Only 17% distance amid whale accumulation and SEC resistance

XRP is the best performing asset in the crypto top 50 by market cap, gaining more than 13% on the day. As a result, the cross-border payment token hit an intraday high of $2.87 during trading in Asia on Wednesday morning.

XRP has been nearing its high since this cycle, which was near a 7-year high and is currently around 17% of its all-time high, after a slight pullback to 2.80 dollars at the time of writing.

Over the past fortnight, XRP has gained around 33%, while the rest of the altcoins have lost ground.

Whales are piling up XRP

On January 15th, Santiment reported that the move was supported by a “huge, continued accumulation of wallets with between 1 and 10 million XRP.”

These whales hold more than 37% more coins than they did two months ago, he added before noting that this equates to roughly $3.8 billion in XRP added since their hoarding began on November 12.

XRP investors are delighted to see the #3 market cap asset hit $2.69 today for the first time since December 17, 2024. This is supported by the continued huge build-up of portfolios containing 1M- 10M XRP, who own over 37% more coins than they do. it was 2 months ago… pic.twitter.com/G3a3N5iSAS

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) January 14, 2025

In a separate post on X on January 15, Santiment said there was greater optimism about the asset’s potential use in banking and finance transactions before adding:

“There are predictions of significant price increases and market cap growth, as well as speculation about possible ETF approvals that could lead to substantial investments in XRP.”

XRP’s market cap is currently $160 billion, ranking it third among all crypto assets, but still far behind Ethereum and Bitcoin.

However, the Securities and Exchange Commission has refused to postpone filing a brief as part of the agency’s appeal of a ruling against the fintech company.

Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, said it was a “waste of taxpayers’ time and dollars” as Gary Gensler’s war on crypto ends with him stepping down next week.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse agreed, adding that Gensler was “very much on brand” and fully committed to his “failed regulation-by-enforcement agenda until the bitter, bitter end.”

Gensler, very much on brand, completely dismissive of the 2024 election and the American public, is fully committed to his failed regulation-by-enforcement agenda until the bitter, bitter end. #Sad https://t.co/1FEzB8d13o

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 14, 2025

Other Altcoins Surpassing

Dogecoin (DOGE) also performed well, gaining 5% to top $0.36, while Cardano (ADA) gained 6% on the day to regain the $1 level. Meanwhile, sibling Ripple Stellar Lumens (XLM) rose 8% to touch $0.47.

AI-related listings got a boost from a recent report by Franklin Templeton, which predicted that AI agents would revolutionize social media content generation this year.

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