- XRP has “outrun” Solana (SOL) and Tether (USDT) to become the third largest crypto, following a 379% surge on its monthly price chart.
- An analyst has linked this massive run to SEC’s Gary Gensler’s step-down notice and the possible approval of the RLUSD.
XRP has surged 30% in the last 24 hours, extending its weekly and monthly gains to 68% and 379%, respectively. This significant move has positioned it as the third-largest crypto by market cap, surpassing Solana (SOL) and Tether (USDT).
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
At press time, XRP’s market cap stood at $140 billion, leading the two closest cryptos by $6 billion and $31 billion, respectively. Additionally, the asset had surpassed its 2021 all-time high price of $1.96, extended its market dominance to 4%, and recorded a whopping surge of 97% in its 24-hour trading volume. Currently, Ethereum (ETH) is the only hindrance between XRP and Bitcoin (BTC) as it “comfortably” sits in the second position with a market cap of $442 billion.
Possible Reasons for This Run
According to the head of research at Presto Research, Peter Chung, this significant move was not just triggered by Bitcoin’s influence but also the reports that the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) is close to approving the first Ripple’s stablecoin (RLUSD). Meanwhile, Fox Business anticipates that the launch could be fixed as early as December 4.
Adding to this, Chung suspects that the recent “step down” announcement by the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, may have boosted Ripple’s chances in the case against the regulator. According to him, the new administration could either settle with the blockchain company or withdraw its lawsuit.
Gensler stepping down is also a plus, as this means that the SEC, under a new leadership, is likely to settle or withdraw many of the SEC’s outstanding lawsuits, including the appeal against Ripple. It’s difficult to judge how long the rally will last. If the XRP community can leverage the RLUSD to nurture the ecosystem on XRP Ledger and create values, it could. Ripple will certainly be in a better position to do so without the distraction from the SEC lawsuit.
Analysts Speak on XRP’s Price
On December 1, a CryptoQuant analyst, Maarten Regterschot, “sounded a note of caution” that XRP could be “enjoying” a “leveraged driven pump.” As we analyzed, this analyst pointed out that XRP could be in line for a 17% pullback as its Open Interest (OI) surged by 37%.
Fascinatingly, an analyst identified as Vincent has predicted that XRP could rise as high as $10,000 at some point. In his thesis, Vincent admitted to having consulted ChatGPT, where the market cap argument was invalidated. According to him, the AI bot highlighted that monetary market cap is an invalid metric for price analysis.
In a more realistic prediction, analyst Mikybull Crypto believes that XRP could double its price in this cycle. According to him, the asset is imitating the 2017 bull cycle, in which it rallied more than 61,000%. Earlier, he predicted that XRP would hit $2 and proceed to reach $10. For analyst Dark Defender, the asset could easily hit $18 based on the Elliott Wave theory analysis. As we recently reported, a Binance analyst also expects the price to hit $5 soon.
