Original Article Title: "Whale Accumulates $3.8 Billion, Will XRP Surge to $10?"

Original Source: BitpushNews

In the past 24 hours, XRP price has surpassed $3 for the first time since 2018, continuing to lead the 2025 cryptocurrency market rally. With a 15-day increase of 41%, it is outperforming the top 10 cryptocurrencies.

According to Coinmarkcap data, XRP's price is now only 17% away from its all-time high of $3.84. With a current market cap of $170 billion, the token's market cap has exceeded that of asset management giant BlackRock.

This surge has been driven by expectations of crypto-friendly policies and digital asset regulatory reforms in the United States. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple have been engaged in a years-long legal battle over XRP token sales.

Diego Cardenas, an OTC trader at digital asset platform Abra, stated in a report: "This surge has been driven by an increasing number of partnerships, the launch of the Ripple stablecoin RLUSD, and speculation about a potential spot XRP ETF."

Ripple's President, Monica Long, mentioned in an interview last week that she expects a spot ETF to be approved "soon," as the approval by the new administration would expedite the process. Additionally, Ripple's leadership has had direct engagement with the incoming U.S. government, with CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty recently meeting with Trump, indicating a potential cooperation to shape a regulatory environment favorable to digital assets.

Furthermore, the recent surge in XRP price aligns with continued accumulation by "whales" holding between 1 million and 10 million tokens.

Analytics firm Santiment pointed out that since November 12th, addresses holding between 1 million and 10 million tokens have accumulated 1.4 billion XRP, valued at approximately $3.8 billion, continuing accumulation even during the price consolidation period following the peak in early December 2024.

XRP Surpasses Bitcoin in Google Search Popularity

The XRP price and its holders have shown strong resilience in recent weeks. Google Trends data shows that on January 15, global Google searches for XRP surpassed those for Bitcoin. Over the past year, XRP has led Bitcoin in search volume twice, with the most recent time being in November 2024.

Analyst: XRP Rally Driven by Spot Investors

In 2024, the open interest of Bitcoin and Ethereum, among other major assets, hit a record high, highlighting the importance of the derivatives market during a bull market. However, the recent XRP rally has been mainly driven by spot investors.

Order flow analyst Dom stated that XRP's retest of $3 was entirely driven by spot buying. He pointed out that during a 15% weekly gain for XRP, the funding rate and spot buy premium did not increase significantly. Dom said, "If this was happening with Bitcoin, I would just flatly say we're about to explode higher."

At the same time, some industry insiders also pointed out that if both assets continue to rise at the same price ratio, XRP's performance may surpass Ethereum.

Jeth, co-founder of Sovrun, stated that there is "no reason" to hold Ethereum right now. Despite Ethereum having better "fundamentals," XRP has received positive regulatory support as the first crypto-friendly U.S. administration is set to take office on January 20.

From a technical perspective, XRP has shown strong growth indicators, breaking out of its bullish flag pattern at the end of 2024 after a 105% rise. However, its Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 79.5, indicating the token is overbought, which could lead to a short-term pullback or consolidation.

Technical analyst Dark Defender highlighted a "confirmed breakout" on the XRP monthly chart on the X platform, drawing a comparison with the 2017 bull market period when XRP surged by 1022%.

The analyst believes that based on Fibonacci retracement levels from the 2017 rally, the XRP price could potentially rise to $10.23 or even $18.23 in the short term, aiming for either a "moon" or "Mars" target, both achievable by 2025.

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