Despite recent signs of recovery across the broader cryptocurrency market, sentiment around Ripple’s XRP remains bearish. The altcoin continues to struggle below $2.20, as more traders are now betting that the price will dip further.
Traders appear unconvinced that the token will stage a meaningful price surge in the near term, with many continuing to bet against its upside potential.
XRP Traders Eye Further Downside as Sentiment Sours
According to Coinglass, there has been a consistent increase in short positions targeting XRP. The token’s long/short ratio has remained below 1 for nearly two weeks, reflecting a growing preference for short trades. At press time, this ratio sits at 0.93.
The XRP Long/Short ratio compares the number of long positions (bets that the price will rise) to short positions (bets that the price will fall) in a market.
When an asset’s long/short ratio is above 1, there are more long than short positions, indicating that traders are predominantly betting on a price increase.
Conversely, as with XRP, when the ratio is below one, traders are betting on a price decline. The long/short ratio remaining below 1 for some days highlights a prevailing bearish sentiment in the XRP market, signaling expectations of further downside.
Additionally, XRP’s weighted sentiment has stayed in negative territory, reaffirming the bearish outlook. As of this writing, it is at -0.40.
The weighted sentiment analyzes social media and online platforms to gauge the overall tone (positive or negative) surrounding an asset.
When this metric’s value is negative like this, it points to heightened sell-side pressure and fading investor confidence. This puts XRP at risk of extending its price dip.
XRP on the Brink: Could Selling Pressure Push Price Below $2?
With short interest climbing and bearish bias strengthening, XRP risks slipping below the $2 mark. If the current trajectory continues and selling pressure intensifies, a decline under this psychological threshold could materialize in the near term.
In that scenario, XRP’s price could reach $1.99 and fall toward the year-to-date low of $1.61.
However, a resurgence in new demand for the altcoin could invalidate this bearish projection. In that case, XRP’s price could break above $2.29 and trend toward $2.50.
The state of security across the crypto and blockchain space has changed significantly in the past few months. Traditional smart contracts exploited or brute force attacks on blockchain networks are being superseded by crypto scams like rug pulls and pump-and-dump schemes.
BeInCrypto spoke with a spokesperson from security firm CertiK to understand how blockchain and security threats are evolving and how projects and users can safeguard against future exploits.
Social Media Hacks on the Rise
Over the past few months, the crypto community has seen a rise in social media-related hacks. This increasingly common tendency has pivoted away from the orchestration of more sophisticated blockchain attacks that have traditionally plagued headlines.
Whereas smart contract exploits or blockchain hacks require more knowledge, hackers have found an easier avenue by targeting social media accounts instead.
X (formerly Twitter) has quickly become the social media platform of choice among Web3 hackers.
Social Media is Now a Prime Target for Web3 Hackers
After US President Donald Trump launched his meme coin only two days before assuming office, hackers began to take advantage of the hype to hack high-profile X accounts and convince followers to invest in scam meme coins.
Last month, anonymous hackers took over the X account of the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to promote MALAYSIA, a fake meme coin promoted as the country’s official cryptocurrency.
The post was removed within an hour, but the damage was done. Analysis shows that these hackers were probably related to the infamous Russian Evil Corp and that they stole $1.7 million in this rug pull.
The MALAYSIA token scam happened only two weeks after hackers exploited former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s social media account. In that instance, scammers promoted the BRAZIL token, which rose over 10,000% in minutes, netting the scammers over $1.3 million.
These scams have also affected technological companies.
Attacks on Tech Companies
In December, AI research and development company Anthropic also saw its X account hacked. A fraudulent post claimed that a fake token called CLAUDE would incentivize AI and crypto projects and included a wallet address for investors.
Attackers managed to collect around $100,000 from speculative investors.
These situations also highlight a broader issue of weak account security on social media platforms. As a result, even prominent individuals are susceptible to security breaches that directly affect the crypto community.
TRUMP Meme Coin Launch Was a Catalyst For Crypto Scams
“Now is the time to talk about the fact that large-scale political coins cross a further line: they are not just sources of fun, whose harm is at most contained to mistakes made by voluntary participants, they are vehicles for unlimited political bribery, including from foreign nation states,” Buterin claimed.
Buterin highlighted the tokens’ role in enabling scams and political corruption in crypto and blamed a regulatory loophole former SEC Chair Gary Gensler created for allowing bad actors to exploit governance tokens.
However, these crypto scams extend beyond political themes.
Growth of Social Engineering Exploits
A week after Buterin cautioned against political meme coins, a Coinbase user lost $11.5 million after falling victim to a social engineering scam on Base.
