After one and a half months trailing XRP as the most valuable altcoin, Ethereum has finally returned to its position. Ethereum lost the position on November 15, which coincided with the Bitcoin Cash hard fork. However, a major bull rally in the past four days has helped the currency eclipse XRP again, with a margin of $500,000. The currency has also hit the very critical $150 level again, for the first time since Christmas Eve. If able to find support at this level, it could spark a major price rally that could bring back joy to investors in the embattled crypto.
XRP has proven itself to be a bit less susceptible to market wipeouts in the past two months. While its price is still 80 percent below its all-time high, it lost less compared to its competitors, more so Ethereum. On the eve of the Bitcoin Cash hard fork, Ethereum dropped 15 percent, with XRP losing 9 percent. This helped XRP to overtake Ethereum and become the second-most valuable crypto, only second to Bitcoin.
A Game of Thrones
Ethereum’s fightback has been phenomenal. Just a fortnight ago, the currency was trading at $83. While not directly connected, it was affected quite badly by the Bitcoin Cash hard fork, hitting a 30-day low. It wasn’t a particularly good day for the other cryptos either, with Bitcoin losing 11 percent.
However, two weeks later, Ethereum has recovered $67, an incredible 80 percent gain. In the past 24 hours, the currency has registered a 10 percent gain. In contrast, XRP has only gained 2.66 percent and was trading at $0.365 at press time. Ethereum’s market cap now stands at $15.6 billion, $500K higher than XRP’s which stands at $14.9.
OEX continues to be Ethereum’s biggest market, registering $165 million worth of trades. This accounted for 5.5 percent of the total volume. The exchange, which is based in Singapore, is the 17th largest globally by trade volume. Global giants OKEx, Huobi and Binance were the other major markets.
XRP has been on the limelight again, with the polarizing question of whether XRP is a security taking center stage. In the past, the SEC has refused to rule out the possibility of XRP being a security. In contrast, Jay Clayton, the SEC chairman has stated that XRP’s rivals Bitcoin and Ethereum aren’t securities. This has also been cited as the main reason Coinbase is yet to list XRP, even after newer projects like Ethereum Classic and 0x have been listed. The XRP community has awaited the Coinbase listing for over a year now, with rumors surfacing every now and then about it.
American crypto exchange Kraken was the latest to incite this debate on Twitter after it sought clarification on how to list XRP on its platform. Kraken tweeted:
Dear XRP Army, Ripple is (and was first) a payment protocol whose native currency is XRP. You could suggest the eponymous company change its name (again) to avoid ambiguity. The convention is <protocol> <asset>, like: Ripple XRP, Ethereum ether, Bitcoin bitcoin, etc. 💙
— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) December 29, 2018
The tweet sparked a huge debate, with XRP enthusiasts fiercely defending their crypto against the accusation that it’s a security. If ruled to be a security by the SEC, XRP could be delisted from many crypto exchanges as they aren’t legally mandated to offer securities.