A sudden price surge sent XRP to $91.62 on Kraken early morning November 19, 2025, triggering automated alerts across trading desks before the cryptocurrency exchange’s charts snapped back to reality. The token was actually trading at $2.18.
The 45-fold spike lasted only seconds. No trades executed at the inflated price. But the incident spotlights ongoing vulnerabilities in how cryptocurrency exchanges handle micro-unit pricing during thin trading windows.
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What Happened During the Flash Spike
At 04:15 UTC on November 19, Kraken’s XRP chart printed a vertical green candle reaching $91.62. The spike came 10 minutes after an equally bizarre downward wick to $0.00272 at 04:05 UTC. Both movements reversed within moments, with XRP closing each period at $2.18.
Crypto trader Kevin Cage caught the anomaly when his price alert fired. “The super weird flashwick woke me with an alert,” he posted, sharing screenshots of the $91.62 peak. Market data from TradingView confirmed the event appeared exclusively on Kraken. Binance, Coinbase, Gemini, and other exchanges showed stable XRP prices throughout.
The most telling detail: zero filled orders at $91.62. Traders checking their positions found no unexpected executions. The glitch affected Kraken’s price display and charting system without touching actual order matching.
Why Exchanges Display Ghost Prices
Jay Grissom, a developer working on Internet Computer Protocol, offered the most technically sound explanation. The problem stems from how exchanges calculate prices when handling XRP’s smallest unit, called drops.
One XRP contains one million drops. At $2.20 per XRP, a single drop is worth $0.0000022. If a large limit order accidentally fills one drop at $0.01 instead of $0.0000022, the system treats that as if someone paid $10,000 for a full XRP token. The exchange’s charting software sees this single high-priced micro-transaction and briefly displays it as the current price, even though 99.99% of the order filled normally.
This type of error only surfaces during periods of low liquidity. Overnight trading hours see thinner order books. A large market order can sweep through available sell orders, creating temporary price dislocations as the system matches with whatever counterparties exist at that moment.
The Kraken incident fits this pattern precisely. The 04:05 UTC crash to $0.00272 and subsequent 04:15 UTC spike to $91.62 both occurred during the lowest volume period of the 24-hour cycle.
Kraken Stays Silent
Kraken has not issued any statement about the November 19 price anomaly. The exchange’s status page showed no reported technical issues that day. Trading continued normally across all other cryptocurrency pairs on the platform.
Some traders questioned whether stop losses triggered during either the downward or upward wick. Market observers monitoring the situation confirmed no evidence of forced liquidations or unexpected position closures tied to the ghost prices.
The incident raises questions about exchange safeguards during low liquidity periods. Circuit breakers exist on traditional stock exchanges to halt trading when prices move too rapidly. Most cryptocurrency platforms lack similar protections.
XRP’s Pattern of Pricing Errors
This marks the latest in a series of similar glitches affecting XRP across different platforms. The token has displayed more pricing anomalies than any other major digital asset.
Gemini showed XRP at $50 in August 2023 immediately after listing the token. Thin order books on the newly launched trading pair caused the brief spike. In December 2021, CoinMarketCap and Coinbase simultaneously displayed XRP at $161 million due to a data feed error affecting multiple cryptocurrencies.
More recently, CNBC’s broadcast ticker mistakenly showed XRP at $126 in January 2026 when producers accidentally used Solana’s price in the XRP slot. Real America’s Voice displayed XRP at $21,000 during a March 2025 market segment.
The frequency of XRP-specific errors has sparked debate about whether the token’s structure makes it more vulnerable to display glitches, or whether the high number of incidents is simply statistical noise across a widely traded cryptocurrency.
Trading Implications
The Kraken flash spike occurred during a volatile week for XRP markets. Seven exchange-traded funds tracking XRP were launching throughout November 2025, with Bitwise announcing its NYSE-listed product on November 19. Despite institutional interest, XRP traded 40% below its July 2025 peak of $3.65.
Market data showed 41.5% of circulating supply was held at a loss, indicating many traders bought near recent highs. The fragile positioning made some observers nervous about potential liquidation cascades if prices dropped further.
The pricing glitch itself had no direct market impact. But it served as a reminder of the technical risks facing traders who rely on automated systems. Stop losses, take profit orders, and algorithmic trading strategies can all malfunction when exchanges display incorrect prices, even briefly.
What Traders Should Watch
Exchange infrastructure remains less robust than traditional financial markets. Price anomalies will continue appearing during low liquidity periods until platforms implement stronger safeguards. Traders can take several steps to protect themselves:
Check multiple exchanges before making decisions based on sudden price moves. Arbitrage opportunities that seem too good to be true usually are. Set reasonable bounds on automated orders to prevent execution at obviously incorrect prices.
Kraken’s November incident caused no financial damage. The next glitch might not be as harmless. As cryptocurrency trading volumes grow and institutional participation increases, exchanges face mounting pressure to eliminate these technical failures before they trigger real losses.
The question is no longer whether another XRP pricing error will occur. Based on the established pattern, it will. The question is whether exchanges will fix their systems before a glitch catches traders on the wrong side of a position they never intended to take.
