XRP price started a steady increase above $2.150. The price is now 
consolidating gains and might aim for another increase if it clears $2.250. 
XRP price started a fresh increase above the $2.20 zone. The price is now 
trading above $2.180 and the 100-hourly Simple Moving Average. There is a 
bullish trend line forming with support at $2.170 on the hourly chart of the 
XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken). The pair could continue to move up if 
it clears $2.250. XRP Price Eyes More Gains XRP price started a decent upward 
move above $2.050 and $2.080, beating Bitcoin and Ethereum. The price gained 
pace for a clear move above the $2.150 resistance. The bulls even pumped the 
price above the $2.20 barrier. A high was formed at $2.286 and the price 
started a short-term downside correction. There was a move toward the 23.6% 
Fib retracement level of the upward move from the $1.817 swing low to the 
$2.286 high. The price is now trading above $2.180 and the 100-hourly Simple 
Moving Average. Besides, there is a bullish trend line forming with support at 
$2.170 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. If there is a fresh upward 
move, the price might face resistance near the $2.250 level. The first major 
resistance is near the $2.280 level, above which the price could rise and test 
$2.320. A clear move above the $2.320 resistance might send the price toward 
the $2.420 resistance. Any more gains might send the price toward the $2.450 
resistance. The next major hurdle for the bulls might be near $2.50. Another 
Drop? If XRP fails to clear the $2.250 resistance zone, it could start a fresh 
decline. Initial support on the downside is near the $2.170 level and the 
trend line. The next major support is near the $2.120 level. If there is a 
downside break and a close below the $2.120 level, the price might continue to 
decline toward $2.050 and the 50% Fib retracement level of the upward move 
from the $1.817 swing low to the $2.286 high. The next major support sits near 
the $2.00 zone, below which the price could continue lower toward $1.9250. 
Technical Indicators Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is now gaining pace in 
the bullish zone. Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD 
is now above the 50 level. Major Support Levels – $2.170 and $2.120. Major 
Resistance Levels – $2.250 and $2.320.

XRP Price Eyes Lift-Off as Price Holds Strong — What’s Next?

