30%, and a market cap reduced to around $80 billion. Together, those numbers show a market that has undergone a sharp repricing in a short period of time.
Whether XRP can stabilize from here will likely depend on whether broader crypto sentiment improves, whether technical support can be rebuilt, and whether leveraged activity cools enough to reduce the chance of another forced move lower. Based strictly on the source material, however, the immediate story is clear: XRP’s sell-off was severe, multi-layered, and intensified by a combination of broken support, derivatives liquidations, and a defensive shift in investor risk appetite.