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Hejsan! Eric here.
Bitcoin’s finally smashed through the $100,000 barrier this week. Now what?
In the words of Samuel L. Jackson, “Hold on to your butts” ‘cause things are about to get wild.
Not only is Bitcoin poised to skyrocket even further — with predictions of it hitting $200,000 in 2025 becoming commonplace — but altcoins are about to rally in a big way.
At least, that’s what analysts are telling us.
“We’re on the brink of a full-blown altseason,” Matthew Mena, head of US crypto research at crypto asset manager 21.co, recently told Pedro Solimano.
The same drivers that fuel the Bitcoin rally — such as the Republican election sweep, central banks cutting interest rates, and growing institutional adoption — have also supercharged smaller digital assets.
Since Donald Trump’s election victory on November 5 triggered the Bitcoin rally, the overall altcoin market has surged over 70% to be worth more than $1.6 trillion.
XRP’s big win
Ripple-linked XRP is the standout performer so far.
It surged almost 42% over the past seven days and overtook Solana as the world’s fourth biggest cryptocurrency with a market value of $130 billion.
Arthur Azizov, CEO of crypto payment provider B2BInPay, told Osato Avan-Nomayo that he expects XRP’s price to double trade trade at between $5 and $7 in the first half of 2025. Other analysts offered similar predictions.
It doesn’t hurt that Gary Gensler, hard-charging chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is cleaning out his desk. He has spearheaded the crackdown of the crypto industry in general, and of Ripple in particular.
With Gensler gone, industry pundits wonder whether the SEC’s case against Ripple may be dropped. It’s been a drag on XRP’s growth story.
Meanwhile, Bitwise Asset Management, Canary Capital, 21Shares, and WisdomTree have submitted filings to the SEC to launch spot XRP exchange-traded funds.
Similar filings have been made to launch Solana ETFs.
Moreover, investors are betting that XRP is ready to accommodate more than Ripple’s cross-border payments applications.
Robert Leshner, a DeFi pioneer, turned heads this week when he told Liam Kelly about his plan to build decentralised apps on the XRP blockchain.
To be sure, things are never certain in cryptoland with black swan events seemingly hiding around every corner.
For now, however, the weather forecasts point to bright skies ahead.
South Korean investors choose XRP over Bitcoin as political crisis deepens
Investors trading on South Korea’s political crisis didn’t flock to Bitcoin and Tether’s USDT to safeguard their wealth, which many do in similar situations. Instead, they turned to XRP.
Trump taps crypto ally Atkins to lead SEC
Trump’s picked Paul Atkins as a new commissioner at the SEC. If confirmed, Atkins will replace Gensler as chair of the regulator, Aleks Gilbert reports.
Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky pleads guilty to defrauding investors at ‘never profitable’ crypto lender
In the latest reckoning from the crash of 2022, Alex Mashinsky, the founder and CEO of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius, pleaded guilty to two fraud charges on Tuesday.
Post of the week
Trump keeps packing pro-crypto advocates into his cabinet. His appointment of former PayPal executive David O. Sacks as the White House AI and Crypto Czar has fuelled hopes in the industry that Trump will deliver on his many promises to strengthen the sector.
I am pleased to announce that David O. Sacks will be the "White House A.I. & Crypto Czar." In this important role, David will guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness. David…
— Trump Posts on 𝕏 (@trump_repost) December 6, 2024
