September marks a critical junction for XRP. After touching lows around $1 last summer, the veteran altcoin rallied to $1.70 before pulling back to $1.35. Much now depends on whether XRP's price can hold above the mid-tier Bollinger Band (BOLL) at $1.40, a moving-average benchmark that traders often use to gauge whether momentum favors continuation or reversal.

XRP Working Through a Key Price Barrier

According to the one-hour candlesticks, immediate resistance sits between $1.41 and $1.43. Trading at $1.45 at the time of writing, XRP's near-term target hovers at $1.97, a level that coincides with the Red-Label Bollinger Band (BOLL) and would take the price back to January levels.

On the downside, a substantial support floor stretches from $1 all the way down to $0.84.

Experienced market analysts have set their sights on $2. Trader Ali Martinez has identified a major demand zone between $1.31 and $1.38, an area where crypto whales previously accumulated roughly 4.8 billion tokens. With the Federal Reserve shifting to a dovish stance, this support line has so far held firm.

ripple:native: IT'S HAPPENING! pic.twitter.com/m7xqYQDlyt — Ali Charts (@alicharts) September 3, 2026

ripple:native: IT'S HAPPENING! pic.twitter.com/m7xqYQDlyt

65% Volume Uptick Signals Risk-On Appetite

Activity in the futures markets has been equally intense. Daily figures show a 65% spike in volume since yesterday, with leveraged trading volume now exceeding $6.18 billion. Open Interest (OI) — the total value of outstanding derivative contracts that have not yet been settled — has also climbed 8.38% to $3.34 billion, according to CoinGlass' real-time data. Rising OI alongside price gains is generally read by traders as new money entering positions rather than existing ones being closed.

Short-sellers have taken the brunt of the pain. They accounted for more than $9 million in XRP liquidations over the past 24 hours, while bulls absorbed $2.38 million in liquidations due to excessive leverage. The bullish pressure has also carried into the OI-weighted funding rate, with short-sellers continuing to pay for long positions — a recurring fee mechanism in perpetual futures that reflects which side of the market is more crowded.

Still, XRP has some distance to cover before reclaiming its August 21–22 levels, when its price traded above the current resistance line. If the $1.45 level holds, the bullish implication remains clear. Otherwise, a bull trap could be in place, as market sentiment remains on the greedy side. For now, the levels to watch are the $1.41–$1.43 resistance band on the upside and the $1.31–$1.38 whale demand zone on the downside, with futures liquidation and funding data offering a real-time check on whether leveraged positioning stays stretched.