Why is XRP price struggling to rally beyond $1.50?

$XRP price has failed to break through a persistent sell wall near $1.50 despite a renewed wave of institutional demand as of April 21.

Since $XRP price capitulated below its 2025 support level of approximately $1.80 earlier this year, it has attempted to rally beyond $1.50 four times in vain. As such, $XRP price has been trapped in a tight horizontal consolidation for nearly three months, with a support level at roughly $1.33.

$XRP/USD year-to-date performance. Source: Finbold

The recent $XRP price rebound from the lower end of its consolidation towards $1.50 was fueled by renewed institutional demand. Furthermore, the spot $XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have recorded a new wave of inflows in the past week, as Finbold reported. However, this altcoin was rejected again, leading to a drop to $1.44 at press time.

Why is $XRP price struggling to rally above $1.50?

The main reason why $XRP price has experienced a strong sell wall around $1.50 is due to a lack of mass conviction. For instance, the altcoin has seen a weakening available liquidity on Binance, the largest crypto exchange by daily traded volume, for more than 9 months, as Finbold noted.

Year-to-date (YTD), the token’s reserves on Binance have gradually increased from 2.658 billion tokens to 2.755 billion as of April 20, according to analytics from CryptoQuant. In the past three months, Binance’s supply of the token surged from 2.553 billion, signaling rising selling pressure.

$XRP reserves on Binance YTD. Source: CryptoQuant

Historically, a lack of a clear drop in exchange reserves has limited $XRP price rallies. As such, monitoring this metric can help traders determine whether the altcoin has established robust bullish momentum or whether a short squeeze has simply catalyzed another bull trap, as Finbold recently highlighted.

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