$XRP
Ripple’s XRP hits 6-year highs: Could it challenge Ethereum’s no. 2 spot? Analysis and predictions
XRP’s price is on fire, surging 350% in 2024 — what’s fueling this rally, and could it be setting the stage to surpass Ethereum?
XRP (Ripple)
has been riding a massive bullish wave, with the price of XRP surging to an incredible 6-year high of $2.71 on Dec. 2, up from just $0.61 at the start of the year, reflecting nearly 350% gains for early 2024 investors.
This bullish momentum has led XRP to dethrone Tether
as the third-largest crypto by market cap, with XRP currently sitting at a market cap of $154 billion compared to Tether’s $134 billion.
Even with a slight retrace to $2.68 as of this writing, XRP has posted a remarkable 90% gain in just the past week, making it the second best-performing crypto among the top 100 coins by market cap.
Ripple’s recent rally aligns with the election of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the U.S., the resignation of Gary Gensler as SEC chair, and a growing sense of optimism in the crypto community.
Gensler’s departure marked the end of a regulatory era that many in the industry felt was overly combative, and Ripple, which has been embroiled in a long-standing legal battle with the SEC, seems to be emerging as a major beneficiary of this shifting dynamic.
But that’s not all. According to data from CoinGlass, XRP experienced $85.5 million in future contract liquidations in the past 24 hours, outpacing even Bitcoin’s nearly $73 million. Interestingly, about $55 million of these liquidations were shorts — bets that XRP’s price would fall.
Ripple’s XRP hits highs: Could it challenge Ethereum’s no. 2 spot? Analysis and predictions - 1
Liquidations occur when traders betting on price movements (either up or down) can no longer maintain their positions due to market shifts, and the fact that so many short positions were wiped out indicates a strong bullish sentiment as prices rose dramatically, forcing these traders to exit