XRP overtakes the USDT stablecoin in terms of market capitalization at the moment

What’s new? Within a day, the price of the XRP token from fintech company Ripple jumped by 31% and momentarily reached $2,48, the highest since January 2018. As a result, XRP’s capitalization climbed above $141,2 billion, allowing the asset to take third place in the overall cryptocurrency ranking after bitcoin and Ethereum, displacing the USDT stablecoin from issuer Tether. At the time of writing, XRP had corrected to $2,28 and dropped to fourth place.

Data from the CoinGecko aggregator

What else is known? Last week, XRP was in fifth place of the ranking, but during the rally, it displaced from fourth place the native token of the Solana (SOL) blockchain, whose capitalization is $106,8 billion. In addition, XRP overtook the GMCI 30 index based on the top 30 cryptocurrencies, which rose only 0,54% over the day but added 62,52% over the month on the back of Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.

After the correction, the capitalization of XRP fell to $130 billion, and USDT is $133,955 billion.

XRP, like many other cryptocurrencies, began to rise sharply after Trump’s victory. The growth intensified in late November when the resignation was announced by the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Gary Gensler, criticized by the crypto community and lawmakers for his policies on digital assets.

Under his leadership, the SEC refused to develop a regulatory framework for the industry and began regulating it through lawsuits against crypto firms based on violations of securities laws from the early part of the last century.

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The SEC has been litigating with Ripple over the status of XRP since 2020, arguing that the initial sale of the asset is an unregistered offering of securities. The court saw only institutional sales as a violation and reduced the company’s fine by 94%.

The commission expects to appeal the court’s decision, but its strategy may change after the change in chairman. Gensler will leave his post after Trump’s inauguration in January.

Investor optimism about the imminent launch of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on XRP could also contribute to the growth of the XRP exchange rate. After the approval of spot ETFs based on BTC and ETH, the creation of similar products based on major altcoins seems more feasible. Applications to the SEC to launch spot XRP ETFs have already been filed by Bitwise and Canary Capital, as well as 21Shares.

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Also, news about Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin could have stimulated the price growth. On November 29, Fox News journalists, citing sources, reported that the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) is close to approving the asset and its issuance could begin as early as December 4.

RLUSD or Real US Dollar will be featured on the Ethereum network as well as Ripple’s own blockchain called XRP Ledger (XRPL). In preparation for the launch, Ripple bought the NYDFS-regulated institutional digital asset storage platform Standard Custody.