Veteran chartist Peter Brandt published a long-term XRP chart on Sept. 21 projecting an eventual advance to $5.40, roughly 251% above the level where the token traded, while stressing that the projection is not a trade recommendation. XRP holders picked up the note as the price rallied about 9% in a single session, a juxtaposition of multi-year chart horizons with single-session trading.

Chart implies $5.40, but Brandt says a chart is not a call

Brandt shared the chart in a post on X, writing that it "implies an eventual advance to $5.40."

"A claim of a 'call' or simple presentation of a chart is NOT a trade," Brandt wrote.

He added that anyone claiming trades must show proof, and that an X post does not qualify as proof. The distinction he draws separates a published projection from an executable position, which normally carries the entry, exit, and risk parameters a chart post leaves unstated. His use of the word "eventual" places the $5.40 level somewhere down the road rather than on a defined timetable.

Brandt entered the commodity trading business in 1976 and founded Factor Trading in 1980, where he traded mostly proprietary capital. He has also written two books on chart patterns and commodity trading.

The chart is built from monthly XRP/USDT candles going back several years. It traces a falling resistance line drawn from the 2018 high meeting a rising support line running from the 2020 lows. On its latest run, XRP broke through the top of that formation, pushing above $3 before a long correction set in.

The token is currently trading around $1.49, below its 18-month moving average of $1.88. The $5.40 projection rests on the idea that XRP first regains a substantial portion of the ground it lost. Depending on the reference price used, the upside gap is about 251% from $1.54, or roughly 260% $1.50. Of the levels cited, the $1.88 average is the nearest above the current price, making it the first marker on the path the projection assumes.

Absa activates Ripple custody during 8.7% rally

XRP climbed to $1.54 on Sept. 21, up 8.7%, or $0.12, in 24 hours. The token swung between $1.41 and $1.57 before pulling back from its high, an intraday range of about 11% from bottom to top.

Also on Sept. 21, South African lender Absa switched on Absa Digital Asset Custody, built on Ripple's custody technology. The rollout comes 11 months after Ripple and Absa first announced the partnership. Custody is the layer that lets a bank hold digital assets on behalf of clients, so going live moves the collaboration from announced intent to operational infrastructure.

Asset manager 21Shares bases its XRP bull case on regulatory clarity, institutional access, quantifiable utility, and a fixed supply. The firm points to around $4 billion in tokenized assets and roughly $1.6 billion in RLUSD supply, with more than half of the RLUSD supply circulating on the XRP Ledger. 21Shares also cautions that greater activity on the XRPL does not automatically convert into lasting XRP demand.

In the United States, the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, with cloture rejected 49-50. Ripple said the failed vote left XRP's legal status unaltered and had no effect on demand for payments, stablecoins, and institutional use. The vote leaves regulatory clarity — the first pillar in 21Shares' bull case — unresolved at the legislative level, keeping it among the developments that sit alongside charts and custody rollouts for XRP watchers.

XRP options were priced to anticipate a one-standard-deviation swing of about 8.9% through Sept. 27, the largest expected move among major tokens. Solana stood at 8.0%, Ethereum at 6.9%, and Bitcoin at 5.0%. That implied move was roughly 1.79 times XRP's historical median 7-day move. The Sept. 27 horizon gives that expectation a defined window against which realized trading can be compared.

Cryptopolitan previously charted the distribution of XRP among top addresses in June.