XRP, the cryptocurrency utilized by the U.S. blockchain payments company Ripple, has made a remarkable return as the third-largest coin by market capitalization, generating significant buzz within the community.

In December 2020, XRP lost its spot among the top three cryptocurrencies by market cap when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple, accusing it of conducting an “unregistered digital asset securities offering.”

With the SEC lawsuit approaching resolution and Ripple securing multiple legal victories in 2024, XRP has seen a resurgence, experiencing a notable spike in November following Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential election.

After years of trailing behind Tether’s USDT, Solana, and Circle’s USDC, XRP has reclaimed its position as the third-largest cryptocurrency, sitting behind Bitcoin and Ether.

“This is how it looked before Dec. 22, 2020,” pro-XRP attorney John Deaton commented on X.

When the SEC sued Ripple in late 2020, XRP's price plunged from approximately $0.50 to $0.17, erasing over $15 billion in market capitalization, according to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett in a Dec. 1, 2024 post on X.

“While the price recovered, XRP spent the next four years at the #7 spot,” Terrett noted.

“The fact that it never fell out of the top 10 said a lot,” remarked another commentator.

XRP’s breakout in November has also led to increased online attention, with Google searches for “XRP” surpassing those for “crypto” multiple times throughout the month, according to Google Trends.

The data further indicates that, as of now, XRP-related searches remain higher than general searches for crypto.

Additionally, in early November, “XRP” searches exceeded those for “ETH” on Google, though it has yet to overtake Bitcoin in this metric.

Currently, XRP remains far from surpassing Ether in market capitalization. ETH’s market value exceeds XRP’s by 219%.

According to crypto trader Christopher Jaszczynski, known as MMCrypto on X, XRP would need to hit a price of $7.75 to flip ETH.

At present, XRP is trading at $2.35, marking a 24% increase in the past 24 hours. Since Nov. 1, XRP has risen by 341%, delivering annual returns of approximately 280%.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/xrp-returns-third-largest-crypto-sec-battle

https://x.com/JohnEDeaton1/status/1863425207484002353

https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/1863306002977747423

https://x.com/cyberwitherik/status/1863309249524203744

https://x.com/AltcoinDailyio/status/1863382253172138091

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&q=bitcoin,xrp

https://x.com/MMCrypto/status/1863318555673899070

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/xrp