Gold and $XRP are telling two very different stories right now. Gold is pushing toward record highs while $XRP is stuck in a slow grind lower.
Specifically, gold touched $4,321 per ounce on August 6, a seven-week high, up 4.18% on the day. Zoom out and the trend is even stronger: gold is up about 6% over the past month and 26% over the past year.
Two forces are driving this. First is geopolitics. Hopes of a US-Iran deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz have eased tension, but gold is still catching bids as a hedge against the conflict’s uncertainty.
Second is monetary policy. Fed officials, including Governor Lisa Cook, have signaled they’re still willing to raise rates if inflation doesn’t cool, keeping investors nervous enough to want a safe store of value.
Gold Technical Picture
Gold cleared its prior multi-week trading range (roughly $4,000-$4,150) on rising volume tied to the Hormuz headlines, then held above that former resistance, which now acts as support.
As long as gold holds above $4,100-$4,150, the near-term trend stays bullish. Notably, gold has undergone a 29.63% correction over the last six months, during which the price dropped from an all-time high of $5,600 to $3,980. The latest push marked the first major recovery in weeks.
Notably, Central bank buying, flat mine supply growth (1-2% a year), and crypto holders accumulating Tether’s XAUT are structural tailwinds keeping dips shallow.
$XRP Losing Momentum
Meanwhile, $XRP tells the opposite story. It’s trading around $1.05, down roughly 1.2% in the past 24 hours and down about 65% over the past year. For 2026 alone, $XRP is down around 43%, a steep fall from the $2.84 high it touched in January.
Technical Picture
$XRP is trading below both its 20-day EMA (~$1.08) and 50-day EMA, a bearish setup where sellers still control price. Key support sits near $1.00-$1.01. A break below opens the door to the low-$0.90s. $XRP would need to reclaim $1.12-$1.18 to signal a real trend change.
On-Chain Metrics
CryptoQuant’s Amr Taha reported that more $XRP users have been withdrawing funds from major exchanges since early August, with Coinbase seeing the biggest shift. On August 4, Coinbase recorded 10,900 more withdrawing wallets than depositing wallets over a seven-day period. This was about 3.4 times deeper than its previous record of -3,200 in June 2025.
Other exchanges, including Binance and Crypto.com, also saw more withdrawals than deposits starting July 17 and continuing into August. On August 4, Binance reached -2,550 wallets, while Crypto.com dropped to -2,290, both their lowest levels since June 2025.
The similar trend across multiple exchanges suggests that more $XRP holders are moving their coins off exchanges, which is often interpreted as a bullish sign
Bottom Line
Gold is benefiting from exactly the kind of uncertainty — geopolitical risk, rate worries— that $XRP and altcoins tend to struggle with. Until risk appetite for crypto improves, expect gold to keep outperforming $XRP.
Related: $XRP Enters Low-Volatility Phase as Exchange Withdrawals Increase