XRP Flips Tether Becoming World’s Third Largest Crypto as Prices Soar

XRP, the native token used within Ripple’s payments system, has jumped to the third spot in market capitalization rankings, beating out the incumbent stablecoin issued by Tether.

The asset is up more than 71% on the week to $2.47 and a further 367% over the last 30 days, according to CoinGecko data. The asset previously flipped Solana for the fourth spot late Sunday.

Ripple Labs’ case against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been a primary focus for investors, which has been aided by a decision for its chairman, Gary Gensler, to depart on January 20. 

Derided by the crypto community for what they viewed as a heavy-handed approach to regulation through litigation, Gensler’s departure is providing renewed optimism for a more friendly approach to the industry.

The SEC initiated its lawsuit against Ripple Labs for securities violations in December 2020 under then-Chairman Jay Clayton. Gensler succeeded Clayton as SEC Chairman in April 2021 and continued to pursue the case against Ripple.

While Ripple, the company, uses the XRP token in its payment and settlement products, the token operates independently on its own ledger.

Still, that hasn’t stopped investors from speculating on what they view as a likely end to the agency’s case against Ripple.

Despite the challenges, the prospect of a shift in regulatory leadership has bolstered investor optimism, fueling speculation that XRP could gain traction for financial applications such as spot exchange-traded funds.

XRP is still approximately 27.6% below its all-time high of $3.40, reached in January 2018, but it is now closer to that level than it has been in nearly seven years, Decrypt previously reported.

Other top cryptos, meanwhile, continue to push higher following last week’s profit-taking measures and a dip in the price of the leading digital asset, Bitcoin.

Over the last 24 hours, Cardano (ADA) is up about 10%, while other top cryptos, including Shibu Inu (SHIB) and Stellar (XLM), are up 8% and 13%, respectively.