The XRP token was spiking in digital-asset markets after a New York Post report Thursday morning said that Trump was “receptive” to including non-bitcoin, American cryptocurrencies in a national reserve.
However, three sources told Unchained the market-driving rumor was likely untrue.
The speculation made XRP one of the most traded tokens on popular crypto exchanges by volume, with the third-largest cryptocurrency jumping 10% in the last 24 hours to a seven-year high around $3.40. Meanwhile, Solana’s SOL token also saw its price leap more than 5% in the same period to $213.
“XRP’s recent move can be attributed to strong associations between Ripple’s team and the potential alignment with policy shifts under the Trump administration leading up to the inauguration,” Jake Ostrovskis, an over-the-counter trader at crypto liquidity provider Wintermute, told Unchained over Telegram.
In the Works or a ‘Self-Serving’ Rumor?
On Thursday, the New York Post reported that Trump was receptive to the possibility of an America-first strategic reserve that would include cryptocurrencies founded in the U.S. such as XRP and SOL.
“As of today, traders are betting the asset could be added to a strategic reserve, following news that dropped this morning,” according to the Wintermute trader.
The New York Times reported later Thursday that Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse encouraged Trump to include other cryptocurrencies beyond BTC in the federal government’s potential crypto stockpile. The publication didn’t echo the New York Post’s reporting that the president-elect was “receptive” to the idea.
Ripple’s senior director of communications, Susan Hendrick, confirmed to Unchained that Garlinghouse had encouraged Trump to diversify the potential crypto reserve beyond BTC, but she didn’t provide commentary on whether Trump was receptive to the diversification.
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Sources speaking to Unchained speculated the New York Post report actually reflected a “self-serving” rumor seeded by Ripple Labs representatives. Ripple is the primary contributor to the XRPL blockchain network, which uses XRP as its native token.
A report in Axios on Wednesday quoted Trump telling representatives of an unidentified company, “You guys made this amount of money last year and you’re gonna make so much more now because of me…But when I needed you, where the f**k were you? You weren’t with me and maybe you were with [Kamala Harris].”
Two sources told Unchained that the conversation was with representatives of Ripple. The Axios story did not name Ripple, or say when the conversation took place. (Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen donated millions to PACs supporting Kamala Harris.)
The Ripple Labs spokeswoman didn’t initially respond to a request for comments on whether the possibility of an altcoin reserve was a “self-serving” rumor planted by company executives or on the sources’ claim that the unnamed company in the Axios report was Ripple. After publication of this article, she emailed, “Those rumors are completely false.”
When Unchained followed up mentioning that our questions had asked about specific claims about whether Ripple was the source telling the Post that Trump was “receptive” to an XRP reserve, and whether the company in the Axios report was Ripple, Hendrick reiterated, “those rumors are completely false,” but did not specify which ones.
The Trump-Vance transition team also didn’t respond to a request for comment.
XRP’s price movement comes as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday filed an appeal against Ripple Labs and Garlinghouse, arguing that district court judge Analisa Torres’ erred “factually and legally” in her 2023 ruling that sales of XRP on crypto trading platforms were not offers and sales of investment contracts.
On the dominant U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase, XRP’s 24-hour volume stands at $2 billion, making up nearly 30% of the swapping venue’s total trading activity. Users on the non-U.S.-based exchange Binance generated $3.8 billion, or about 12% of total volume, the second most behind bitcoin, according to CoinGecko.
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Onchain Activity Rising
Julio Moreno, head of research at blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant, told Unchained XRP is seeing increased onchain activity.
Not only have daily active wallet addresses for XRP risen from a low of 10,000 in mid-2024 to a high of over 100,000 at the end of 2024, but liquidity on XRPL’s decentralized exchange (DEX) has quadrupled since early November to $20 billion this week, data from CryptoQuant shows.
The XRPL DEX also has a number of memecoins such as ARMY and PHNIX, which have had a 24-hour trading volume of $5.4 million and $1.6 million, respectively, according to trading platform DEX Screener.
Wintermute’s Ostrovskis argued that retail investors are playing a “significant role” in XRP’s price action, and the token’s “widespread availability on retail platforms has further supported substantial trading activity and buying flow.”
CryptoQuant’s Moreno said large holders dominate XRP on exchanges as shown by “inflows of XRP into exchanges coming from transactions of 1 million or more XRP ($3M or more at current prices).”
Update, Thursday, January 16, 2025, 7:45pm EST and Friday, January 17, 2025 10:15 am EST: This article was updated Thursday to include the responses Ripple’s Hendrick sent after publication and Friday to specify that her lack of response to the questions about the “self-serving” rumor and to the Axios report occurred before publication.