Global liquidity specialist Michael Howell used an appearance on the Bankless 
podcast to deliver a clear, if uncomfortable, message for risk assets: the 
post-GFC “everything bubble” is ending as the global refinancing machine rolls 
over, and crypto is late in that cycle rather than at the start of a fresh 
one. Howell’s starting point is his own definition of liquidity, which 
diverges sharply from textbook aggregates like M2. “This is the flow of money 
through global financial markets,” he said. It is not bank deposits in the 
real economy, but “money that is in the financial markets… it looks at the 
repo markets, it considers shadow banking,” and “pretty much begins where 
conventional M2 definitions end.” On his Global Liquidity Index, weekly global 
liquidity was under $100 trillion in 2010 and now sits “just under $200 
trillion” – a doubling in a decade and a half. Howell Flags Liquidity Peak 
What matters most to him, however, is not the level but the momentum of that 
liquidity. Howell has identified a remarkably stable 65-month global liquidity 
cycle that he interprets as a debt-refinancing rhythm. Capital markets, he 
argues, are no longer primarily about funding new investment: “Something like 
70 to 80% of transactions… are debt refinancing transactions. They’re not 
about raising new capital.” Related Reading: Crypto Crash Is A Forced Crypto 
Seller Unwind, Glassnode Co-Founders In that world, “debt needs liquidity for 
rollovers but actually liquidity needs debt,” because roughly three-quarters 
of global lending is now collateral-backed. The result, as he puts it bluntly, 
is that “ironically it’s old debt that finances new liquidity.” To capture the 
systemic tension, Howell tracks a debt-to-liquidity ratio for advanced 
economies: the total public and private debt stock divided by the pool of 
refinancing liquidity. The ratio averages about two times and tends to mean- 
revert. When it drops well below that level, liquidity is abundant and “you 
get asset bubbles.” When it rises significantly above, “you start to see a 
stretched debt-liquidity ratio and you get financing tensions or refinancing 
tensions and you can see those basically morph into financial crisis.” Right 
now, he says, “we’re transitioning, unfortunately, out of a period that I’ve 
labeled the everything bubble,” a phase where liquidity was abundant relative 
to debt after repeated rounds of QE and emergency support. The COVID era 
deepened that imbalance by encouraging borrowers to “term out” debt at near- 
zero rates. “A lot of the debt that then existed was refinanced back into the 
late 2020s at low interest rates,” he noted. That created a visible “debt 
maturity wall” later this decade: heavy refinancing needs now coming due into 
a much tighter funding environment. Shorter-term, Howell is focused on the 
interaction between Federal Reserve liquidity operations, the rebuilding of 
the US Treasury General Account and growing stress in repo markets. SOFR, 
which “you’d actually expect to trade below Fed funds” because it is 
collateralized, has repeatedly traded above its normal range. “We’ve started 
to see these repo spreads blow out,” he warned, adding that “it’s not really 
the extent of these spikes… it’s really the frequency that’s the most 
important factor.” If trade fails and leveraged positions begin to unwind, 
“it’s going to turn quite ugly and that could be the start of the end of the 
cycle.” Related Reading: Crypto Markets Underestimate A Trump-Style Flood Of 
Rate Cuts: Expert Inside his four liquidity regimes – rebound, calm, 
speculation and turbulence – Howell places the US firmly in “speculation,” 
with Europe and parts of Asia in “late calm.” Historically, early and mid- 
upswings favor equities and credit, peaks favor commodities and real assets, 
downswings favor cash and then long-duration government bonds. LIVE NOW &#8211; The 
Real Crypto Cycle: What Happens When Global Liquidity Peaks Global liquidity 
veteran Michael Howell (@crossbordercap) joins to map out the “master 
variable” driving asset price: A 65-month global liquidity and debt 
refinancing cycle that underpins booms, busts,… pic.twitter.com/Ryl3fqHoYR — 
Bankless (@Bankless) November 24, 2025 The Impact On The Crypto Market Crypto, 
in his work, straddles categories. “Crypto generally behaves a little bit like 
a tech stock and a little bit like a commodity,” he said. For Bitcoin 
specifically, “about 40–45% of the drivers… are global liquidity factors,” 
with most of the rest split between gold-like behavior and pure risk appetite. 
On the popular notion of a hardwired four-year Bitcoin halving cycle, Howell 
is unconvinced. “I don’t really see any evidence of that four-year cycle,” he 
said, arguing that the 65-month global liquidity/debt-refinancing cycle is the 
more robust driver. With that cycle projected to peak around now, crypto looks 
“late stage in the crypto cycle. So it could be over but it might not be.” The 
structural backdrop, in his view, is unambiguous: “The trend towards monetary 
inflation… is slated to continue for another two or three decades at least.” 
Against that, he argues, investors “have to have” monetary-inflation hedges: 
“It’s not Bitcoin or gold. [It’s] Bitcoin and gold.” Tactically, though, he is 
cautious. “We’ve not turned bearish risk-off yet, but we are not bullish 
short-term,” he said – and suggested that upcoming weakness in risk assets 
might be “a good time to pick up some more” of those long-term hedges. At 
press time, the total crypto market cap was at $2.96 trillion. Featured image 
created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Crypto Has Entered Late-Cycle Territory, Says Global Liquidity Veteran

Chainlink’s Sergey Nazarov has shared a potential roadmap for how DeFi could 
reach 100% adoption in four years, noting that a big part of this hinges on 
regulation.

DeFi is already 30% of the way to mass adoption: Chainlink founder

Ripple’s latest hiring drive marks a pivotal acceleration for XRPL, signaling 
a bold push to scale institutional on-chain adoption, deepen programmability, 
and fortify the high-performance blockchain infrastructure driving the next 
era of global value movement. Ripple Expands XRPL Engineering Teams With New 
Roles Driving On-Chain Finance Ripple has posted new engineering openings, 
seeking developers to […]

Ripple Hiring Software Engineers to Advance XRP Ledger Scalability and Performance

MegaETH has run into problems that forced the team to pull back from an 
expansion of its token sale. According to a Nov. 25 series of posts on X, 
MegaETH said it is no longer pursuing its plan to increase…

Cryptocurrency price in UAH