Ripple’s XRP rallies as South Korean retail traders pile in
The cryptocurrency had a trading volume of more than $926 million in the last 24 hours on South Korean centralized exchange Upbit, making XRP the most-traded token on the platform.
XRP is starting off the week as the best performer among major cryptocurrencies, aided by its popularity among retail investors in South Korea.
The token has rallied about 10% in the last 24 hours to trade hands at the $2.60 threshold, giving it a market capitalization of almost $149 billion, behind only bitcoin and ethereum of all cryptocurrencies. The last time XRP touched $2.60 was in March.
“XRP price outperforming was underpinned by the settlement announcement on May 8 between the SEC and Ripple Labs, including founders Bradley Garlinghouse and Christian A. Larsen,” Julio Moreno, research head of blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant, told Sherwood News. “This caused the XRP price to rally further.”
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a settlement agreement last Thursday to resolve its civil enforcement action against Ripple Labs, bringing closer the end of a legal showdown that has persisted for years.
The token’s rally comes amid increased trading volume. Across the exchanges tracked by CoinGecko, the token’s 24-hour trading volume stands at $8.7 billion. Just a week ago, its volume was sitting around $1.4 billion.
Dave Siemer, cofounder and CEO of Wave Digital Assets, told Sherwood, “The favorable SEC settlement has removed a massive cloud that hung over XRP for years, essentially giving the green light to investors who’ve been sitting on the sidelines.”
He continued, “What makes this particularly potent is that it lands in the context of South Korea’s unique and enduring enthusiasm for XRP.” On South Korean centralized exchange Upbit, XRP is the most-traded cryptocurrency, with over $926 million in volume in the last 24 hours, accounting for about 22% of the exchange’s overall volume.
Upbit is one of the largest exchanges by XRP reserves, “which is why there’s large trading volumes on the platform,” Moreno added. Per CryptoQuant, 5.9 billion XRP tokens sit on Upbit, equivalent to $14 billion at the current prices.
Siemer said, “South Korean traders have maintained remarkable loyalty to XRP despite the SEC case, with Upbit consistently seeing XRP volumes surpass even bitcoin.”
Similarly, Maksim Tkachuk, an analyst at market intelligence platform Santiment, told Sherwood that XRP’s recent uptick in part stems from “Korean degens coming together and agreeing upon a consensus play.”
Elsewhere, on HyperLiquid, a blockchain known for its derivatives exchange, one crypto whale placed several transactions longing XRP with 2x leverage, according to crypto data firm Nansen. The address 0x175 transacted four times (Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, and Tx4) on Monday to increase its total size position to more 8.8 million XRP worth nearly $23 million.
Sage D. Young is a crypto journalist who’s written for CoinDesk and Unchained.
