The cryptocurrency that powers Ripple’s XRP ledger is showing signs it may be consolidating ahead of a boost.

At press time, the XRP-U.S. dollar (XRP/USD) exchange rate seems to be building a base around $0.20-levels. The third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has gained 2.56 percent in the last 24 hours.

Elsewhere, Ripple news was quiet, and no major news was observable on its major channels and company forums. But, while week-on-week XRP is trading dead flat, it’s possible traders see opportunity in an upcoming event sponsored by Ripple.

Notably, this month, Ripple is to host “Swell” – an event aimed at bringing the world’s financial leaders together to network and discuss trends and strategies. Swell will go head-to-head with Sibos, Swift’s annual banking and financial conference scheduled for October 16–19 in Toronto, Canada, and bring in speakers including World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee.

As search volumes have shown to be heavily correlated with cryptocurrency price activity, this could foreshadow brighter days ahead for the XRP/USD exchange rate.

Still, it’s possible that ripple is simply trading sideways alongside the general market.

Daily chart

Our daily chart shows:

• The bullish break of the falling channel on September 25 was followed by a higher-highs/higher-lows (rising channel) pattern.
• A bullish crossover between the 50-day moving average and 100-day moving average was confirmed on October 2.

View

• XRP looks set to revisit $0.23–$0.24 levels in the short term. A break below $0.1984 (confluence of 100-day moving average and rising channel support) would abort the short-term bullish view.
• A bullish-to-bearish trend change would be confirmed if XRP drops below $0.188 (September 29 low).

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Ripple.

XRP image via Shutterstock