Cryptocurrency

XRP Just Printed a Golden Cross, but Has It Already Failed?

XRP just flashed one of crypto's most watched bullish signals, but the price immediately dropped afterward. Whether this is a temporary stumble or a sign the signal has already broken down depends on a pattern buried in XRP's trading history.

By Sam Daodu
Published October 9, 2026, 4:00pm ET · 3 min read

The Crypto Desk desk. Editor: Sam Daodu.

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A close-up photograph of a golden XRP cryptocurrency coin centered on a dark, reflective surface. In the blurred background, financial charts with green, red, purple, and blue lines and bars are visible, with reflections of both the coin and charts appearing below.
A physical XRP coin stands against a backdrop of blurred financial charts, illustrating the cryptocurrency's recent price movements despite a "golden cross" signal. © Maryshot / Shutterstock.com

XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) completed a golden cross on its daily chart in the last week of September 2026, but the price has since fallen. After peaking at $1.51 on October 5, XRP is now trading at $1.40 as of October 9, down 9% over the past week and about 62% from its all-time high of $3.65.

Typically, traders view a golden cross as a positive signal. However, this recent cross came with a price drop. So, is this signal losing its strength, or is a slow start common for XRP after such crosses?

What the XRP Golden Cross Measures and Why It Arrived Late

Ripple XRP cryptocurrency coin representing digital innovation and future financial systems.

Eduardo Estellez / Shutterstock.com

A moving average represents the average closing price over a specific number of days, updated daily. The 50-day moving average reflects XRP’s recent price trends, while the 200-day moving average captures longer-term trends. A golden cross forms when the 50-day average rises above the 200-day average, while a death cross occurs when it falls back below.

Leading up to the golden cross, XRP’s two moving averages had been converging for weeks. By September 18, the gap between them was the narrowest it had been since August 2024. On September 29, the 50-day average crossed above the 200-day average with XRP trading near $1.50.

However, these averages are based on past prices, so a cross confirms buying that has already occurred. In XRP’s case, the September rally lifted the 50-day average, but the golden cross arrived just as that rally lost momentum.

Traders began selling in early October, even after the CFTC listed XRP as a digital commodity in proposed regulations reported on October 5. By October 9, forced liquidations of leveraged positions in the crypto market totaled around $1 billion, compounding selling pressure.

How XRP Performed After Its Past Golden Crosses

Ripple gold physical coin. XRP coin on black background

ViTaMiH / Shutterstock.com

Examining XRP’s past golden crosses provides insight into what could happen next. Here’s a summary of previous crosses:

  • 2025: The 50-day moving average crossed above the 200-day from late June to mid-July 2025, and XRP rallied by about 68%, climbing from around $2.19 on June 28 to its peak of $3.67 on July 18.
  • August 2024: XRP traded near $0.57 at the time of the cross and was roughly unchanged 30 days later, eventually reaching about $1.10 by mid-November 2024.
  • February 2021: The cross occurred with XRP at around $0.50. The price remained flat for a month before eventually peaking at $1.96 in April 2021.
  • April 2017: The 50-day moving average crossed above at about $0.04, and XRP peaked near $0.40 in May 2017, a staggering roughly 900% gain.

XRP has shown mixed results after previous golden crosses; some led to rapid gains, while others saw flat performance the following month.

Despite this, the overall records reveal a concerning trend. XRP has experienced 16 golden crosses, each followed by a death cross within 12 months. Of the ten crosses that lasted at least three months, five led to gains ranging from about 85% to over 1,000%, while the other five led to losses of up to 32%.

Is the XRP Golden Cross Already Failing?

As of now, the XRP golden cross has not definitively failed, but it is a weak signal with a limited timeline. A 9% price drop aligns with the flat starts seen after previous crosses in 2024 and 2021, so this decline doesn’t necessarily mean the signal has broken down.

However, XRP’s historical data suggests this cross offers about an equal chance of a price increase or decline, leaving holders somewhat uncertain.

For the golden cross to hold, XRP needs to stay above the 200-day moving average and ideally bounce back above its October 5 peak of $1.51. If it fails to do so and closes below the 200-day average, it risks turning this golden cross into just another statistic among those that led to losses in XRP’s history.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

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Sam Daodu

Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst who's spent nearly a decade making blockchain understandable—no easy task when most whitepapers read like fever dreams. He writes for 24/7 Wall St., covering Bitcoin, altcoins, and crypto market analysis for investors. Before crypto, he was a tech writer (back when explaining "the cloud" was peak innovation). Since 2018, he's written for CoinTelegraph, Yahoo Finance, The Block, Cryptonews, Zypto, Rain, and more—basically anywhere people want crypto news without the headache. Sam runs MacLabs Marketing, a content agency for crypto brands tired of sounding like AI wrote their website. He also publishes free crypto education on his site for Web3 enthusiasts who think "gas fees" is a typo. When he's not writing or staring at charts, Sam's either: - Watching anime (currently convinced One Piece has better tokenomics than most altcoins) - At the gym sculpting himself into a Greek god - Listening to the music your mum warned you only bad boys listen to Connect: LinkedIn | Email | MacLabs Marketing

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