XRP, the native cryptocurrency of the fintech company Ripple, started the new month on a sour note, with its price suffering a significant drop of just over 7% over the past 24 hours.

Notably, apart from factors affecting the wider crypto sector, this dip was exacerbated by the abrupt cancellation of another highly anticipated closed-door meeting between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday, threatening to sink XRP further.

However, despite this recent setback, optimism surrounding XRP’s potential remains high, fueled by some bold predictions from cryptocurrency analysts. On July 31, analyst JD stirred excitement in the crypto community with a provocative forecast. He noted that the current technical indicators for XRP are reminiscent of those observed just before the 2017 bull run when the cryptocurrency experienced a staggering increase of over 600 times its value within a year.

Notably, the pundit’s prediction hinged on the simultaneous bullish crossover of three key oscillators—the Relative Strength Index (RSI), the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), and the Stochastic RSI. If these indicators align as they did in 2017, JD speculated that XRP could surge to approximately $366 per coin, representing an astronomical 43,506% increase from current prices of around $0.61

JD’s forecast is not an isolated view. On Wednesday popular crypto analyst Javon Marks underscored that XRP has broken out of a major resistance trend lasting over 2,351 days. The pundit noted he believes this breakout opens the door for XRP to potentially reach a price target exceeding $150, which could lead to a more than 21,000% increase from current prices.

Additionally, Donovan Jolley provided a shorter-term forecast, pointing to XRP’s recent break from a 6.5-year downtrend. Jolley expressed confidence that XRP, which has demonstrated substantial adoption compared to many altcoins, could see its price climb to $28 by the end of 2025, provided the SEC’s legal actions do not impede its progress.

That said, investor sentiment is also leaning towards a bullish outlook. According to data from crypto analytics platform Santiment, the number of wallets holding at least 10,000 XRP has surged in recent weeks. As of July 31, these “shark” and “whale” addresses had reached a six-month high of 279,400. This uptick in substantial holdings is a positive sign of increasing confidence in XRP’s market value.

XRP was trading at $0.60 at press time, marking a 6.50% decrease over the past 24 hours. Despite this recent decline, XRP has shown a robust performance over the past month, with a notable gain of 25.21%, according to CoinMarketCap data.