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Acting editor-in-chief
Gary McFarlane
Acting editor-in-chief
Gary McFarlane
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The XRP price has fallen back to $2.33 as crypto’s risk-off period of consolidation is extended by renewed doubts over the speed and extent of future Fed interest rate reductions.
Nevertheless, XRP is set to be one of the main winners among the top altcoins, with one prominent trader musing about a breakout that could blow up the price 3.5x to a market capitalization valuation of $500 billion (i.e. an XRP price of $8.5).
Full clarity on the interest rate front remains out of focus, but crypto’s susceptibility to concerns in that area was again on display today.
US ISM services index inflation data had prices paid for materials and services leaping 6 points to 64.4 on the back of strong performance in the US economy’s most important sector.
Why the XRP market cap could hit $502 billion
Still, given the expected wins on the regulatory front that are widely forecast to arrive following the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president.
Peter Brandt has identified a half-mast flag on the 1-week chart for XRP which he suggests could break either higher or “something else to be determined.
If the pattern completes to the upside then a market cap of $502 billion is forecast. Alternatively, the market cap could fall back to the pre-election reading of $28 billion:
Half-mast flags should complete within six weeks, otherwise they should be viewed with great suspicion. This flag in $XRP needs to rock and roll soon, otherwise it will likely morph into something else TBD. But if it completes, then market cap of $500 B is possible.
Peter Brandt
It is worth noting that the average true range (ATR) measure of volatility has surge higher over the past eight weeks but flattened a little over the past three weeks or so.
Meanwhile, the average directional index (ADX) that measures the strength of a trend is pretty much continuing on the trajectory set since the presidential election result in November.
Looking past technical analysis to the crypto policy delivery that will propel XRP price higher
Although the new year run-up of the bitcoin price has cooled at the start of today’s US session, with the price falling back under $100,000 after touching $102,425 on Monday, that’s likely a temporary affair as the January 20 inauguration day approaches.
The same goes for the XRP price. It peaked at $2.49 on January 4 and has pulled back to $2.33 today after the services inflation surprise.
Brandt’s technical analysis is just that, so it does not pretend to take into account how the crypto news cycle, the concomitant policy pronouncements, and the actual legislative outcomes will affect the price of XRP.
However, the pro-crypto credentials of the Trump picks for the key financial posts give the XRP Army and everyone else with a stake in crypto plenty of reasons to be cheerful.
To remind readers, there are three standout nominations to watch: Secretary of the Treasury (Scott Bessent, former partner at Soros Fund Management and the founder of macro investment firm Key Square Group), secretary of Commerce (Howard Lutnick, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO) and Securities and Exchange Commission chair (Paul Atkins, CEO of consulting firm Patomak Global Partners).
Then, of course, there are the ‘words of wisdom’ from Trump and Elon Musk that we can expect to flow unabated and unfiltered, which are likely to provide more market-moving news flow for bulls to get their teeth into.
Ripple is positioning to attack a total addressable market of $10 trillion
Against this background, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is positioning his company to grab a big chunk of the total addressable market that is opening up for crypto.
On Sunday Garlinghouse shared with his 1.8 million followers the HR recruitment Ripple has set in motion to position itself for super profits. Garlinghouse says 75% of its open roles are now in the US and revealed that the company had signed more deals in the past six weeks of 2024 than in the previous six months.
We took a look at LinkedIn to get a handle on Ripple hiring. Clearly not all of the jobs Ripple is trying to fill are advertised on LinkeIn but 40 of the 70 positions on there are based in the US.
We didn’t read all the job specs but we note that the word ‘tokenization’ comes up a lot.
The top role is for a US Policy Manager – that makes perfect sense given the shift in Washington DC, and we surmise it is a c-suite roll as it is the only one that doesn’t attach a salary number to the job description.
Most of the positions are for engineers, but among the senior non-techie roles, Ripple is seeking to hire for 2x Product Marketing Lead (Institutional) roles. As always, perhaps, Ripple is thinking big. The blurb highlights the backstory Dee Hock:
In 1966, Dee Hock was put in charge of a small Seattle bank’s a fledging credit card program. He realized that the real value of the program was the interchange revenue of connecting banks together. For the next 10 years, Dee invested in the painstaking task of bringing banks – often competitors – together in his network. That network became Visa.
…In this role, you’ll drive Ripple’s go-to-market strategy for its enterprise product suite focusing on digital asset custody and tokenization use cases.
Ripple job description on LinkedIn
And when it comes to tokenization, tokenizing the dollar has to be one of the biggest opportunities in finance.
Thanks to its RLUSD stablecoin, Ripple is now a major player in that market, despite the still-dominant role of Tether (USDT), its European Union problems notwithstanding, and the presence of Circle’s USDC.
Regarding stablecoin prospects, today Ripple announced a deal with Chainlink to implement its oracle solution for RLUSD, in a key development as Ripple pushes into DeFi.
A report by 21c states the bull case for the total addressable market for tokenization at $10 trillion, based on “derived from the estimated penetration rate of the total addressable market across various asset classes, including non-financial corporate debt, real estate funds, private equity, securities collateral, trade finance, and public debt securities.”
That number doesn’t encompass the full panoply of real-world assets (RWA) that can be tokenized when decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) are included.
Whatever the price of XRP is today, the near-term is noise while the longer-term is wealth accumulation. Given the size of the $10 trillion tokenization pie, the XRP price is likely to be trading multiples higher by the end of the year, if not by the end of this month.
XRP alternatives – Wall Street Pepe ($WEPE) has the Kekius Maximus vibe
Diversification is the name of the game for a profitable crypto portfolio. With altcoin season nearly upon us, it is worth considering other sources of alpha beyond the large-cap alts.
Wall Street Pepe is a meme coin still in presale that is building a trading group to take on the whales and level the playing field for the little guys.
With the likes of Elon Musk continuing to fuel interest in the Pepe meme – he recently renamed himself on X as Kekius Maximus in a nod to the internet’s favorite amphibian – it explains why $WEPE has raised $43 million.
To join the $WEPE movement, visit the Wall Street Pepe website. Connect your wallet and buy $WEPE using ETH or USDT. Bank card payments are also accepted.
$WEPE is featured in the new Web3 wallet Best Wallet in its Upcoming Tokens section.
Courtesy of Best Wallet, you’ll have access to up-to-date information and market data about Wall Street Pepe directly within the app. Download Best Wallet from Google Play or the Apple App Store.
Also, your $WEPE tokens will be displayed in your wallet before the official claim date, giving you full visibility of your investment.
Join the Wall Street Pepe community on X and Telegram to stay up-to-date with the latest developments.
Other tokens for fat potential profits that are worth exploring include newly listed meme coins Catslap and Crypto All-Stars – both can be bought in Best Wallet.
Disclaimer: The views in this article are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment advice. Capital at risk.
