Presently the third most valuable cryptocurrency, XRP, remains one of the crypto market’s headliners. Its recent astronomical price performance attracted the attention of both fans and those who have long been skeptical of the Ripple-linked token.
As one of the old-timers of the cryptosphere, XRP has in recent times enjoyed an ultra-bullish period after rocketing to just below the $3 mark. The XRP rally follows Donald Trump’s election victory in November, as hopes that the new administration will adopt a more lenient approach toward cryptocurrencies triggered unprecedented interest in them. After all, Trump promised on the campaign trail to make the U.S. the “crypto capital” of the world.
Now, a popular digital asset researcher is stressing that the U.S. government could leverage Ripple and XRP as strategic weapons.
Ripple And XRP Hold Strategic Importance For The US
With the current chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, set to step down on the day crypto-friendly President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in, analyst Anders explains why Ripple and XRP are strategically important to boost the country as the global leader in the worlds of finance and crypto.
In a recent X post, Anders pointed out that Ripple has created a state-of-the-art business-to-business (B2B) system for cross-border payments. He noted that San Francisco-headquartered Ripple controls this next-generation payment solution, giving the United States an edge in the industry.
Secondly, Anders suggested that Ripple’s forthcoming U.S. dollar-pegged RLUSD stablecoin could boost the adoption of the greenback by global financial institutions. It’s worth mentioning that RLUSD was scheduled to launch on Dec. 4 pending approval by the New York Department of Financial Services, but was delayed. Still, Ripple’s chief technology officer, David Schwartz, believes the long-anticipated stablecoin could potentially be launched by year-end.
Once RLUSD is available, Ripple has previously indicated that it will use both the stablecoin and the XRP token in its cross-border payments solution to serve its international clients.
Anders further pinpointed Ripple’s huge XRP trove as another strategic weapon for the U.S. According to the pundit, Ripple currently holds approximately 45% of all XRP supply, making the U.S.-based firm the largest holder of the third largest crypto. He emphasized the significance of accomplishment by citing one of Trump’s pre-election promises to support all U.S.-based cryptocurrency firms and tokens.
“No other entity in the crypto space fulfills all these points. Especially since Ripple has created a full B2B cross-border payments system AND at the same time will issue their own USD stablecoin. This is only the beginning as well, we’ll see institutional DeFi products come to market, etc. Therefore Ripple holds strategic importance for the US,” Anders concluded.
XRP Round 2 Imminent?
The price of Ripple’s cryptocurrency, XRP, has soared over 339% over the last month. Notably, the coin was trading five times lower just a month ago, and its market cap was hovering around $30 billion. Fast-forward to today, and XRP is a $130 billion asset.
Meanwhile, widely-followed crypto analyst DonAlt suggested that XRP might be preparing for a round 2, indicating that the recent breakout could well be just the beginning of a much larger rally for the coin.
It remains to be seen whether XRP can finally flip Ether (ETH) with the incoming second leg of parabolic growth.