During the weekend, Ripple’s XRP outpaced Tether’s USDT and overtook Solana (SOL) to claim the spot as the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The weekend surge of over 25% propelled XRP to $2.5.
Over the last 30 days, the altcoin has surged by an impressive 370%, causing its market capitalization to skyrocket from $29 billion to $138 billion. Currently, XRP’s market cap exceeds SOL’s by $30 billion and surpasses that of USDT by $4 billion.
XRP Surpasses Solana
This unexpected development has taken many market analysts by surprise, especially those closely associated with Solana, as SOL had been a frontrunner in the recent bullish cycle.
Interestingly, the XRP/SOL chart, which compares XRP’s performance with SOL’s, showed that XRP has been outperforming SOL since November and early December.
Within the last four weeks, XRP has surged by 250% against SOL, indicating that those holding SOL could have gained a 250% return had they opted for XRP instead.
The notable surge followed news of the expected resignation of Gary Gensler, the chair of the US SEC, by January 20, 2025.
Gensler’s departure, coupled with a more crypto-friendly administration, has provided tailwinds for XRP, especially in light of the hurdles the SEC presented to the blockchain company.
But how much further can XRP climb? According to Woo Minkyu from CryptoQuant, there has been an uptick in interest from whale investors, signaling their readiness to capitalize on the rally.
Significantly, whale transactions to exchanges reached record levels when XRP crossed the $2 mark, a pattern reminiscent of past trends that led to short-term peaks.
Minkyu suggested a similar scenario might unfold before XRP makes further progress. He mentioned,
“The recent surge in whale transactions coincides with XRP hitting a local price of about $2.3. This could suggest that whales are gearing up for profit-taking or an uptick in market activity.”
That being said, the next target price and Fib level stood at $3, indicating a potential 26% additional rally if the strong bullish sentiment persists.
Nevertheless, the weekly Relative Strength Index (RSI) signalled overbought conditions, hinting at a probable price correction. In such a scenario, key levels to monitor would be $2.36 and the previous cycle high of $2.0.