Crypto sleuth ZackXBT uncovered the exploit, pointing out that this incident is part of a growing trend, with multiple Coinbase users suffering similar losses. He also estimates that crypto scams of this nature have drained at least $150 million from Coinbase customers.
“Coinbase has a serious fraud problem. I just uncovered many more recent thefts from Coinbase users. The $150 million stolen from Coinbase users in a year is just from thefts I independently confirmed. So it’s more than likely multiples of this number,” ZachXBT stated.
In social engineering scams, attackers use phishing emails, spoofed calls, and other deceptive tactics to trick victims into revealing private keys or login credentials. Once they gain access, they drain wallets, move funds, and take control of accounts.
For CertiK, these situations stipulate the need for stronger security measures.
Addressing these security challenges is crucial as new crypto projects increase exponentially.
Prioritizing Proactive Security in a Rapidly Growing Industry
The Web3 sector is experiencing consistent growth, marked by a surge in new crypto project launches. This innovative momentum is expected to continue, but it’s also fueling security concerns.
Notably, the increasing rate of scams and hacks in the first three months of 2025 makes it clear that security efforts are struggling to keep up with innovation.
A study by Precedence Research estimates the Web 3.0 market will expand from USD 4.62 billion in 2025 to approximately USD 99.75 billion by 2034, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41.18% during that period.
Predicted market size of Web3 in the next ten years. Source: Precedence Research.
Yet, CertiK believes that project developers are pushing security considerations toward the end of the priority list.
As the Web3 ecosystem evolves, a proactive and adaptive security approach is critical. Prioritizing both blockchain integrity and social media vigilance will be essential for safeguarding the growing Web3 ecosystem.
The battle against these exploits requires a future where security is not an afterthought but a foundational pillar of every Web3 project and user interaction.
As the Ethereum blockchain approaches its 10th anniversary on July 30, HTX, a leading global crypto exchange, is commemorating this significant milestone with a week-long global giveaway totaling $500,000 in rewards. Running from July 25, 10:00 to August 1, 10:00 (UTC), the campaign honors a decade of DeFi, NFT, and DAO innovations that Ethereum helped shape, while empowering its community to continue exploring value in the new crypto cycle.
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Founded in 2013, HTX has evolved from a virtual asset exchange into a comprehensive ecosystem of blockchain businesses that span digital asset trading, financial derivatives, research, investments, incubation, and other businesses.
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Chainlink announced today that it’s partnering with Mastercard, allowing billions of cardholders to purchase crypto directly on-chain. The companies’ new infrastructure will indirectly interface clients with multiple DEXs.
In addition to these two leaders, several other companies, such as ZeroHash, Swapper Finance, Shift4, and XSwap, are joining the endeavor. Uniswap has agreed to participate as a DEX directly interfacing with the platform.
By partnering with Mastercard, Chainlink will be able to turbocharge this overarching strategy. Essentially, this will combine an industry standard for interoperability with billions of potential users:
We’re excited to announce that Chainlink and @Mastercard have partnered to enable billions of cardholders to purchase crypto directly onchain.https://t.co/1pKz03jQ7t
To be clear, these companies are formidable, but Chainlink and Mastercard can’t build this kind of infrastructure on their own.
The two firms have partnered with several ancillary companies, like Swapper Finance, Shift4, Zerohash, and more to provide liquidity, execute smart contracts, power the underlying platform, and perform other such functions.
As a result, these companies’ combined result is quite formidable. As Chris Barrett, Chainlink’s Head of Communications, put it, Mastercard clients will be able to integrate with major decentralized exchanges.
Uniswap is already participating in the program. This will give Mastercard’s enormous user base access to a very broad range of available cryptoassets.
Chainlink’s Mastercard Infrastructure. Source: Chris Barrett
Mastercard has ventured into the crypto industry before, but this Chainlink partnership is on a whole new level. Raj Dhamodharan, the firm’s Executive Vice President of Blockchain and digital Assets, called the new infrastructure a way to “revolutionize on-chain commerce” and drive global crypto adoption.
Although Chainlink’s LINK token isn’t directly involved in the Mastercard partnership, it still stands to benefit. Despite hitting a monthly low earlier this week, the token’s price has skyrocketed in the last few hours, recovering around 8% since yesterday.
The platform for this massive crypto expansion is already live, allowing users to experiment with this new infrastructure layer. Chainlink and Mastercard have their work cut out for them, setting some extremely ambitious goals.
If even a fraction of the credit card company’s users participate in the program, it could enable truly massive crypto adoption.
