San Francisco, March 27, 2026, 11:08 PDT
XRP hovered close to $1.32 on Friday, deepening its decline while crypto markets at large lost ground. Traders continued to weigh Ripple’s fresh AI-focused security initiative for the XRP Ledger. The token slipped roughly 2.4% on the day, marking a 7.9% drop for the week.
Why it matters now: XRP is hovering in the low $1.30s, right as crypto sentiment sours again. Ripple’s AI-assisted red team has already flagged more than 10 bugs in the ledger codebase. CoinDesk points to $1.35 as the new support—basically, that’s where buyers showed up last time. If it slips, $1.30 is next on the radar.
Ripple on Thursday said it’s weaving AI into every stage of XRP Ledger’s development cycle—covering everything from adversarial code scans and AI-driven pull request reviews to threat modeling and stress testing. As for the upcoming XRPL software release, Ripple said users should expect bug fixes and enhancements, but no fresh features this time.
“AI allows us to shift from reactive debugging to proactive, systematic discovery of vulnerabilities,” wrote Ayo Akinyele, senior director of engineering at Ripple, in a company post. The XRP Ledger’s native token is XRP; Ripple says the platform has handled upwards of 100 million ledgers and more than 3 billion transactions since 2012. DL News
The AI push arrived just days after the open-source XRP Ledger community blog dropped a vulnerability disclosure tied to transaction-set handling. According to that report, two bugs—potential threats to the network’s progress in the event of a validator compromise—were patched in version 3.0.0. The public writeup went live March 23.
XRP slid alongside a broader downturn in cryptocurrencies. According to Barron’s, bitcoin dropped 3.9% over the 24-hour span, with ether losing 3.5%. Bloomberg, meanwhile, noted about $14 billion worth of bitcoin options expired on Friday—a quarterly derivatives rollover known for amplifying near-term price swings.
“With the expiry behind us, the price pin has faded, and the market is beginning to show its true directional intent,” Bloomberg cited Pratik Kala, portfolio manager at Apollo Crypto. Griffin Ardern at Primal Fund, in the same piece, pointed to traders positioning for what looks like a long war stretch, the threat of stagflation, and even “forced rate hikes.” Moneycontrol
XRP is boxed in for now. According to CoinDesk, the token dipped under the $1.36 support level. Bulls need to push it back above $1.40 to stabilize things on the chart. If XRP can’t hold $1.35, though, $1.30 looks like the next stop.
Ripple is putting its focus on fixes and wider upgrades in the upcoming XRPL release. In the meantime, eyes are on whether the token can stick around the low-$1.30 range, especially as bitcoin and ether continue to face selling pressure.
