The XRP price surged hard on Wednesday, helped by major macro tailwinds in the United States and as the countdown to Donald Trump’s inauguration continued. Ripple surged to a high of $3.0370, bringing its valuation to over $169 billion, making it bigger than Blackrock, Palantir, S&P Global, Raytheon Technologies, and Citigroup.
Catalysts for the XRP Price Surge
Ripple jumped because of five important catalysts. First, it surged after the US published encouraging consumer inflation data. While the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose from 2.7% to 2.9%, the closely watched core inflation fell from 3.3% to 3.2%.
That inflation report led to more hopes that the Federal Reserve may deliver more rate cuts this year than expected. That explains why stock prices surged while bond yields plunged by more than 2%.
Second, the XRP price rose after Reuters reported that the SEC was considering making major changes touching cryptocurrencies. The agency wants to slash regulations, pause or halt some enforcement actions, and create a more friendly environment in the crypto industry.
Ripple will be a top beneficiary of these events because it has spent millions of dollars in litigation against the SEC in the past few years. At the same time, the SEC may approve a spot XRP ETF this year. The odds of this approval on Polymarket have continued to rise, while Bloomberg anticipates that such a fund would attract over $8 billion in inflows.
Third, the XRP Ledger ecosystem is booming. For example, the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin has attracted over $72 million in assets, and its 24-hour volume has passed other popular stablecoins, such as PayPal PYUSD and Justin Sun’s USDD. XRP meme coins are also doing well.
XRP Price Prediction
The daily chart shows that the Ripple price rebounded this week, as previously predicted. This rebound happened after the coin formed a bullish pennant chart pattern, one of the most bullish signs in the market. This pennant has a long flag pole and a symmetrical triangle pattern.
XRP is also forming a cup-and-handle pattern, a popular continuation sign. It has remained above all moving averages, a highly bullish chart pattern. Therefore, with Ripple moving above $3, the next point to watch will be the psychological point at $5, 66% above the current level.
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