XRP, the third-largest cryptocurrency, approached a new all-time high on Thursday, rising 10% in 24 hours. On Wednesday, the token with close ties to crypto giant Ripple broke $3 for the first time in seven years.
Patrick Liou, principal of institutional sales at crypto exchange Gemini, said the current rally is rooted in a widespread expectation in the industry the Trump administration will make good on his promises to support a crypto-friendly regulatory framework—and potentially deliver even more that has been currently discussed.
“The latest [catalyst], which has taken us from the high $2 to above the $3 figure, is there’s now talk that the Trump administration may be open to a reserve backed by crypto companies that have tokens in the U.S,” Liou said.
While Trump has been a vocal supporter of a national reserve for Bitcoin, a New York Post article on Thursday said that Trump is open to an “America-first strategic reserve that would prioritize digital coins founded in the U.S., like Solana, USD Coin and Ripple.” A strategic XRP reserve would legitimize the token as a store of value and drive up its price. However, this reporting is based on anonymous sources and has yet to be verified.
Other catalysts driving XRP’s price, according to Liou, include speculation that XRP exchange-traded funds could soon be approved by the SEC, as Ripple president Monica Long told Bloomberg on Jan. 7. Investors are also looking forward to the potential for ongoing SEC lawsuits involving Ripple and XRP to be dropped under Trump, Liou said.
“There’s a lot of people reading the tea leaves on what’s happening with the new regulatory environment,” David Duong, head of institutional research at Coinbase, said. “People are looking at Ripple Labs and some of the representatives from Ripple and saying that they appear to be getting closer to the new administration.”
More specifically, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has met with the President-elect at least once. Garlinghouse posted a photo on X of the two together on Jan. 7, suggesting that Ripple will have a direct line of communication to, and therefore influence on, the new administration, further sparking interest in Ripple’s XRP.
After breaking the $3 mark for the first time in years, XRP climbed to around $3.35 on Thursday–putting it within shooting distance of the currency’s all-time high.
Unlike the stock market, there is typically no consensus on what the exact all-time high is for a cryptocurrency because prices are determined by supply and demand on different exchanges. For example, Binance places XRP’s all-time high at $3.84 while CoinGecko places it at $3.40.