XRP price rose early Monday amid a mixed start to the week for cryptocurrencies. XRP, XRPUSD +1.43% the token, which is used to facilitate and settle transactions on Ripple Labs’ digital-payments platform, is up 1.9% to $2.39 over the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. It rose about 15% last week.
XRP has surged since Nov. 5 on hopes that the incoming Trump administration will further boost crypto prices. Before Donald Trump won a second term in the White House, XRP was trading around 50-60 cents.
The popular altcoin is one of the cryptocurrencies that has gained the most since Trump’s election win. It hit a record high of $2.89 in early December.
The next big catalyst for XRP and other cryptos could be Donald Trump’s first days in office, starting on Jan. 20. Crypto investors will watch for whether Trump moves to deliver on his promises on crypto, such as taking steps to create a national reserve of Bitcoin.
Trump’s nomination of Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission is in part a factor for XRP’s big gains.
Ripple has found itself in a lengthy legal battle with the SEC under current head Gary Gensler, as the agency charged the company with selling an unregistered security in 2020. In August, a court ordered Ripple to pay $125 million for violating investor-protection laws, less than the $2 billion sought by the SEC. Following the order, Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse wrote on X that “SEC’s headwinds against the whole of the XRP community are gone.”
