Ripple (XRP) is in a tough spot. The daily chart for XRP/BTC shows that the price has just a few days of time to make up its mind. If the bulls fail to push the price above the 50 day moving average, it will be at risk of a decline below the 200 day moving average. If that happens, we will see the price drop to the 1.272 Fib extension level. The daily trading conditions for XRP/BTC are not favorable for a strong rally from current levels but at least the price can break above and manage to stay above the 50 day moving average because failure to do so will have catastrophic consequences. The price action of XRP/BTC after December 09, 2018 is almost a mirror image of the price action before it. It would this not be surprising to see Ripple (XRP) crash hard should it fail to climb above the 50 Day MA. The price has currently faced a strong rejection at the 38.2% Fib extension level which means it is expected to retrace to the 61.8% Fib extension level if not stopped by the 200 Day MA. If Ripple (XRP) remains above the 200 day moving average, we can expect the price to make a recovery sometime soon. However, if it falls and closes below the 200 day moving average, all bets are off. Ripple (XRP) has seen a good couple of days against Bitcoin (BTC) this week but they hardly resulted in any strong moves to the upside. It just meant that Ripple (XRP) was able to hold its ground better than the rest of the cryptocurrencies when Bitcoin (BTC) started to fall at the beginning of the week. Ripple (XRP) may decline against Bitcoin (BTC) short term but as we have seen in the past, it has a good track record of outperforming Bitcoin (BTC). The daily chart for XRP/USD shows that Ripple (XRP) just broke sideways out of a symmetrical triangle that had not been reached since August, 2018. This sideways movement indicates that we still have a lack of clarity and investors are not sure what comes next. The price is trading above the 50 day moving average but if it falls and closes below it, we could see some serious panic selling. On the other hand, it we see a few big spikes to the upside and the price breaks above the 200 day moving average, we could see that long anticipated golden cross come to fruition. Ripple (XRP) is a promising project with a lot of potential. The best thing about it is that it is one of the few cryptocurrencies that are actually solving a major real world problem using blockchain technology. Unfortunately, you cannot say that about most other cryptocurrencies. This has given Ripple (XRP) significant edge so far but the landscape is changing rapidly as powerful competitors like Stellar (XLM), ChainLink (LINK) and banks who want to issue their own cryptocurrencies like JPM Coin now threaten Ripple (XRP)’s monopoly. Ripple (XRP) is extremely likely to reach a new all-time high and rise during the next cycle but not at the same pace that we saw during the last cycle.