On Friday, November 29th, during the uptick in the cryptocurrency market, Ripple’s native cryptocurrency, XRP, for the first time, became one of the top five cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization, riding on the bullish industry sentiment.
XRP’s market cap reached $97 billion at that time. It leapfrogged Binance’s BNB Coin, which had a market cap of $95 billion. Meanwhile, the total digital asset market was also rallying, with its total market capitalization climbing to a record high of $3.5 trillion.
There were several factors that pushed XRP’s price closer to its all-time high. Firstly, there was the general optimism in the overall market. Secondly, Ripple’s business expansion played a part. And thirdly, there were regulatory tailwinds. In the past 24 hours, XRP gained 15.8%, and in the last 30 days, it soared by 226%. By the time of publication, it was trading at $1.70. It’s worth noting that XRP had peaked at $3.40 in January 2018.
In terms of regulatory developments, institutions like Bitwise, Canary Funds, Grayscale, and WisdomTree took the lead in promoting a spot XRP exchange-traded fund amid the personnel changes at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Previously, Gary Gensler, the chair of the SEC who was skeptical about cryptocurrencies, announced his resignation effective January 20th after Donald Trump won the presidential election. Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner and a pro-crypto regulator, became a top candidate to replace him.
Moreover, Ripple has also made its mark among the new entrants in the stablecoin market. The digital payment firm issued its RLUSD on its XRP Ledger and Ethereum (ETH), which is the largest decentralized finance ecosystem in terms of user deposits.
Furthermore, Ripple’s victories in court battles against the SEC and the forthcoming crypto-friendly U.S. legislation have strengthened its position as a digital asset powerhouse. The Southern District Court of New York ruled against the SEC’s claim that XRP retail sales violated securities laws. However, the judge approved a $250 million fine related to institutional XRP sales.
It should be noted that the SEC may file an appeal, and incoming SEC top officials like Atkins may implement a different approach to regulatory work.
There has been a lot of unsolicited advice online about who should (or shouldn’t) be the next SEC chair. Stuart Alderoty said that he believed the transition team would make the right decision with the key factors for cryptocurrencies in mind, such as ending all non-fraud cryptocurrency litigation on the first day and getting commitments from commissioners.
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