thecryptobasic.com
Expert commentaries suggest $XRP may be dumping harder than other crypto assets because it represents the biggest threat to Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Notably, while the ongoing downtrend has impacted the broader crypto market, $XRP appears to be witnessing deeper losses than most crypto assets. Specifically, this week, $XRP has declined 13.31%. While it has held up better than Ethereum (-15%), it sees steeper declines than $BNB (-12%) and Cardano (-8%).
$XRP now battles the bears at the $1.3 support after losing $1.5 and $1.4 in one fell swoop. Interestingly, recent commentaries suggest that $XRP has performed worse than other assets because it represents the biggest threat to Bitcoin and Ethereum, and large whales are looking to “tear it down.”
Key Points
- The ongoing downtrend has impacted the broader crypto market, leading to $311 billion in lost capital just yesterday.
- Amid the broader decline, $XRP has seen some of the biggest losses, shedding $18 billion yesterday, the largest intraday drop in valuation since Oct. 10, 2025.
- As $XRP falls harder than most assets, recent commentaries suggest the asset may be facing a coordinated attack from large whales.
- The rationale behind this is the theory that $XRP could represent the biggest threat to Bitcoin and Ethereum’s market dominance.
$XRP Suffers Some of the Biggest Losses
Vincent Van Code, a software engineer and $XRP community figure, shared this argument during his latest commentary on the last market drop. For context, $XRP has since relinquished the $1.6, $1.5 and $1.4 support levels, battling to maintain a position above $1.4.
As the crypto market lost $311 billion on Thursday, Feb. 5, Bitcoin expectedly contributed the most to this figure, losing $206 billion. Meanwhile, $XRP saw steeper losses than most of the market. While $XRP’s market cap declined by $18 billion, $BNB saw a lesser $12 billion loss despite being larger than $XRP. Meanwhile, Cardano lost just $1.48 billion.
Today, $XRP holds a market cap of $82.7 billion due to the recent losses, after slipping below the $100 billion mark on Feb. 1. Since the July peak of $216 billion, $XRP has lost $133 billion amid this downtrend, as it records some of the highest losses.
$XRP “Threatens” Bitcoin and Ethereum
In his latest commentary, Van Code suggested that $XRP’s declines could be the result of a coordinated attack on the crypto asset, leading to the steeper losses. According to him, $XRP represents the main game they are looking to tear down.
Van Code argued that these coordinated attacks have emerged because $XRP may be the biggest threat to Bitcoin and Ethereum. He insisted that large whales are aware of this, and have deployed capital to keep its price suppressed amid the ongoing broader market downturn.
Van Code demonstrated this in a separate comment in which he highlighted a sharp decline in the $XRP/$BTC pair. According to him, this decline was due to Bitcoin whales pulling out capital from $XRP in a coordinated manner. He called this pure manipulation, but noted that it was costing them a lot.
The market commentator alleged that Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and other whales hold a vested interest in Bitcoin and would not want any threat to the asset’s standing. However, it is important to note that CZ confirmed last year that most of his portfolio, about 98.5%, is in $BNB, with just 1.3% in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Tribalism Under Scrutiny
Despite this, Van Code argues that CZ and other large crypto investors would want $BTC to maintain its dominance. However, he suggested that $XRP is slowly “chipping away,” projecting that its success is imminent. “I do believe there is space for multi-chain, but the $BTC tribalism is toxic,” he concluded, insisting that this is not different from what Jeffrey Epstein did. However, these comments from Van Code remain speculative with no confirmation.
Interestingly, recently-released documents from the controversial Epstein files confirmed that Blockstream co-founder Austin Hill told Jeffrey Epstein in 2014 that tokens like $XRP and $XLM were “bad for the ecosystem.” Responding to this revelation, former Ripple CTO David Schwartz suggested that Hill saw $XRP and $XLM supporters as enemies.