XRP, the token that powers the XRP Ledger that was created by global payments-focused fintech company Ripple, remains in consolidation mode on Wednesday.
XRP/USD was last changing hands just to the north of the $0.50 level, broadly flat on the session.
That means the world’s sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization (of around $26.6 billion as of Wednesday) remains about 13% below its late-March peaks in the $0.58 area but is still up around 50% since the start of the year.
A broader rise in crypto prices amid concerns about a US (and global) bank crisis and on hopes the Fed’s rate hiking cycle is nearly over, and growing optimism that Ripple will win its ongoing lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have combined to launch XRP higher in recent weeks.
Technical buying has also likely been a factor – XRP broke above a key downtrend that had been in play since September 2022 and launched above all of its major moving averages in mid/late March, adding to the tailwinds.
Near-term price predictions have become a little less bullish after XRP hit its bullish target late last month in the $0.54-56 area.
But XRP bulls remain confident that a lasting break above the mid-$0.50s would open the door to a swift rise back towards $0.91.
Can XRP Hit All-Time Highs After the SEC Lawsuit Ends?
The SEC sued Ripple for issuing XRP as an unregistered security back in late 2020 and it looks like the lengthy lawsuit might finally be close to coming to an end.
Ripple has been arguing that it can’t have issued XRP as an unregistered security as XRP is actually a digital commodity, meaning its falls under the regulatory oversight of the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC).
That argument seems to have gotten a boost this week, after the CFTC announced a new lawsuit against Binance for operating as an unregistered exchange in the US.
The key part of the lawsuit for XRP is the CFTC’s claim that Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Tether and Binance USD are all commodities.
Traders are hoping that this means the CFTC will also view XRP as a commodity, undermining the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, and reducing the regulatory risk that has been capping XRP’s price.
“As long as XRP gets at least a favorable settlement and no appeal, this will be the number one performing major coin of the next bull run,” popular and controversial crypto YouTuber BitBoy (Ben Armstrong) said in a recent tweet.
“The suppression is almost over,” he added. Some have claimed that the SEC intentionally went after XRP to dent its competitiveness versus other cryptocurrencies.
At current levels around $0.50, XRP remains 84% below the record highs it hit in the $3.30 area back in January 2018.
Compare that to Bitcoin, which is up 50% versus its late-2017/early-2018 peaks just below $20,000.
Assuming that “suppression” by the SEC is the main reason why XRP has been lagging Bitcoin since 2018, assuming that Ripple gets a favorable ruling in the lawsuit and assuming that XRP then swiftly closes this gap of past underperformance versus Bitcoin, XRP could theoretically 10x to around $5.0 per token.
That’s 50% up versus the 2018 high in the $3.30 area, like how Bitcoin is trading right now versus its high from back then.
Say Bitcoin 2xs from current levels this year to approach $60,000, say as the Fed cuts interest rates to stave of a recession and bank crisis.
Then we could be talking about 20x gains for XRP (to the $10.0 per token area), again assuming the above assumptions are met.
BitBoy’s call for XRP to outperform during the next crypto bull market makes a lot of sense in this context – for how many other top 20 cryptocurrencies can a 20x argument in the next bull market feasibly be made? Not many.
XRP Alternatives to Consider
Assuming that Ripple can secure a favorable outcome versus the SEC and macro tailwinds continue, the XRP outlook is strong.
But investors should always be looking to diversify their crypto holdings.
One high-risk-high-reward investment strategy that some investors might want to consider is getting involved in crypto presales.
This is where investors buy the tokens of up-start crypto projects to help fund their development.
These tokens are nearly always sold very cheap and there is a long history of presales delivering huge exponential gains to early investors.
Of course, there is always a chance that the project’s founders don’t deliver on the project’s promises, and the presale tokens never take off in price (hence why they are sold so cheap).
But many of these projects have fantastic teams behind them and a great vision to deliver a revolutionary crypto application/platform.
If an investor can identify such projects, the risk/reward of their presale investment is very good.
The team at Cryptonews.com spends a lot of time combing through presale projects to help investors out.
Here is a list of 15 of what the project deems as the best crypto presales of 2023.
Disclaimer: The Industry Talk section features insights by crypto industry players and is not a part of the editorial content of Cryptonews.com.
Read the full article here