thecryptobasic.com
$XRP price has the potential to reach a two-digit figure if $XRP recaptures the percentage of Bitcoin market cap it held in 2018 before the SEC lawsuit.
Amid a broader market pullback from the Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance on the economy, $XRP has suffered a huge blow. The altcoin’s price collapsed from a top of $2.72 on Dec. 17 to a floor of $1.96 on Dec. 20, marking a massive 28% decline within four days.
$XRP recovered from the $1.96 low as a result of the robust support at this level, a region that previously acted as resistance. Despite the rebound, $XRP price is still 25% down from the $2.72 peak, currently hovering around $2.16 at press time.
$XRP Price Underperforms While Bitcoin Thrives
At this price, $XRP’s market cap stands at $132 billion, according to data from TradingView. It bears mentioning that $XRP hit an all-time high market valuation of $165 billion on Dec. 3, when its price soared to the seven-year high of $2.9. Before now, the peak valuation stood at $128.5 billion in January 2018.
However, despite this cycle’s valuation being greater than the 2017/2018 valuation, it captures a much lower chunk of Bitcoin’s market cap. For context, in January 2018, when $XRP’s market cap hit $128.5 billion, Bitcoin had a valuation of $260.05 billion. This indicates that $XRP captured 49.4% of $BTC’s market cap at the time.
This ratio continued to decline considerably as $XRP price faced turbulence over the years, while Bitcoin thrived. Further, the SEC lawsuit, which began in December 2020, exacerbated $XRP’s underperformance, resulting in the asset missing out on the 2020/2021 bull run.
Amid this sustained underperformance, the ratio of $XRP’s market cap to Bitcoin’s valuation has plummeted considerably. For instance, at the start of this year, on Jan. 1, $XRP only had 3.9% of Bitcoin’s market cap. Notably, at the time, $XRP’s valuation stood at $33 billion, while Bitcoin had a market cap of $838 billion.
What if $XRP Reclaimed Ratio of $BTC Market Cap?
Interestingly, following the November rally, $XRP’s market cap has skyrocketed to new heights. Now, with a market valuation of $132 billion, $XRP captures about 6.8% of Bitcoin’s market cap, which now sits at $1.93 trillion. This is still way below the 49.4% ratio from 2018.
Nonetheless, market experts believe $XRP price will only surge further from here, especially after the ongoing correction ends. If $XRP reclaimed the 49.4% Bitcoin market cap ratio, the implications would be massive for prices.
For context, 49.4% of the current Bitcoin valuation is $953 billion. Should $XRP reach a market cap of $953 billion, its price would skyrocket to $16.6, considering the circulating supply of 57.25 billion tokens.
Such a price would mark a 621% increase from the current $XRP price. Interestingly, market expert EGRAG had previously projected this price target for $XRP. In October, EGRAG leveraged a Linear Regression principle to set three $XRP price targets, including $16.