XRP’s Wild Ride: From Lawsuit to ETF Craze!

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According to the ever-reliable folks at CoinGecko, XRP has decided to moonwalk its way to a jaw-dropping 511% yearly gain. And if that wasn’t enough to make your head spin, Messari reports that in Q4 2024 alone, XRP’s market cap ballooned by a casual 246%. 🚀

XRP’s bull run kicked off last November, fueled by whispers of a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment. For years, XRP had been stuck in the doldrums, thanks to the Ripple-SEC lawsuit that started in 2020. But in 2023, Ripple emerged victorious, and last August, they were slapped with a $125 million fine for institutional sales—effectively closing the chapter on the legal drama. 🎭

On-chain data suggests that both retail investors and whales have been piling into XRP like it’s the last slice of pizza at a party. Messari notes that in Q4 2024, new addresses skyrocketed by 382% to 507,000, signaling a flood of new users. 🐳

The buzz around an XRP ETF has also been a major catalyst. Ripple Labs president Monica Long hinted that an XRP ETF might soon be a reality. Grayscale Investments has already thrown its hat in the ring, applying to convert its XRP Trust into an ETF for listing on the New York Stock Exchange. 🏦

But Grayscale isn’t alone in this ETF frenzy. Purpose Investments, a Canadian asset management firm, has filed a preliminary prospectus for an XRP spot ETF. Wisdom Tree, Bitwise, Canary, and 21Shares have also joined the party, submitting their applications in late 2024. And let’s not forget Ripple’s USD-pegged stablecoin, RLUSD, which launched in December, marking another milestone in Ripple’s journey. 🎉

Thanks to this surge, XRP has leapfrogged Tether (USDT) to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, trailing only Bitcoin and Ethereum. At the time of writing, XRP was down a modest 1.28% in the last 24 hours, trading at $3.09 with a market cap of $178.15 billion. 📉

Back in 2018, XRP had a similar meteoric rise, briefly surpassing Ethereum in market cap when both were worth around $22 billion. Could history repeat itself? 🤔

Only time will tell, but XRP certainly has room to grow. Ethereum’s market cap is currently $404 billion—more than double that of XRP. As for price predictions, all eyes are on XRP breaking past its recent high of $3.4 and potentially reaching $4 or even $5. Meanwhile, the daily SMA 50 at $2.6 has been holding steady as support since November 2024. 📈

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2025-02-01 12:47