Early on Thursday, Ripple’s XRP is on a downward slide, losing over 5% of its value since the previous session as the mood towards the overall crypto market turns bearish and drives losses across the board. At the time of writing, XRP/USD is trading at around $0.63.

Cryptocurrencies received a jolt during the previous session on the release of the FOMC minutes from the most recent policy meeting, which confirmed central bank officials’ hawkish tones and drove up the value of the US dollar. This turned investors away from the riskier digital currencies even as analysts forecast more upside for the greenback in the coming months.

In the absence of any significant developments on the lawsuit between Ripple and the SEC, XRP has been trading sideways, sticking to a range between $0.60 and $0.70. In addition, we can see that the digital asset has been making lower highs lately, another sign that bears remain in control at the moment.

Ripple’s XRP has enjoyed support from its online community even despite its ongoing legal woes, and has often enjoyed some bullish moves on news about Ripple’s technology being adopted by financial institutions worldwide for payment transfers. However, unlike several of the newer players in the crypto sector that have use cases in the DeFi and NFT space, skeptics argue that XRP has limited use beyond being helpful for digital transfer of funds.

Recently, Ripple’s Director of Developer Matt Hamilton took to Twitter to argue against the critics, stating that the company’s technology for XRP is more efficient than that of the largest cryptocurrency – Bitcoin. He stated that XRP was effectively a better Bitcoin, with greater decentralization capabilities for making P2P payments.

Key Levels to Watch

On the 4-hour chart of XRP/USD, moving averages as well as leading technical indicators MACD and momentum are exhibiting a strong bearish bias. The price is sitting right at a support level and some distance from the pivot point at $0.68.

In case the selling pressure builds up further, we could see XRP’s price heading further lower towards the next support at $0.57 and then possibly to test support at $0.46 as well. A reversal of the market sentiment, on the other hand, requires Ripple’s XRP to move past the pivot point, which could see buyers test resistance at $0.74.