At just under $3, XRP is suddenly the industry’s third-largest cryptocurrency.
Along the way, the token unseated the $159 billion stablecoin heavyweight Tether after an eye-watering 30% rally this week.
XRP, which powers Ripple’s various cross-border payment solutions, has enjoyed a series of tailwinds over the last few weeks.
The biggest of which was a surging crypto market that’s sent total capitalisation soaring toward $3.9 trillion after adding $444 billion this past week alone.
“XRP enjoys significant retail awareness, interest, and easy-accessibility given its availability across most trading platforms,” Carlos Guzman, an analyst with market maker GSR, told DL News.
“XRP tends to perform quite well when crypto as a whole rallies, as we’re seeing now and as we saw towards the end of last year.”
Key developments
In the span of two weeks, Bitcoin broke consecutive record highs in quick succession as institutional investors poured billions into spot exchange-traded funds.
Likewise, Ether, a laggard among top cryptocurrencies, finally reclaimed $3,000 on July 11, a price not seen since February.
Still, there are key developments within the XRP ecosystem helping to drive the token’s recent standout performance.