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The payment-centric token XRP (XRP) is drawing near to triggering a significant bullish signal as bitcoin’s market dominance declines and traders redirect their attention toward alternative cryptocurrencies.
This particular indicator is known as the golden cross, and it may soon materialize on price charts for XRP.
A golden cross officially occurs when an asset’s 50-day moving average rises above its 200-day moving average, functioning as a widely recognized long-term bullish indicator among technical analysts.
This configuration has frequently delivered positive results across various financial markets, including bitcoin, which recently confirmed its own version of the pattern.
Consequently, XRP’s approaching golden cross theoretically signals potential for substantial price appreciation, though historical precedent counsels caution.
Specifically regarding XRP, the golden cross has historically proven unreliable as a long-term predictor of enduring upward movement.
In reality, all 16 prior golden crosses failed to last even 12 months, getting cut short prematurely by a death cross—a bearish configuration of moving averages, as the name implies.
Nevertheless, a number of those previous golden crosses did generate substantial three-month rallies (refer to Today’s Signal).
Five out of the 10 crosses that persisted long enough to reach the three-month milestone recorded surges spanning from 85% to greater than 1,000%, which includes a 1,009.6% explosion following the cross in April 2017 alongside a 135% jump after the cross in February 2021.
At present, the 50-day average for XRP trades roughly 2% under its 200-day average, representing the closest margin observed since the preceding golden cross back in August 2024.
Simultaneously, analysts maintain an optimistic outlook regarding the price outlook for bitcoin (BTC $80,542.35), given that the leading cryptocurrency successfully weathered a turbulent week defined by a setback involving the Clarity Act together with a Federal Reserve interest rate hike.
The cryptocurrency currently changes hands near $78,000, remaining essentially flat compared to one week prior.
However, its dominance metric, representing its share of the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization, has retreated to a one-month low below 59%.
This drop points to capital rotating out of the asset and into alternative tokens, with several options such as UNI, NEAR, and ARB jumping by nearly 30% over a 24-hour window.
“Altcoins have accelerated sharply while the majors lag. Markets hope for SEC and CFTC crypto adoption, plus passage of the Bitcoin Reserve Bill,” stated Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at The FxPro, via email.
“It appears that traders are cautiously shifting their focus towards altcoins, although neither the altcoin season index nor market sentiment has yet reached high levels,” he noted, advising market participants to remain vigilant.
Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
What’s trending
- Stocks and bonds dip as central banks jack up rates to tame inflation (Reuters): International equities and fixed-income securities dropped while the Japanese yen moved toward its sharpest single-day decline since mid-February after the Bank of Japan raised benchmark interest rates to a 31-year high.
- Iran’s Strait of Hormuz toll booth ran through a bitcoin exchange, U.S. says (CoinDesk): Over the course of the year, Iran has levied fees ranging between $1 million and $2 million on cargo tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, with the U.S. Treasury reporting that portions of those funds have traversed through BitBank, a crypto platform headquartered in Tehran, since June.
- Ether and XRP ETFs post outflows as crypto majors move higher (CoinDesk): Spot exchange-traded funds for ether in the United States registered approximately $39 million in net outflows on Thursday, marking three consecutive days of redemptions, while XRP investment products dropped about $5 million, erasing a minor inflow from the prior session, whereas bitcoin funds attracted roughly $159 million.
- Asian shares finish higher, cheered by easing oil prices, but European benchmarks are slipping (AP): Asian stock markets generally closed higher on Friday, supported by a rebound on Wall Street alongside lower petroleum costs, whereas European indices trended downward during early trading sessions, while U.S. equities appeared poised for a slight upward drift.
Today’s signal
The accompanying table illustrates the price behavior of XRP at three-month and twelve-month intervals following each of its 16 historical golden crosses, with instances terminated prematurely by a death cross designated as terminated.
Every single occurrence was terminated before reaching the 12-month mark, and six failed to last even three months, while out of the 10 surviving past the three-month threshold, five appreciated between 85% and upwards of 1,000%, and five declined by as much as 32%.
This information demonstrates that the golden cross indicator, similar to the majority of technical tools, lacks absolute reliability when utilized independently.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/daybook-us/2026/09/18/xrp-on-the-brink-of-a-golden-cross-as-focus-switches-to-altcoins.
