XRP is now holding at its strongest price since the beginning of March. A monster run over the past couple weeks has pushed it past Tether (USDT) and Solana, helping it retake its status as third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The digital asset’s resurgence comes during a positive time for Ripple, the company most known for XRP.
In just 24 hours, XRP has jumped more than 10% and is now trading above $2.6. This rally increased its market cap to around $152 billion making it a major player. It actually overtook USDT, which hit a peak market cap of $150 billion on Monday. Admittedly, XRP money has seen some remarkable development. Regardless, it now rests nearly 24% under its peak of $3.4, which it reached in January 2018.
The recent rally looks strikingly similar to a rally that started in December. At that time, XRP briefly overtook Tether and Solana on the sentiment wave from the US election results expected outcome and increasing speculation around approval of spot XRP ETFs. In January 2018, ATS allowed for XRP tokens to obtain a market capitalization of over $140 billion.
It is no secret that Ripple has been trying to make substantial inroads into the financial services space. In April, the company agreed to acquire Hidden Road, a multi-asset prime broker, for $1.25 billion, aiming to strengthen its offerings. Just last month, Ripple went on the offensive. In Circle’s case, they bid between $4 billion and $5 billion for Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin.
Ripple and the SEC have brought about much-needed positive momentum by jointly announcing a motion to settle their years-long legal battle. They settle for $50 million—which they announced last Friday. Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road is no small potatoes. Hidden Road intends to move its post-trade operations to the XRP Ledger, deepening its digital asset’s integration into financial infrastructure.
