Ripple's cryptocurrency XRP continues its impressive rise, recently surpassing Tether (USDT) in terms of reported market capitalization and becoming the third-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Cryptocurrency market capitalization exceeds $3.6 trillion, XRP reverses USDT
Alongside BTC, several cryptocurrencies, including Solana (SOL) and Sui (SUI), have shown exceptional performance in the ongoing crypto bull market. XRP in particular has soared an astonishing 424% over the past month, outperforming all other large cryptocurrencies.
The impressive rise of Ripple’s native token coincides with pro-crypto presidential candidate Donald Trump’s victory in the November election. On November 4th, XRP was trading at just $0.50, and now it is at $2.69, a five-fold increase in less than a month.
This dramatic price momentum pushed the crypto asset's market capitalization to $152.2 billion, securing its position as the third largest cryptocurrency. This is not the first time Ripple's flagship digital currency has achieved this milestone.
Ripple's SEC litigation troubles are nearing an end
XRP was one of the top three cryptocurrencies by market capitalization until the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple in December 2020. The complaint alleges that Ripple facilitated the “offering of unregistered digital asset securities.”
This lawsuit created years of uncertainty for Ripple and had a significant impact on the cryptocurrency's price performance from 2020 to mid-2024. However, recent positive developments in the case have renewed investor confidence, prompting XRP's price to rise. Fox Business' Eleanor Terret commented:
oh. Before the lawsuit, $XRP was the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. When the SEC sued Ripple in December 2020, Ripple's price fell from about $0.50 to $0.17, losing over $15 billion in market value. Prices recovered, but remained in seventh place for the next four years.
Cryptocurrencies have also been given a boost by renewed optimism about US crypto regulation since Donald Trump won the November election. It has surged 133% in the past two weeks, indicating that the digital asset may have more room to grow before stalling.
Additionally, recent data from Google Trends shows that search results for digital assets outranked the word “crypto” at least three times in November. Notably, Ripple token surpassed ETH in Google searches earlier this month. However, it has not yet overtaken Bitcoin in this metric.
Source: Google Trends
Ripple's blockchain assets could benefit from several upcoming developments. Ripple Labs, for example, is on track to gain regulatory approval in New York for its dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD.
That said, some analysts are concerned that the digital asset's rally could be overextended and are recommending a cautious approach, suggesting that investors wait for a price correction before buying. XRP is trading at $2.69 at the time of writing, up 40.5% in the past 24 hours.
XRP trades at $2.69 on daily chart | Source: XRPSDT on TradingView.com
Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from Google Trends and TradingView.com
