decrypt.co
XRP is up 15% in the last 24 hours, reaching a price not held since 2018 as trading volumes and meme coin prices on the XRP Ledger both surge higher.
The Ripple-linked XRP has significantly outperformed other major crypto assets in the last week, gaining by 28% in that time and rising to the third overall cryptocurrency ranked by market cap. It rose as high as $2.99, a seven-year high for the coin, though it has since dipped to $2.95.
The move comes amid rising optimism about the approval of XRP ETFs, which could collectively pull in “billions” of dollars in investment according to analysts.
Meme coins on the XRP Ledger have gained even more, led by ARMY, which has surged to a new all-time high market cap of $107 million on a nearly 30% gain in the last 24 hours. The token references the “XRP Army,” a nod to enthusiastic supporters of the XRP token.
Two other meme coins—PHNIX and LIHUA—have garnered nearly $1 million in secondary trading volumes during the last 24 hours as they climbed to $45.6 million and $35.4 million market caps, respectively.
The meme coin moves on the XRP Ledger extends a trend that exploded in early December when the network broke records for account activations and transactions.
After that initial surge though, most meme coins fully retraced their gains. For example, leader ARMY fell from a $100 million market cap on December 1 to $20 million just days later.
Meme coins have picked up again though as XRP has charged higher, with the coin peaking just 12% off its all-time high price of $3.40 according to CoinGecko.
The XRP Ledger became cheaper to use in early December around the time of the first meme coin spike, when validators agreed to reduce the reserve price—or the price required to maintain an account on the ledger—by 90%.
Meme coins, or tokens typically tied to popular culture and internet memes, have erupted this year across blockchains, fueled in part by the creation of token launchpads like Pump.fun. They tend to be highly volatile, however, and are just as likely to collapse as they are to deliver skyrocketing gains.
Edited by Andrew Hayward