Opinion: Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, has had over ten years to grow. However, other altcoins did not have the liberty, due to which Bitcoin exerts its dominance over almost all altcoins in the ecosystem, be it Ethereum, XRP, or Cardano. The price of altcoins generally tends to rise if Bitcoin’s price surges rapidly. The same can be said about the downtrend as well, which is why altcoins are said to be coupled with Bitcoin.

However, the recent buzz on crypto-twitter is that XRP is on the verge of decoupling from Bitcoin. A Twitter user @XRPMOONSHINE tweeted:

“DO ME A FAVOR OPEN UP A BTC/USD CHART AND AN XRP/USD CHART. THEY HAVE DECOUPLED AND ARE MOVING DIFFERENTLY.”

In a very general sense, the comparison of the price change of XRP and BTC gives a crude understanding of whether the prices have actually decoupled or not. Hence, the daily chart attached below shows the price of BTC and XRP against the US Dollar and extends from August 2018 to April 2019. The price of XRP seems to be following a lag from the price of BTC and do not necessarily mean that it has decoupled.

However, there are timeframes where the price of XRP has moved completely unrelated to that of Bitcoin. For example, the meteoric rise of XRP from September 18 to 22 was far higher than the price pump of BTC over the similar timeframe; but the drop of XRP from November 18 to December 16 was exactly the same as that of BTC’s.

Furthermore, XRPMOONSHINE suggested that XRP price was being manipulated. He tweeted:

“It is being manipulated to keep it from rising. For example look at XRP/BTC pair. Keeping it under the down sloping resistance from .80 in September. Thats what I mean by Suppressed, Although im expecting a fairly large move to the upside before 4/24/19.”

The “idea” of the price of XRP being manipulated is not unpopular within the XRP ecosystem as Peter Brandt, a famed trader, suggested the same in one of his tweets.

Brandt tweeted:

Dynamics at work in a massive descending triangle that moves to apex.
1. Mkt is manipulated
2. Manipulators support at fixed level
3. But are forced to lower their selling price as time goes on
4. If (when) support gives way, desperation will ensue$XRPUSD pic.twitter.com/RmJaYiC8KY

— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) March 21, 2019

Conclusion

XRP may have started to decouple from Bitcoin, but it surely hasn’t decoupled completely. The notion that XRP is being manipulated to keep its price below certain levels can also not be confirmed without proof.

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