A significant XRP holder is loudly claiming that this is a deliberate and repeated plan to push the token price up before U.S. markets open – and then down once trading begins.

The claim has divided the XRP community between those who see a coordinated attack and those who say the data points to something much more routine.

Chart, formula and its name

The social figure at the center of the debate is Arthur online. He published a historical price chart showing XRP rising towards key resistance levels in the hours before US markets opened, followed by a quick retreat once trading began.

He counted nine separate cases this sequence playing out since February and claims that the same pattern continued into March.

Arthur didn’t stop at simply signaling movements. He added a name to what he believed was behind them – calling it a possible “new Jane Street playbook”, referring to the well-known quantitative trading firm.

🚨 XRP IS NOW SYSTEMATICALLY MANIPULATED

Pumps straight to key resistance → Opening of the US market → dump 📉
It happens over and over again.

Is this the “NEW Jane Street Guide”?

XRP is down 44% from all-time highs despite HUGE @Ripple news, ETF exposure, acquisitions, licenses… pic.twitter.com/z6gqJwh6Eq

— Artur (@XrpArthur) March 13, 2026

He argued that the sheer number of events combined with the vast number of leveraged long positions open during each episode made coincidence an unlikely explanation.

What adds weight to his frustration, at least from his perspective, is the broader backdrop. Ripple has been making headlines recently with billions of dollars in acquisitions and continued inflows of ETFs.

However, despite this activity, XRP remains approximately 40% below its value recent peaks. Every time the price tries to rise, sellers come in and push it down. Arthur sees this as part of the same problem.

The community rejects the manipulation theory

Not everyone in the XRP community believed this argument. A dealer named Robert W. joined the conversation and offered: different reading.

His position was that these types of price movements tend to recur across many assets when the opening is affected by US market liquidity.

Well done Artur. Not everything is manipulation.
The same pattern is emerging across many assets as US liquidity enters the market.
It looks more like normal liquidity movements and profit taking than a secret “Jane Street playbook.”

—Robert W. | XRP Facts and Figures (@RobertXRPFF) March 13, 2026

Profit-taking and liquidity shifts, he said, are a more natural explanation rather than a coordinated institutional strategy.

Arthur flatly rejected it. He pointed to the precision of the pattern: nine occurrences, each after a period of accumulation with a vast accumulation of long positions.

Level of consistency

He insisted that this level of consistency does not occur by accident. He called on several well-known voices in the XRP space – including Vincent Van Code, Crypto Eri, BankXRP, Digital Perspectives, and Chad Steingraber – to take a closer look at the chart.

The debate was not confined to price action for long. Another participant raised a broader criticism of the cryptocurrency market, arguing that it is largely based on speculation.

Featured image from ECS Paymentschart from TradingView