Why is XRP price up today?

XRP (XRP) price is up today, rising by nearly 30% over the last 24 hours to hit a seven-year high of $2.50 as bulls continue pushing for record highs.

Let’s look closer at the factors driving the XRP price up today.

Crypto-friendly future optimism boosts XRP price

XRP price has rallied almost 400% from $0.50 on Nov. 5, when Americans went to the polls, to an intraday high of $2.50 on Dec. 2. The last time the token traded close to this area was in January 2018, before it dropped to $0.08, during the 2018 bear market.

One of the main factors behind this momentum is Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US Presidential election, with rising optimism that his administration will promote a friendly environment for crypto businesses.

While on the campaign trail, Trump promised to turn the United States into the crypto capital of the world and fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler on “day one.”

In a recent development, Trump has proposed eliminating capital gains taxes on cryptocurrencies issued by American companies. As such, US-issued tokens like Cardano (ADA), Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) and XRP could become more appealing to investors. 

As a result of this anticipation, these tokens’ prices have been rallying, posting significant daily and weekly gains, as shown in the figure below.

However, adding to XRP’s momentum over the last few days is the latest news that the New York Department of Financial Services is engaging payments firm Ripple — the company behind XRP — about the approval of the company’s RLUSD stablecoin, as per a Fox Business report.

The approval would allow Ripple to legally offer the RLUSD token to the public, with a possible launch date of Dec. 4.

XRP flips Solana and USDT to reclaim third place

XRP continued its surge into December, popping to $2.50 for the first time since 2018 and flipping Solana (SOL) and Tether USD (USDt) to become the third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

With a market cap exceeding $134 billion, XRP now ranks only behind Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). It is now valued more than USDt, a 1:1 dollar-pegged stablecoin, which has slipped to fourth place with a market value of $134 billion, and Solana, now ranked fifth with a market value of $108 billion. 

Meanwhile, XRP’s growth over the last few weeks has parked growth in XRP-tracked futures, with the open interest (IO) zooming to record highs on Dec. 2. 

Related: Analyst warns of ‘leverage driven’ XRP pump as token flips Tether

Open interest is a key metric that traders and analysts use to assess market sentiment and anticipate future price movements. 

The metric has jumped 18% over the last 24 hours to an all-time high of $3.99 billion at the time of publication.

Higher open interest indicates that more money is entering the market, increasing the chances that the uptrend will resume.

XRP price ready for all-time highs

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that XRP trades 40% below its all-time high of $3.80 reached in January 2018. Bulls have established support around $2.30 and $1.45 on the daily candle chart. 

The weekly relative strength index (RSI) has continued to record higher highs with no divergence, indicating that the upward momentum remains strong.

The next psychological barrier sits at $3.00, which, if broken, will open the way toward the next price target, which is the all-time high of $3.80.

Conversely, the RSI at 90 paints extremely overbought conditions for XRP, suggesting that a correction may be imminent. If this happens, the token may drop to seek support from the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level at $2.0 or lower toward $1.80. 

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.