XRP plunged 37%, or roughly $0.60, on Saturday, August 22, after about $500 million in leveraged long positions were liquidated across the crypto market within minutes. The move came days after XRP had risen more than 60% over the prior week and briefly topped $1.69, fueled by institutional inflows, regulatory optimism and a broad market short squeeze. Bitcoin fell 2.5%, Ethereum dropped 5% and Solana declined 11.5% during the same window. Coinglass data showed total crypto-market liquidations of $1.35 billion over 24 hours, with most activity concentrated on Binance. Analysts cited high leverage, thin weekend liquidity and excessively bullish positioning rather than a clear macro catalyst. XRP later recovered part of its losses, returning to around $1.50, according to BeInCrypto data.