After establishing itself as a top performer in this bull cycle, XRP price has been moving sideways for the last week, trading within the $2.12-$2.32 range. Although the critical support above $2.10 has remained intact, indicating a strong buyer interest at below levels, the lack of any positive news that had the market in a state of euphoria in the first weeks after Trump’s election appears to be cooling down inflated expectations.
The on-chain data, however, paints a different picture for XRP. According to Santiment data shared by Twitter/X crypto analyst Ali Martinez, whales have accumulated 40 million XRP over the last 24 hours, suggesting that seasoned market participants are closely watching for the new breakout.
Over the past 24 hours, XRP has added 3.08%, which may be a sign that the market is starting to react to renewed whale activity. Should the momentum continue, XRP may reclaim the recent highs at the $2.7 level.
Currently, the main potential catalysts for the XRP price to watch for are RLUSD stablecoin listings, XRP spot ETF approval, and progress in the Ripple vs SEC case.
RLUSD stablecoin went live on December 17 on XRP Ledger and Ethereum blockchains, with initial listings on several exchanges and crypto platforms, including Uphold, MoonPay, Archax, and CoinMENA. Although it’s reasonable to assume that any attempt to corner the saturated stablecoin market will be met with fierce competition from established issuers Tether ($140 billion worth of USDT) and Circe ($43 billion worth of USDC), the use cases and utility brought by RLUSD are expected to drive demand for XRP as well. Considering that Ripple’s stablecoin is yet to be listed on Binance or Coinbase, any upcoming listings are likely to be treated by the investors as “buy the rumor, sell the news” events.
After the successful debut of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, the crypto industry is anticipating approval for other Layer 1 cryptocurrencies, including XRP and SOL. Major players like WisdomTree, Bitwise, and Canary Capital have already filed for XRP ETFs and the leadership change at the SEC brought by Trump’s win makes the approval a much more likely thing than one would expect under Gary Gensler’s reign.
Finally, the resolution of the ongoing SEC vs Ripple case also seems like a plausible outcome after Gensler’s resignation effective on Inauguration Day. With crypto-friendly Chair Paul Atkins at the helm, the new SEC is likely to drop non-fraud lawsuits, experts forecast.
At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $2.30, positioned at the level of the 9-day exponential moving average (EMA) but holding above the 21-day EMA at $2.24. These indicators suggest a potential short-term bullish momentum, as the price is consolidating near its faster EMA and maintaining support above its medium-term trendline. Should the price successfully move away from its 9-day EMA, this would reliably signify the start of an upward trend. Conversely, a fall below the 21-day EMA would mean the inability to sustain momentum, leading XRP to potentially retest a $2.10 support.
For context, the exponential moving average is a type of a moving average indicator that assigns more weight to the recent prices, making it more sensitive to the latest price changes when compared to a simple moving average. The 9 and 21-day EMAs are commonly used by traders to identify short-term trends.
RLUSD gets listed on Bullish
On Tuesday, Bullish, an institutional crypto exchange backed by tech mogul Peter Thiel, officially listed Ripple’s much-anticipated stablecoin. The exchange users will be able to trade it across seven pairs, namely RLUSD/USDC, BTC/RLUSD, XRP/RLUSD, ETH/RLUSD, USD/RLUSD, EUR/RLUSD and SOL/RLUSD.
Before Bullish, RLUSD also went live on Bitso, Independent Reserve, and Mercado Bitcoin. The stablecoin became available to the general public shortly after Ripple managed to secure approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
“Early on, Ripple made a deliberate choice to launch our stablecoin under the NYDFS limited purpose trust company charter, widely regarded as the premier regulatory standard worldwide,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a statement.
According to CoinMarketCap, RLUSD currently has a market cap of $53 million, which places the stablecoin at the 2,978th place ranked by market capitalization. Over the past 24 hours, it generated a trading volume of $8.6 million, a 719% increase from the day before.
RLUSD will be initially available in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, UK, and Middle East regions, CoinDesk reported, quoting Jack McDonald, senior vice president of stablecoin at Ripple. The token won’t be available for EU customers due to the lack of a necessary license to comply with the bloc’s MiCAR regulations, although the company is actively exploring ways to enter the European market.
