XRP is once more the fourth biggest crypto after an explosive rally inspired by a positive ruling on July 13.
XRP has achieved a significant milestone by surpassing Binance’s BNB in market cap rankings, marking the first time in over two years. With this achievement, XRP now sits in the fourth position, following tether (USDT), ether (ETH), and bitcoin (BTC).
At the start of this year, BNB held a value twice that of XRP, with a market cap of $44 billion compared to XRP’s $17.4 billion. Despite facing regulatory challenges worldwide, Binance’s primary token, BNB, managed to maintain its position throughout the entirety of 2022 and 2023.
Everything changed when the markets digested a New York judge’s ruling that XRP sales were not securities via secondary markets (crypto exchanges and such). This ruling had a substantial impact on the market dynamics surrounding XRP.
BNB currently holds a valuation of $40.1 billion, which is just 4.7% lower than XRP’s $42 billion, according to CoinGecko’s data.
Additionally, the judge’s ruling acknowledged that institutional sales of XRP could potentially be classified as securities, indicating that there is still room for further clarity as the case progresses.
Following the ruling, derivatives markets experienced a surge in activity, leading to a significant increase of 99% in open interest for XRP futures. According to Coinglass, the outstanding contracts for XRP futures now amount to $1.02 billion, reflecting the heightened market participation.
As of the most recent observation, XRP is trading at $0.79, which represents a significant increase of more than double compared to its previous daily closing price of $0.47. The last instance when XRP’s market cap surpassed that of BNB was briefly in April 2021, after the initial flip occurred two months earlier.
The mounting regulatory scrutiny faced by the global crypto exchange Binance has resulted in significant selling pressure on BNB. Year to date, BNB has witnessed a modest increase of approximately 5%, in contrast to BTC’s substantial 70% rise. On the other hand, XRP has demonstrated impressive growth, surging over 130% since the beginning of the year.
Buy Crypto NowThroughout the past three years, Ripple has been entangled in a prolonged legal dispute with the SEC. The core contention revolves around whether Ripple, as well as its executives Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen, unlawfully provided securities in the form of XRP.
The recent ruling on Thursday has provided some clarity in the situation, prompting Coinbase and Kraken to swiftly announce their plans to relist XRP. These exchanges had previously delisted XRP due to the SEC’s case against Ripple.
Nonetheless, some legal experts have warned this ruling is far from definitive.
