Lately, the price of XRP (Ripple) is rising a lot, and very quickly, but why? What are the main reasons behind this bull growth?
The reasons are complex and not exclusively linked to the current situation, so it is necessary to provide an overview that starts from afar.
The previous bull runs of XRP
The most sensational rise in the price of XRP is not the current one, but the one at the end of 2017/beginning of 2018.
XRP, which was once called Ripple (like the company that created it), debuted on the crypto markets in 2013, in the middle of a bullrun. However, until March 2017, it had not recorded significant rises.
That year, however, during its second major bull run crypto, it recorded impressive numbers.
The year opened at a price lower than a cent of a dollar (<0.01$), and by May it had already risen more than thirty times, reaching 0.3$.
Still in November, however, it was around that figure, but starting from the beginning of December, it took off to reach the all-time high of $3.8 in early January 2018, that is, in less than a month.
Since then, those all-time highs have never been reached again, not even in 2021, and in the following years, the price also fell well below the $0.3 it had in May 2017.
The “blocco” of 2020
At the end of 2020, after dropping below 0.2$, it reached the next major bull run still below 0.3$.
Once the bull run started, in November of the same year, it managed to get back to $0.6, ready to take off again.
At that point, however, the cold shower arrived: the SEC sued Ripple, accusing it of having sold XRP illegally as an unregistered security.
The price of XRP, completely against the trend compared to the rest of the crypto market, quickly returned below $0.3, and during the rest of the bullrun it was not able to exceed $2.
In fact, during the bear-market of 2022, it returned to $0.3, which is the same amount it had before the bullrun, and even in May 2017 before the start of the great bubble of January 2018.
That cause acted as a sort of “block” that did not allow the price of XRP to reach new highs during the last big bullrun.
The removal of the block
Already last year, however, Ripple lost that case that directly concerned XRP, even though another one that directly concerned the company remained ongoing.
It is important to keep in mind that Ripple still holds about 43% of all XRP tokens existing in the world, and occasionally sells some to self-finance.
This meant that the removal of that block was not considered definitive.
The turning point occurred this year with the victory of Donald Trump in the USA presidential elections.
In fact, the SEC of the Biden administration is a democratically-led agency, represented by the current chairman Gary Gensler.
Gensler’s SEC has tried in many ways to stop or hinder criptovalute, although it generally has not succeeded.
After Trump’s victory, it was logical to expect a change of guard at the presidency of the SEC, and this was confirmed by Gensler himself, who explicitly promised to resign when Trump takes office on January 20.
This has definitely removed any block that for four years prevented XRP from taking off again.
The new takeoff: why is XRP rising these days?
In light of all this, it’s no surprise that the recent takeoff of XRP’s price has been so extensive and so fast.
In the span of a month, it went from $0.5 to over $2.4, although in the last few hours it has dropped to $2.3.
This is an increase of 360% in thirty days, which is significantly lower in percentage compared to the +1,500% recorded between the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018 in about forty days.
Therefore, while on one hand a +360% in thirty days can surprise many, on the other hand it doesn’t surprise too much those who have been following XRP since 2017.
Note that the annual high of 2021 (1.6$) was surpassed last week, and although there is nothing preventing further increases from being imagined, the 3.8$ of January 2018 still seems distant.
In fact, after a +360% due to the so-called “Trump trade,” now that the Trump trade seems to have run its course, there would be nothing strange if it corrected a bit.
XRP beats BNB, Solana, and USDT: why is it rising so much?
Thanks to this powerful rise, the market capitalization of XRP has climbed above 134 billion dollars.
This allowed it to first surpass BNB, which is just above 90 billion, but also Solana (105 billion) and USDT (134 billion).
However, it is not at all certain that these are definitive positions, because in the event of a price correction of XRP, it could easily fall back behind USDT, and perhaps even behind Solana, if it starts to rise again.
During the bull runs, these movements can also be violent and sudden, but it is not certain that they lead to lasting changes. Generally, it is during the bear markets that these positions consolidate.
The forecasts on the price of XRP
On one hand, the growth of the last 30 days in the price of XRP seems evidently parabolic.
Despite having its own precise and solid logic, such a parabolic growth could be followed at any moment by a correction, especially if the bullrun of Bitcoin were to restart.
It should not be forgotten that while XRP went from $1.2 to $2.4, the price of Bitcoin was correcting after reaching new all-time highs well over $99,000.
If Bitcoin were to significantly exceed $100,000, it could drain capital from XRP, which at that point might temporarily correct.
However, on the other hand, it is not at all certain that, even in this case, the bullrun of XRP may be over.
Indeed, according to several analysts, it could also mark further price rises, not necessarily in the short term, aiming straight for the highs of 2018 or perhaps even beyond.
Nevertheless, it is not at all certain that it will succeed, so although the trend still seems decidedly positive, at this moment no one knows where the price of XRP will end up in the coming weeks or months.
