XRP price rockets 18%, staging wildest recovery among major tokens

XRP staged a sharp rebound on Friday, rising about 18% over 24 hours to trade near $1.49 after a deep selloff a day earlier made it the worst performer among major tokens. The move came as bitcoin briefly rose over $70,000 in U.S. morning hours, reversing Thursday's sharp declines ahead of the weekend.

The bounce came after XRP collapsed to roughly $1.14 in the prior session, a move that triggered heavy liquidations and flushed out traders who had been leaning too hard on leverage. Data shows short liquidations of roughly $26 million in the past 24 hours, compared with around $30 million in longs from earlier Thursday.

The recovery also comes at an awkward time for XRP’s broader narrative. Ripple and its ecosystem have spent the past week pitching a more institutional future for the XRP Ledger, including plans for permissioned markets, lending and privacy tools. Flare, a closely watched project trying to bring DeFi-style utility to XRP through FXRP, also expanded institutional access through custody firm Hex Trust.

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