XRP Leads Crypto Rally, Bitcoin Escapes Mt. Gox Concerns

The crypto rally has yet to stall, with Bitcoin (BTC) reaching its highest price in four weeks yesterday.

BTC rose above $65,000 for the first time since late June but fell below $63,000 earlier in the day. The rally left behind concerns that wallets belonging to the defunct Mt. Gox exchange were carrying $2.8 billion worth of BTC and were preparing to distribute the assets to creditors in the coming days.

The rally has spread across the crypto market, with the index gaining around 3% in the past 24 hours, according to the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The strongest performer among the altcoin majors was XRP, the native token of the Ledger payment network, which rose 9 percent yesterday and took its weekly gain to 35 percent.

Crypto data provider Santiment noted that the token rally was powered by whales, who increased their holdings as a sign of belief in higher prices.

Another catalyst was traditional derivatives trading venues CME and CF Benchmarks announcing indices and reference rates for XRP. Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of associated blockchain payments firm Ripple, suggested that these offerings could boost institutional adoption for XRP.

As Germany’s BTC sell-off is left behind, crypto investors are pondering how much of the $9 billion worth of bitcoin that is about to be distributed to creditors will be released to capitalize on the asset’s appreciation after a decade of waiting.

Ki Young Ju, CEO of crypto analytics firm CryptoQuant, argues that fears of selling pressure are “overblown” and will not derail the ongoing crypto rally.

“I believe this distribution will not end the bullish trend, as the tokens are expected to react to market sentiment similar to the current bitcoin supply,” X explains in the post. “Unlike the German government’s sales, Mt. Gox creditors are not forced to sell, so it’s not pure sell-side liquidity.”