XRP's $1.35 Tug-of-War: Bulls Pull, Bears Hang On

$XRP has been doing its best impression of a indecisive tourist at $1.339, wandering back into the short-term supply zone between $1.34 and $1.35 like it forgot whether it wanted to buy or sell. The little bounce came after XRP Respectfully visited the $1.28 to $1.29 demand neighborhood, where volume actually showed up to the party — imagine that, buyers actually appearing when price gets juicy.

But here's the thing: $XRP has bounced off this level before like it was a trampoline made of lava. So the real question isn't whether bulls are trying — it's whether they can actually punch through this resistance or if they'll get rug-pulled back to reality once again.

The recovery kicked off after $XRP dipped toward the $1.28 area and then did that thing where price pretends it's going to zero before suddenly changing its mind. Crypto analyst CW pointed out that $XRP reclaimed the local base between $1.30 and $1.32 before sliding back into the red supply zone near $1.34 to $1.355. That area is basically the bouncer at the club — first barrier to get past, and it's been checking IDs all year.

If buyers can actually manage a clean break and close above this zone without faking it, the next upside target looms around $1.42. Push past that and there's a higher supply hangout between $1.47 and $1.50, which puts the $1.45 region in play if resistance finally says "uncle." Until then, this current move is just testing overhead supply — not a confirmed breakout, not even close.

On the losing side of things, the first support sits between $1.31 and $1.32 — the closest level bulls need to defend if price starts running out of gas. Below that, more important support hangs out near $1.28, where the latest rebound woke up from its coma. Sliding back under that area would kill the recovery dead and dump $XRP back into a deeper consolidation range like it never even tried.

Open interest has been climbing during this whole decline thing, because nothing says "let's pile into a falling knife" like derivatives. According to CryptoQuant analyst Maartunn, open interest jumped from $892 million to $951 million as price dropped below $1.31 — the highest level in more than two weeks. Meanwhile, funding rates stayed negative at -0.0010, which typically means short traders are paying long traders to exist, reflecting stronger bearish positioning in the derivatives market. The degens are betting against this thing hard.

This combo of rising open interest and negative funding is basically a red flag that traders were loading up on short exposure while $XRP was bleeding out. Liquidation data adds another layer of spice: clusters above current price total $3.055 billion, with a notable cluster of $318.57 million sitting near $1.356. If $XRP rises into these levels, short positions could get squeezed harder than a stress ball — potentially fueling a faster move higher through nearby resistance. Nothing fuels a rally like liquidating shorts into oblivion.

While the short-term structure has improved marginally — look, it's not completely dead, okay — the broader chart is still getting absolutely wrecked. $XRP remains trapped inside a falling channel that formed after the drop from the July 2025 peak near $3.6. Since then, price has been making lower highs and lower lows — not a great look for the larger trend, unless you're a bear who loves watching hope die slowly.

The channel's upper boundary has repeatedly crushed recovery attempts like it's personally offended by green candles. The historical record shows failed breakout tries near $3.18 in September 2025, $3.10 in October 2025, $2.41 in January 2026, and $1.6 in March 2026. Every single time, price hit the upper trendline and then rolled over like it forgot how to be bullish. That history makes the current resistance test worth watching — mostly because we've seen this movie before.

$XRP has room to stretch toward $1.42 and potentially $1.45 if the sell wall near $1.35 finally cracks. But the market still needs a confirmed breakout above near-term supply before the larger reversal case gets any credibility. Until then, we're just watching bulls and bears play tug-of-war at exactly the wrong end of the rope.