XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger network closely linked to Ripple, hit a six-year high on Wednesday as bitcoin (BTC) hit $100,000, with traders encouraged by the highly anticipated global inflation report. US CPI this morning.
The token briefly rose above $3 early in the US trading session for the first time since early January 2018, before paring gains slightly. Recently changing hands at $2.95, it was up 11% in the past 24 hours, outperforming bitcoin (BTC)’s 3.6% and market benchmark CoinDesk’s 6.7% advances 20 during the same period.
XRP is one of the best-performing tokens, gaining 488% since Donald Trump’s election victory. It has now become the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization behind BTC and Ethereum’s Ether (ETH), reclaiming its third place ahead of Tether’s stablecoin USDT. With a market value of $170 billion, the token is now larger than the market capitalization of asset management giant BlackRock (BLK).
This gain was fueled by anticipation of crypto-friendly policies and an overhaul of digital asset regulation in the United States. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple have been engaged in a legal battle for years over the sale of XRP tokens.
“This push is driven by a growing number of partnerships, the launch of Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin, and speculation over a potential spot XRP ETF,” said Diego Cardenas, OTC trader and digital asset platform Abra, in a shared note with CoinDesk. Ripple President Monica Long said in an interview last week that she expects a spot ETF to be approved “very soon” as approvals with the new administration accelerate.
XRP also broke away from the consolidation pattern started in early December, noted last week by CoinDesk markets analyst Omkar Godbole, paving the way for the next stage of the token’s rally. Another 15% rise from current prices would mean new all-time highs above the January 2018 peak of $3.4. Still, accounting for inflation over the years, XRP needs to surpass $4.24 to reach a new high, Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, said in an X article.
The accumulation of XRP tokens by large investors over the past two months could also fuel the rally to new record highs.
Analytics firm Santiment noted that addresses holding between 1 and 10 million tokens have increased their holdings by 1.4 billion coins – worth around $3.8 billion – since November 12, continuing the accumulation as prices consolidated from early December highs.
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