- XRP trading in South Korea exceeds the rest of the world.
- Trump included XRP in the proposed US national crypto reserve.
- SEC is reviewing several XRP ETF applications.
XRP whales piled over $700 million worth of the cryptocurrency this week, according to crypto data platform Santiment.
Traders in South Korea seem particularly interested in trading with the Ripple-linked cryptocurrency ahead of Donald Trump’s crypto summit on Friday.
Trading volume for XRP on South Korean crypto exchange Upbit topped $724 million in the last 24 hours.
That’s more than the activity recorded on Binance and Coinbase, according to data from CoinGecko. Those had $657 million and $395 million, respectively.
“Upbit holds the most XRP among all exchanges, twice as much as Binance,” Kate Young-ju, an analyst at the crypto data platform CryptoQuant, posted on X.
The news comes as XRP proponents in the US cling to Trump’s musings about a crypto reserve and how that might pave the way for a possible XRP exchange-traded fund
Upbit is part of the South Korean “big four” crypto exchanges that includes Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit.
Together, they account for more than 25% of the global XRP trading volume on centralised exchanges since Trump’s posted about the crypto reserve on Sunday.
Still, XRP’s price has been able to go over the $3 mark. The cryptocurrency peaked this year at $3.38 on Trump’s inauguration, but has since declined in lockstep with the rest of the market.
Bettors have placed punts worth more than $1 million on the XRP price forecasts for March on the crypto prediction platform Polymarket.
The most popular bet based on volume is whether XRP will fall to $1.9 by the end of the month ― it’s currently at 38% odds on the platform.
Jonathan de Wet, chief investment officer at crypto trading firm Zerocap, told DL News this week that Trump’s inclusion of XRP in the proposed national crypto reserve was a “significant endorsement” for the cryptocurrency that should help smooth regulatory wrinkles for the altcoin.
“Despite some uncertainty, the implications for a favourable regulatory environment around XRP are growing markedly by the day ― and in the absence of any tail events, should keep its price buoyant above $2, which forms the most recent range floor,” de Wet said.
XRP is also among a flood of altcoin ETF applications with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC is reviewing five XRP ETF fund filings and has until mid-October to rule on them.
JPMorgan has predicted that XRP ETFs could draw in $8 billion in investor flows within a year.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. Got a tip? please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.