3 Reasons XRP Could Be One of the Most Overlooked Opportunities in Today's Crypto Market

XRP continues to defy market expectations in 2025, maintaining its upward trajectory despite broader volatility in altcoins.

output: NOIDA (CoinChapter.com) – Despite broader volatility in altcoins, XRP has defied market expectations in 2025. The token started the year just above $2 and surged 70% to a local peak of $3.4 in January. As of May 2, it trades at $2.21.

This marks a 10.5% year-to-date gain, keeping pace with its large-cap peers and highlighting XRP’s resilience in a year of mixed fortunes for altcoins. Its current range, though slightly below the recent high, showcases sustained accumulation rather than exhaustion—a rare dynamic in a market often driven by leverage-driven speculation.

While Bitcoin’s gains have captured headlines, XRP’s advance appears more structurally sound. Technical signals indicate healthy buying in the spot market, supported by favorable liquidity flows and a steady expansion in use-case discussions for Ripple’s ecosystem.

The token’s legal clarity and Ripple’s expanding partnerships have shaped a favorable macro environment. And as institutional sentiment stabilizes and strategic narratives around digital payments evolve, XRP is increasingly seen as more than just a remittance token.

Here are three reasons why XRP could be one of the most overlooked opportunities in today’s crypto market.

SPOT PREMIUM SURGE SEPARATES SIGNAL FROM SPECULATIVE NOISE

The latest rally in XRP appears to be underpinned by real demand rather than speculative excess. On May 2, crypto analyst Dom highlighted a technical indicator: the spot premium.

This metric measures the price difference between an asset’s spot market rate—what buyers pay for the token—and its perpetual futures contracts, which traders use for leveraged exposure. A positive premium signifies that the spot price is higher than the futures price.

This occurs when traders prefer buying the asset outright for long-term exposure over opening leveraged positions, which accrue funding rates and are typically favored for short-term trades.

As of May 1, the Ripple token’s spot premium stood at +$0.01—the highest level ever recorded. In previous cycles, major peaks in XRP in 2021 and 2023 occurred during negative premiums, where perp prices led the market and reversed sharply.

But the current setup shows the opposite trend, suggesting an underlying strength that's not captured by leveraged outflows.

The crypto began May’s first week at $2.16, having pulled back 35% from January’s peak of $2.42. Its recent surge from lows reached 250% from 2023's last quarter, and the rally has sparked rumors of a potential Circle acquisition by Ripple.

Those rumors were swirling on social media in early May, with some reports speculating that the deal could value Circle at an astronomical $20 billion. Such a price tag would dwarf Circle’s own IPO valuation, which was set at $4.8 billion in March 2023.

However, Dom Kwok, co-founder of EasyA, and other crypto analysts quickly dispelled the rumors, pointing out that Circle’s IPO valuation is still a fraction of the $60 billion in collateral backing its stablecoins.

In a market easily driven by hype cycles, the stark contrast between on-chain strength and the narrative surrounding a potential acquisition showcases the importance of separating verifiable fundamentals from speculative chatter.

WHALE ACCUMULATION AND FUND INFLOWS SIGNAL INSTITUTIONAL CONFIDENCE

The recent consolidation of XRP price around the $2.20 mark coincides with a sustained uptick in both whale activity and institutional inflows.

This pattern, especially in an age of crypto winter narratives and rapid market shifts, reinforces the view that larger players are positioning for long-term exposure to the token.

Data from Glassnode shows a consistent increase in the number of XRP addresses holding over 10,000 tokens. This wallet class, which is typically associated with strategic investors or institutions due to the significant capital commitment involved, experienced a sharp buildup from late 2024 through April 2025.

The trend in “XRP 10k+ Coins” addresses continued even during the 35% pullback that XRP experienced from January’s peak to the April lows.

As of May 2, crypto asset management firm Coinshares reported that institutional investors pulled a small amount of capital from Bitcoin (BTC) and invested largely in XRP, en-route to registering a fourth straight week of outflows from the flagship cryptocurrency.

According to Coinshares' latest 'Digital Asset Fund Flows' report, Bitcoin witnessed an outflow of $16 million, bringing the total outflows from the world's leading cryptocurrency to $64 million over the past four weeks.

Meanwhile, XRP saw an inflow of $31.6 million, the largest among all cryptocurrencies, bringing the total inflows into the altcoin to $70.7 million month-to-date