A History of Crypto Anomalies

• XRP has experienced numerous price glitches across exchanges since 2019.
• Technical errors have shown XRP at prices ranging from $0.0001 to $161 million.
• Most recent anomaly appeared on American television, displaying XRP at $21,000.

XRP has become notorious in the cryptocurrency world not just for its legal battles and use cases, but also for a series of bizarre price glitches that have occurred across various platforms. These anomalies, which have displayed XRP’s price at wildly inaccurate levels, highlight the technical vulnerabilities that still exist in cryptocurrency market infrastructure.

The first widely documented XRP price glitch occurred on January 4, 2019, when Coinbase’s 1-minute chart inexplicably showed XRP priced at $7,308. This dramatic error likely resulted from a data feed crossover with Bitcoin, which was trading at similar levels during that period.

Later that year, TradingView displayed another striking anomaly when its charts showed XRP trading at $9,864, despite the actual market price ranging between $0.20 and $0.22. This isolated incident affected only TradingView’s interface and didn’t impact actual trading.

Most extreme XRP price glitch happened in 2021

Perhaps the most extreme example came in December 2021, when both CoinMarketCap and Coinbase displayed XRP’s value at an astronomical $161 million due to a system-wide data feed malfunction. This glitch wasn’t isolated to XRP but affected numerous cryptocurrencies before being quickly corrected.

By October 2023, CoinMarketCap experienced another significant error, displaying XRP at $34,603 while its actual market price hovered around $0.5655. Just months later in March 2024, Atlantis Exchange showed a spike to $70, likely resulting from limited liquidity on the lesser-known platform.

One of the most publicized incidents occurred on August 10, 2023, when Gemini listed XRP for the first time. Moments after the listing, XRP’s price surged to $50 on the platform, far above the market rate. This dramatic spike was attributed to a thin order book combined with high demand during the relisting.

Not all glitches sent prices soaring. In April 2023, Bitrue’s derivatives platform experienced a sharp crash to $0.0001, triggering widespread liquidations of long positions before returning to normal levels. This brief but devastating glitch resulted in significant losses for leveraged traders.

More recent anomalies include a 228% price spike on MEXC in July 2024 that saw XRP momentarily hit $2 while the broader market priced it around $0.60, and a Coinbase glitch in August 2024 showing XRP at $22.50 despite stable market prices.

The most recent incident occurred last month, when American television news channel Real America’s Voice displayed XRP at an incredible $21,000, bringing these technical anomalies to a broader audience outside the crypto community.

These recurring glitches demonstrate the ongoing technical challenges in cryptocurrency price reporting and highlight how data feed errors or liquidity issues can create dramatic distortions in displayed values.