During the Wednesday market recovery, XRP surged 7.9% to hit a one-week high of $1.47. The cryptocurrency has been hovering between $1.35-$1.50 over the past three weeks but has failed to break above the local range\u2019s upper boundary.<\/p>\n
As the price nears this resistance once again, an analyst has suggested that a short-term rally toward another critical level could be brewing, potentially setting the stage for the altcoin to decide its next market direction by the end of Q2.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, analyst ChartNerd called for a short-term 20%-30% XRP rally in the next month or two, affirming that \u201crelief is overdue\u201d after six months of continuous downside<\/a> pressure.<\/p>\n In a video analysis, the market observer affirmed that the cryptocurrency is attempting to build a base within its local range to retest a crucial resistance level after losing the $1.80-$2.00 area as support in January.<\/p>\n As he explained, XRP is attempting to form an ascending triangle or double bottom pattern in the daily timeframe, with the formation\u2019s neckline sitting around the $1.50 mark.<\/p>\n Based on this, if the altcoin \u201ccoils up inside this triangle and eventually gets a breakout heading into March, this is where the potential lies of rallying back up to $1.80\u201d to retest this previous area of support as resistance.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, if the cryptocurrency is forming<\/a> a double bottom pattern, the analyst noted that \u201ceven a retrace to the $1.20 level would still mark a higher low before a short-term bullish reversal.\u201d<\/p>\n In both cases, breaking out of the $1.50 resistance would validate a move toward the $1.80-$2.00 area, which he considers \u201ca critical inflection point\u201d as XRP held it as support for 400 days.<\/p>\n It would be a critical inflection point. I mean, potentially, we could respect some sort of ascending channel here as well, leading into March, which is what may guide us up to that $1.80 resistance. (\u2026) If XRP does sort of respect these trend lines, it\u2019s resistance. We\u2019re back at support.<\/p>\n Despite the bullish outlook, ChartNerd warned that XRP still risks a correction of up to 50%. Per the analyst, the $1.80 retest will determine whether this area has turned into resistance and the price will continue to go lower, or if it will be reclaimed and push to higher levels.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the rally into $1.80\/$2 unfolds in March\/April, that will be the telltale sign of whether $0.70 is on the cards or not. Breaking cleanly above $2 signals strength and invalidation of that potential. Rejecting it as resistance would then cause a potential $0.70 drop,\u201d he added<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n A reclaim of this key area as support could open the doors for a retest of the golden $2.40-$2.70 range, not visited since the Q4 2025 crash. It could also signal that the corrective period may be over.<\/p>\nIs A Critical Retest Ahead?<\/h2>\n