XRP was sitting near $1.10 when Dave Portnoy, the Barstool Sports founder, went public with a blunt confession: he is not waiting for $2. He needs the money in August, and $1.40 is his exit price.

The reason is unusually concrete for a crypto trade. Portnoy wants to bid at the Saratoga Sales and Cleveland thoroughbred horse auctions, both coming up this summer. Waiting for a hypothetical move to $2 simply does not fit that timeline, so he drew his line at the 200-day moving average and called it a day.

The math behind the exit

Portnoy has been nursing significant losses across his crypto portfolio. At the worst point, he was down somewhere between $3 million and $5 million. His current thinking is less about conviction in XRP and more about clawing back enough capital to fund the horse purchases. He said as much on social media:

"I need this rocket. XRP just went to $1.11 as I said it, but I need XRP at $1.40. All right, I need 30 more cents in XRP. I need Bitcoin at $80,000. I need these things if I'm going to get more horses."

He also leaned into his reputation for bad timing. By his own account, crypto tends to pump right after he sells at a loss. He joked that traders should start paying him to exit positions, since his selling apparently acts as a market catalyst.

Why $1.40 is not a random number

That target happens to line up with a real technical level. On the XRP/USD daily chart, the 200-day moving average sits right around $1.40, acting as overhead resistance after the prolonged downtrend that started from last year's highs. Portnoy picked his exit emotionally, for horse auction cash, but the chart agrees it is a meaningful wall.

  • XRP trading near $1.10 at time of writing, trying to hold after a recent sell-off
  • The 200-day moving average at roughly $1.40 is the first major resistance
  • A move to $2 would require breaking both the MA and the broader downtrend

The broader crypto market has been under pressure, which makes Portnoy's 30-cent gap feel wider than it looks on paper. Whether XRP clears $1.40 before the August auctions is now, apparently, a horse racing question as much as a crypto one.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Crypto assets are volatile; always do your own research before making investment decisions.