XRP surges 370% post-Trump victory: What’s driving the rise?

XRP has jumped an astonishing 370% since Donald Trump’s U.S. election win, far outpacing other major cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin rose just 46% during the same period, while XRP overtook Solana to become the third-largest cryptocurrency, behind only Bitcoin and Ethereum.

XRP was created in 2012 as the token for the XRP Ledger, which powers Ripple’s international payment systems. Even though Ripple focuses on global payments, most of its business 95% happens outside the U.S. Ripple owns a big chunk of XRP, which has raised concerns with regulators over the years.

Ripple has been in a long legal fight with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). Last year, a judge ruled that XRP isn’t a security when sold to regular investors but is an unregistered security when sold to big institutions.

Recently, XRP has been gaining momentum thanks to several positive developments. Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex, noted, “XRP has gone up close to 300% in just a month, driven by growing interest in banking tokens. The recent approval of Ripple’s stablecoin - RLUSD provided another boost to XRP’s price, taking it over the $2 mark.” He added that a pro-crypto SEC chair is also expected to bring a friendlier stance to cases like Ripple’s, further boosting market sentiment.

This week, XRP reached a market capitalization of $140 billion, outshining global companies like Sony ($128.6 billion), Nike ($115.57 billion), Starbucks ($112.6 billion), Spotify ($97.51 billion), PayPal ($90.23 billion), Dell ($86.75 billion), and Ferrari ($80.92 billion). The rally follows Ripple’s regulatory approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for its RLUSD stablecoin. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse celebrated the milestone on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “We have final approval from @NYDFS for $RLUSD! Exchange and partner listings will be live soon – and reminder: when RLUSD is live, you’ll hear it from @Ripple first.”