XRP Surges to a Six-Year High as Bitcoin Rallies to $100000

XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger network closely related to Ripple, surged to a six-year high on Wednesday as bitcoin BTCUSD rallied to $100000

The native token of the XRP Ledger network, XRP, hit a six-year high on Wednesday as bitcoin (BTC) price action and anticipation of U.S. inflation data had traders reaching for the cryptocurrency.

XRP price topped $3 for the first time since early 2018 during the U.S. trading session and was last changing hands at $2.95, up 11% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin rose 3.6% and the CoinDesk 20 Index gained 6.7% during the same time period.

The token has now risen by 488% since Donald Trump's election victory and has become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization behind BTC and Ethereum's ether (ETH), after briefly losing the ranking to the Tether (USDT) stablecoin last year. At $170 billion, the token is now larger than the market capitalization of asset management giant BlackRock (BBLK).

Anticipation of crypto-friendly policies and an overhaul of digital asset regulation in the U.S. has XRP investors optimistic. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple have been in a legal battle for years over XRP token sales.

"This surge is driven by a growing number of partnerships, the launch of Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD, and speculation about a potential spot XRP ETF," Diego Cardenas, OTC trader and at digital asset platform Abra, told CoinDesk in a note.

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 incoming administration will accelerate.

XRP also broke out of the consolidation pattern started in early December that CoinDesk markets analyst Omkar Godbole noted last week, paving the way for the next leg in the token's rally. Another 15% rise from current prices would mean fresh all-time highs above the 2018 January top of $3.4.

Still, adjusting for inflation over the years, XRP has to surpass $4.24 for a new high, Galaxy head of research Alex Thorn said in an X post.

Large investors have been accumulating XRP tokens over the past two months.

According to data from analytics firm Santiment, addresses holding between 1 million and 10 million tokens increased their holdings by 1.4 billion coins – worth roughly $3.8 billion – since November 12, continuing the accumulation while prices consolidated following early December highs.