XRP Hits 7-Year High Above $3 as Large Holders Accumulate $3.8B of Tokens

$XRP, the native token of the $XRP Ledger network closely related to Ripple, surged to a six-year high on Wednesday as bitcoin ($BTC) rallied to $100,000, with traders encouraged by this morning's highly-anticipated U.S. CPI inflation data report.

The token briefly topped $3 during early U.S. trading session for the first time since early 2018 January, before slightly paring gains. Recently changing hands at $2.95, it was 11% over the past 24 hours, outperforming bitcoin's ($BTC) 3.6% and the broad-market benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index's 6.7% advances during the same period.

$XRP has been among the best-performing tokens, with a 488% gain since Donald Trump's election victory. It has now become the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization behind $BTC and Ethereum's ether (ETH), reclaiming its third ranking from Tether's USDT stablecoin. At $170 billion of market value, the token is now larger than the market capitalization of asset management giant BlackRock (BLK).

The gain was fueled by anticipation of crypto-friendly policies and an overhaul of digital asset regulation in the U.S. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple have been in a legal battle for years over $XRP token sales.

"This surge is driven by a growing number of partnerships, the launch of Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD, and speculation about a potential spot $XRP ETF," Diego Cardenas, OTC trader and at digital asset platform Abra, said in a note shared with CoinDesk. Ripple President Monica Long said in an interview last week that she expects a spot ETF to be approved "very soon" as approvals with the incoming administration will accelerate.

$XRP also broke out of the consolidation pattern started in early December that CoinDesk markets analyst Omkar Godbole noted last week, paving the way for the next leg in the token's rally. Another 15% rise from current prices would mean fresh all-time highs above the 2018 January top of $3.4. Still, adjusting for inflation over the years, $XRP has to surpass $4.24 for a new high, Galaxy head of research Alex Thorn said in an X post.

Large investors' accumulating $XRP tokens over the past two months could also fuel the rally towards new records.

Analytics firm Santiment noted that addresses holding between 1 million and 10 million tokens increased their holdings by 1.4 billion coins — worth roughly $3.8 billion — since November 12, continuing the accumulation while prices consolidated following early December highs.

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