The past week has been nothing short of interesting for XRP. Notably, the cryptocurrency has been on an extended run of increases in the past seven days, which saw it momentarily touch the $3 price level for the first time in months.
This interesting move came after reports broke of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of the ProShares Ultra XRP ETF, which allowed XRP to extend its upward movement. However, this momentum didn’t just affect price; it also had major effects on XRP’s standing in the overall crypto market.
XRP Becomes Top 3 Crypto
The SEC’s decision to approve the ProShares Ultra XRP ETF, which offers 2x daily exposure through futures contracts, is an interesting milestone for XRP. After years of legal scrutiny and uncertainty, especially following the SEC’s 2020 lawsuit against Ripple, the ETF approval is a remarkable change in the SEC’s stance with XRP. It shows that XRP has not only survived the challenges but has also earned a place in the next phase of institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies.
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After news of the ProShares ETF approval, XRP rallied sharply and outperformed many other top assets on both the daily and weekly timeframes. This surge came as a continuation of bullish momentum already building from Bitcoin’s recent breakout to new all-time highs above $122,000. However, even while Bitcoin corrected back to below $118,000, XRP managed to keep up with the pace of inflows.
At the time of writing, XRP is up by about 25.7% in a seven-day timeframe. This notable increase has allowed its market cap to increase to $173.4 billion, effectively overtaking that of Tether USDT’s market cap of $159.8 billion. This means that XRP is now back to being the third-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap and it is now closing in on Ethereum in rankings.
Can The Altcoin Flip ETH?
XRP’s climb past USDT in market capitalization reflects both a solid price surge and its strength in the crypto market. The next target on the leaderboard, however, is much more formidable.
To flip ETH in market cap, XRP would need to more than double from its current $173.46 billion to exceed Ethereum’s $381.13 billion. Assuming the current circulating supply of 59.13 billion XRP tokens is kept at this level, this translates to a required price of roughly $6.60 per XRP in order to reach a $381.13 billion market cap.
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XRP overtaking ETH would also be somewhat of a hard task, considering the fact that ETH has also kept up interesting price gains in the past few days. Particularly, the leading altcoin is also up by about 20.2% in the past seven days. Ethereum’s price performance can be attributed to the steady inflows into Spot Ethereum ETFs, which have witnessed $1.55 billion inflows in July.
However, XRP still has a chance of overtaking Ethereum, especially when a Spot XRP ETF is approved by the SEC. An important moment could happen on July 25, when the SEC is expected to decide on the REX-Osprey XRP ETF, which is a spot-based ETF.
Some analysts believe XRP’s price could skyrocket toward $1,000 under a scenario of full-scale institutional adoption. If that vision materializes, XRP wouldn’t just surpass Ethereum; it would be positioned to compete with Bitcoin in market cap.
At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $2.93.
Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com