Ripple (XRP) seems to have lost steam after recording gains over the past two days.

The second-largest altcoin by market cap is trading at around $2.17, with the bulls pushing to regain control of the trend.

Despite the current market conditions still being bearish, the growing institutional demand for XRP funds could allow the cryptocurrency to push higher in the near term.

However, the retail demand remains low, posing a challenge for the coin. 

The massive selloff that occurred earlier this week has been reversed, with Bitcoin briefly reclaiming the $94k level on Wednesday.

XRP also rallied to $2.2 on Wednesday, but has lost 1.5% of its value since then and now trades at $2.17 per coin.

The performance comes amid a poor retail interest in XRP. Retail demand for the cryptocurrency has failed to recover since the October 10 flash crash.

According to CoinGlass, the XRP futures Open Interest (OI) averaged $3.75 billion on Wednesday, down 55% from $8.36 billion on October 10.

The decline shows a weak derivatives market, with investors not confident that XRP could sustain an uptrend in the near term.

However, institutional interest in XRP spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) continues to increase.

Data obtained from SoSoValue revealed that XRP ETFs recorded nearly $850 million in cumulative total net inflow since their debut in the United States on November 13.

The growing ETF inflow will likely support positive market sentiment and could push XRP higher in the near or medium term.

The XRP/USD 4-hour chart is bearish and inefficient as XRP has failed to rally past the $2.2 resistance level over the past few days.

The coin is currently trading below the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $2.32, 100-day EMA at $2.47, and the 200-day EMA at $2.50.

However, the technical indicators show signs that the bulls could regain control of the market.

The RSI of 52 is above the neutral 50, suggesting that the bearish trend could be coming to an end.

The MACD lines are also close to the bullish crossover thanks to the rally earlier this week. 

If the coin rallies and the daily candle closes above $2.3, the bulls could push it towards the $2.40–$2.47 resistance corridor.

XRP could gain efficiency on the 4-hour timeframe if it hits the $2.7 level.

The RSI needs to stay above 50 for XRP to record a sustainable upward movement.

On the downside, if the retail demand continues to be poor, XRP could struggle to surpass the $2.2 resistance and likely retest the recent low of $1.86.

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