Manipulation to Shake Out Weak Hands? Why XRP Has Dropped 23.4% Since Nov. 4

EGRAG Crypto highlighted three possible explanations for the outsized $XRP decline: a leverage flush, selling by long-term holders, or deliberate liquidity hunting.

He assigned subjective weights of 30%, 20%, and 50%, respectively, while stressing that the estimates are personal assessments rather than established probabilities.

$XRP Falls Harder Than the Other Majors

The four-market comparison shows a clear difference in severity.

Bitcoin declined from roughly the low-$81,000 region toward $73,000 during the measured move. Ethereum fell from approximately $2,475 toward $2,025, while Solana dropped from around $99 to $82.

$XRP’s decline was steeper, moving from roughly $1.36 to $1.04.

The difference matters because $XRP entered the selloff with a fragile technical structure. Price had already lost the $1.24-$1.26 region and was carrying heavy leveraged-long exposure below spot.

The Crypto Basic previously reported that $XRP had roughly 5.6 times more modeled long-liquidation exposure below spot than short exposure above. That positioning provided a mechanism through which falling prices could force additional longs out of the market.

This gives the leverage-flush explanation some observable support, although it cannot by itself explain the entire 23.4% decline.