TL:DR;
- XRP has gone on a tear in the past month, surging by about 350% and reaching a multi-year peak of nearly $2.5.
- Here are some of the possible reasons behind this mindblowing rally that made Ripple’s token the third-largest earlier today.
Whale Accumulation
It’s safe to say that Ripple’s native cross-border token has stolen the show after the US presidential elections. Despite its sluggish start, XRP went on a roll that pushed its price from about $0.6 to $2.5 earlier today, which became its highest level since January 2018.
Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of the company behind the asset, explained earlier that US-based crypto companies have benefited the most from Trump’s victory due to the Democrats’ hostile stance against the industry. This theory has only been proven right since then, with XRP charting nothing but impressive gains.
Within this past month or so, whales have been particularly active in accumulating the token. Their cumulative stash tapped a 6-year high recently amid reports that they have been buying from retail investors who rushed to secure profits.
More recent data from Santiment revealed that large XRP wallets holding between 1M and 10M had purchased over 679 million coins in just three weeks. Additionally, non-empty addresses have gone above 5.5 million for the first time ever. Both of these are highly bullish factors for the underlying asset.
XRP has skyrocketed to an astounding $2.49 market value for the first time since January 8, 2018. The 6-year (nearly 7-year) high comes as wallets with 1M-10M XRP have accumulated 679.1M tokens (currently worth $1.66B) in just 3 weeks. Also, total non-empty XRP wallets have… pic.twitter.com/bIsfOqdCQX
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) December 2, 2024
Upcoming Stablecoin Launch
Amid its four-year-long legal tussle against the US SEC, Ripple announced plans earlier this year to launch a stablecoin, which will be pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. This upcoming entrance in the multi-billion dollar stablecoin industry depends on the regulatory landscape in the US, which is expected to change a lot under Trump’s administration.
According to FoxBusiness, the watchdog responsible for approving or rejecting the RLUSD applications – the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), has “indicated to Ripple it will approve the product” soon. In fact, the company is reportedly planning to launch it as early as December 4.
The growing hype around the potential release of the product comes as the second potential reason behind XRP’s surge.
Regulatory Change
The third reason has been mentioned quite a lot since November 5 – the upcoming regulatory changes in the US, but cannot be overstated due to its significance. After all, Ripple and many other crypto companies were in the crosshairs of the SEC and other US watchdogs for years during Biden’s reign.
With Trump making so many pro-crypto promises during his campaign and Gary Gensler already announcing his departure from the agency on January 20, the hype is real when it comes down to a more favorable environment for crypto businesses to thrive in the world’s largest economy.
More than $1.3 billion entered the crypto markets since the elections, and XRP, which many believed was suppressed during Gensler’s time at the SEC, is finally breaking out.
