XRP Pumps More Than 45% in a Week to a 7-Year High as Crypto Whales Pile In

Remittance token XRP pumped more than 45% in the past week to a 7-year high as crypto whales piled in following wild speculation yesterday that Donald Trump might add the Ripple token, Solana, and USDC to his proposed strategic crypto reserve.

XRP broke above the $3 mark earlier this week for the first time since 2018. It continued to rise in the last 24 hours, posting a more than 6% gain to trade at $3.33 as of 2:14 a.m. EST.

The crypto has also become the third largest digital asset in terms of market cap after overtaking stablecoin Tether (USDT) with a valuation of around $137.36 billion.

A spike in the XRP price yesterday was triggered by a New York Post report, widely dismissed by analysts, that said Trump is receptive to the idea of including the Ripple token, Solana and USDC in a US strategic crypto reserve.

This is a ridiculous idea and will never happen. https://t.co/61E1QFKyg8

— Quinn Thompson (@qthomp) January 16, 2025

Trump has pledged the creation of a ”strategic Bitcoin reserve,” while Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve bill that proposes buying up to 200,000 Bitcoin every year to build a reserve of 1 million BTC.

The crypto market has also been buoyed by news that Trump is expected to sign an executive order to make digital assets a US national priority on his first day in office. 

On-chain intelligence platform Santiment said in a Jan. 14 X post that wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP entered an “enormous accumulation” phase for the crypto in the middle of November last year, which continued over the past few days. These wallets now hold over 37% more XRP coins than they did just 2 months ago, the firm added.

?? XRP investors are pleased to see the #3 market cap asset reach $2.69 today for the first time since December 17, 2024. This is being supported by continued enormous accumulation from wallets holding 1M-10M XRP, who own over 37% more coins than they did 2 months ago… pic.twitter.com/G3a3N5iSAS

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) January 14, 2025

There has also been a spike in XRP transactions worth more than $100K, Santiment said in a Jan. 16 X post. In the last 24 hours, there were 2,365 of these large transactions executed within an 8-hour window. According to the firm, this is the highest spike in $100K+ transactions in 6 weeks.

There has also been a surge in the number of XRP holders. On-chain data shared by Santiment shows that there are over 511,430 additional “non-empty” XRP wallets compared to 2 months ago.