XRP Flips Bitcoin on Google Trends as Its Price Reaches $3 for the First Time Since 2018

XRP price and its holders have shown resilience over the past few weeks. The altcoin witnessed minor corrections when majors like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) declined significantly in the charts.

XRP price reached $3 for the first time since 2018 on Jan. 16, continuing the altcoin’s strong performance to start 2025.

The XRP 1-month chart showed a nearly parabolic ascent from the lower-$2 range to hit a high of $3.05 on Monday. At the time of writing, XRP trades at $2.98, up 11% in the last 24 hours and 41% over the past 15 days.

XRP 1-month price chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

XRP is now just 12.9% away from its previous all-time high of $3.40. The broader markets now largely expect a period of price discovery for the altcoin over the next several weeks following this key resistance level.

XRP flips Bitcoin on Google Trends

XRP holders have highlighted the altcoin’s resilience in several metrics throughout 2025. One key data point showed that XRP flipped BTC on Google Trends on Jan. 15.

Over the past year, XRP has led BTC in terms of search volumes on Google twice, with the altcoin last leading the apex cryptocurrency on Cointelegraph’s Google Trends analysis in late November 2024.

Worldwide Google searches for XRP and BTC. Source: Google Trends

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the XRP/BTC chart breached an 8-year descending resistance line on a logarithmic scale, suggesting that the altcoin continues to gain strength against Bitcoin.

The total number of XRP holders also increased by 58,000 in 2025, indicating a strong hodling mentality among the so-called “XRP army.”

XRP rally driven by spot investors - analyst

In 2024, futures open interest (OI) in major assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum reached new all-time highs, highlighting the importance of derivatives markets during bull runs. However, XRP’s recent rally appears to be driven largely by spot investors.

XRP/USD 1-hour chart. Source: X / DOM

As shown in the chart, Dom, an order flow analyst, said that XRP’s $3 retest was driven entirely by demand from spot traders.

The analyst noted that XRP’s funding rate and spot buy premiums have not increased significantly during the period of XRP’s 15% weekly returns. According to Dom, this suggests that futures traders are not垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒垒