Massive XRP Week: Near Record Price, ETF and SEC Optimism Against Ripple

Excitement over Ripple and XRP has grown since Donald Trump became president-elect in November, signaling a potentially crypto-asset-friendly administration.

That excitement crescendoed last week as XRP came within pennies of breaking its 2018 all-time high price mark, pushing Ripple’s reserve of the asset to a staggering sum amid other notable events around the crypto company .

Here’s what you need to know after a crazy week for Ripple and XRP.

XRP nears all-time high

XRP was trading around $0.50 in the days leading up to the US elections in November. Since then, the token has risen over 500% to a current price of $3.15, while becoming the third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, overtaking stablecoin Tether.

Thanks to this strong rally, the token almost reached a new all-time high, peaking at $3.38 on January 16, just $0.02 shy of its all-time high of $3.40 set in 2018, according to the data from CoinGecko.

Up more than 25% for the week at the time of writing, XRP has significantly outperformed its major crypto peers like Bitcoin and Ethereum, although Solana is now posting much larger weekly gains thanks to momentum around the launch Official Trump Coin.

ETF Optimism Grows

Part of the demand for XRP can be attributed to growing optimism about the approval of an XRP ETF. Last week, a report from JP Morgan researchers indicated that if approved, an XRP ETF could hope to return billions of dollars to investors.

This report builds on recent comments from Ripple Labs President Monica Long, who suggested that she believed an XRP ETF would be approved “very soon.”

Ripple holdings soar

The significant price appreciation of XRP has significantly strengthened Ripple’s holdings, increasing by approximately $115 billion since Election Day at the current price.

Based on its most recent financial information, the company holds approximately 4.44 billion XRP and controls an additional 39 billion XRP in custody, a collective amount now worth $136 billion at the token’s current price. At the time of the election, that sum was worth about $21 billion.

During the election, Ripple and other notable crypto companies like Coinbase helped launch a $300 million super PAC in an effort to improve the regulatory environment for crypto in the United States. So far, this gamble seems to have largely paid off.

Increase in coins

After a brief spike in early December, coin activity on the XRP Ledger had remained largely quiet until activity skyrocketed last week.

The activity was led by ARMY, a coin based on the enthusiastic supporters of the Ripple-related asset, which reached a new all-time high around a market cap of $107 million. Although the token has since returned to a market capitalization of around $67 million, it remains ahead of other XRP coins in terms of trading volume, which has increased from the December rush.

Thanks in part to meme coin trading activity, the XRP Ledger recorded its highest level of active accounts since December 6, surpassing 63,000 on January 16 according to data from XRP Scan.

The SEC does not give up

Even though a more favorable regulatory environment may be imminent, the current SEC administration is not backing down in its long battle with Ripple.

This week, Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s chief legal officer, noted that despite asking the SEC to delay its opening brief in an appeal against a ruling favorable to Ripple, the enforcement agency refused. On Wednesday, the SEC filed a brief asking the court for a reclassification of the security status of XRP.

“What a waste of time and taxpayer money,” he wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Despite the frustration, Adelroty remains confident in Ripple’s position, indicating that he looks forward to working with new SEC leadership to resolve the issue.

Edited by Andrew Hayward