- XRP fell more than 10%.
- Ethereum traders weathered $200 million in liquidations in 24 hours.
- Analysts say this isn’t the end of the 2025 rally.
Crypto traders woke up to a sea of red on Thursday after the total market shed $100 billion overnight.
XRP led the losses among the top 10 tokens, with its price plunging over 10% in 24 hours and briefly dipping below $3.
More than 315,000 traders were caught off guard, liquidating nearly $1 billion in positions, with Ethereum longs taking the biggest hit, according to CoinGlass data.
Despite giving back much of its gains, XRP is still up around 40% over the past month.
Data shows that most XRP liquidations came from long positions, suggesting overleveraged traders were betting on further upside.
Analysts see the stumble as no more than a healthy breather.
“A lot of liquidity has been taken in this short correction,” wrote MN Capital founder Michael van de Poppe on X.
He added that “corrections happen during upward trends” and he “wouldn’t be surprised if we start to attack the highs again.”
Few others see this as the end of crypto’s 2025 rally, especially with key catalysts like exchange-traded fund flows and macro data still in play.
XRP cools off
XRP’s sharp drop comes just a week after it first broke through its 2018 record to hit a new all-time high of $3.66.
The rally was fuelled by growing institutional interest and a wave of historic pro-crypto policy wins in Washington, including the progress of three major bills.
Moreover, US President Donald Trump is mulling opening up $9 trillion in retirement assets to digital asset investments.
The momentum was enough to push XRP past Tether to become the third-largest crypto by market cap — a spot it still holds.
Ethereum bulls get wiped
While XRP led the top 10 in terms of losses, most of the pain in the derivatives market came from Ethereum.
More than $200 million in ETH positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours.
Despite that, Ethereum has staged a swift recovery. Prices have bounced back to around $3,660, nearly erasing the dip that triggered the liquidations in the first place.
The market’s second-largest cryptocurrency has been on a hot streak since the start of Q2, gaining more than 40% in the last two months.
Spot Ethereum ETFs raised a record $2.2 billion last week, with an additional $1.1 billion added so far this week.
Analysts remain bullish.
Arthur Hayes said recently he’s betting big on Ethereum, expecting it to repeat Solana’s 2023 surge and reach $10,000 this year.
Mateusz Kara, CEO of Ari10, echoed that view, saying a $7,000 target is “no longer unrealistic.”
Kyle Baird is DL News’ Weekend Editor. Got a tip? Email at kbaird@dlnews.com.
