Ripple's XRP struggles near $2.58 resistance as investors realize $1.5 billion in profits

• XRP has risen over 10% since Ripple launched the RLUSD stablecoin.
• XRP investors booked nearly $1.5 billion in profits in the past 24 hours following its recent price rise.
• XRP struggles near the $2.58 resistance as investors maintain the $4.75 target.

Ripple (XRP) is up 3% on Wednesday after witnessing significant profit-taking among its investors following the launch of the RLUSD stablecoin. Whales have soaked up the selling pressure from profit-takers as XRP struggles near the $2.58 resistance level.

XRP investors realized $1.48 billion in profits following RLUSD launch

Ripple confirmed in an X post on Tuesday that its RLUSD stablecoin has gone live across exchanges, including Uphold, MoonPay, Keyrock, Archax, Bitso and CoinMENA.

After Ripple's initial announcement of RLUSD's launch on Monday, XRP began rallying, rising over 10% since the announcement.

Following the rise, XRP investors continued their profit-taking behavior, realizing over $1.48 billion in profits. This is the second-highest single-day realized profits XRP has seen in 2024.

The sustained high prices in the face of such significant profit-taking show buyers have been weathering the selling activity from profit-takers.

XRP Network Realized Profit/Loss | Santiment

However, it's important to note that consistent profit-taking at elevated levels could signal local market tops. This potentially explains why XRP has been consolidating since December 2.

The buying pressure that has kept prices afloat must have come from whales, as Santiment data shows XRP whale holdings increased by over 800 million XRP, worth nearly $2 billion, in the past two days. The growing amount of whale holdings signals bullish sentiment is still dominant in the market.

XRP Whale Supply Distribution | Santiment

Despite the bullish whale activity, XRP's Weighted Sentiment is at low levels, indicating the wider market doesn't hold a bullish view on its price.

Ripple's XRP struggles near $2.58 resistance amid quest for new all-time high at $4.75

XRP is up 3% after sustaining nearly $26 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours, per Coinglass data. The total amount of liquidated long positions accounted for $12.74 million, and short liquidations reached $13.22 million.

XRP continued validating a flag pattern on Wednesday after testing the resistance level near $2.58. The remittance-based token has established the upper boundary of the flag channel as a key support level.

XRP/USDT daily chart

If XRP manages to overcome the resistance level at $2.58 and $2.92 with a high volume move, it could smash its all-time high resistance and rally to $4.75.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Stochastic Oscillator are near their overbought regions, indicating prices are getting overheated.

A daily candlestick close below the support level at $1.96 will invalidate the thesis.