XRP Hits Six-Year High Amid Bitcoin Surge and Growing ETF Speculation
XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger network associated with Ripple, surged to a six-year high on Wednesday as Bitcoin (BTC) reached $100,000. The rally was further fueled by the release of highly-anticipated U.S. CPI inflation data, with traders responding positively to the economic report.
The token briefly surpassed $3 during the early U.S. trading session, marking its highest level since January 2018, before slightly paring gains. XRP was last trading at $2.95, up 11% over the past 24 hours. This performance outpaced Bitcoin’s 3.6% increase and the broader CoinDesk 20 Index’s 6.7% advance during the same period.
XRP has been one of the top-performing digital assets, recording an impressive 488% gain since Donald Trump’s election victory. It has now reclaimed its position as the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, surpassing Tether (USDT), and is currently valued at $170 billion, larger than BlackRock’s (BLK) market cap.
This surge is being driven by growing optimism surrounding potential crypto-friendly policies and regulatory changes in the U.S. XRP has been at the center of a long-standing legal battle between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple over token sales. Analysts point to speculation about a potential spot XRP ETF as a major contributor to the rally.
Diego Cardenas, an OTC trader at digital asset platform Abra, highlighted that the surge is being fueled by factors such as Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD launch, increasing partnerships, and growing anticipation for an XRP spot ETF approval. Ripple President Monica Long also shared her belief that the approval of a spot ETF could happen “very soon,” particularly with the anticipated acceleration of crypto policy approvals under the incoming administration.
XRP also broke out of a consolidation phase that began in early December, which was observed by CoinDesk’s market analyst Omkar Godbole, setting the stage for the next phase in the token’s rally. A 15% rise from current levels would bring XRP to new all-time highs above the January 2018 peak of $3.4. However, adjusting for inflation, XRP would need to surpass $4.24 to set a new inflation-adjusted record, according to Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy.
Moreover, large investors have been accumulating XRP tokens over the past two months, further propelling the rally. Analytics firm Santiment reported that addresses holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP have increased their holdings by 1.4 billion tokens, worth approximately $3.8 billion, since November 12. This ongoing accumulation suggests strong institutional support and could continue to drive XRP’s price higher in the coming months.
