XRP Overtakes BTC in Key Coinbase Metric: What’s Driving the Surge?

XRP, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization ranking, surpassed bitcoin (BTC) to become the most-traded digital asset on Coinbase. This indicates that American crypto investors are increasingly interested in Ripple’s native coin.

The sudden spark in interest comes days after the company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, met with United States President-elect Donald Trump to discuss including other assets besides BTC in the potential crypto reserve.

XRP Overtakes BTC

According to on-chain data from CoinGecko, the XRP/USD pair had a 24-hour traded volume of over $1.67 billion at press time, representing 23.57% of the total volume on Coinbase. This metric surpasses the BTC/USD pair, which held more than $1.4 billion, signaling 19.84% of the total traded volume on the crypto exchange.

Conversely, BTC retains dominance on the leading crypto exchange, Binance, while XRP comes second. However, Binance remains off-limit to American investors.

Several factors likely contributed to XRP’s widespread appeal to U.S. and global investors. Donald Trump’s upcoming inauguration as the next U.S. president will likely bring nationwide acceptance to crypto assets like BTC. A recent report confirmed that the president-elect could prioritize cryptocurrencies founded in the country, such as XRP, SOL, and USDC.

There are also clues that Trump’s administration will endorse a spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) for local investors to gain exposure to the third-largest cryptocurrency. The latest data on Polymarket shows that 67% of bettors expect an XRP-backed ETP this year. Investment firms like Bitwise, Canary Capital, and WisdomTree have filed for XRP ETF approval with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Effect on XRP’s Value

As investors flooded the XRP market, the cryptocurrency’s value soared more than 4% to $3.31. Notably, this brings the asset’s price closer to its all-time high (ATH) of $3.4 recorded in January 2018.

As seen in BTC, market watchers believe that Trump’s inclusion of XRP in the country’s potential strategic reserve will push the digital asset’s value to new frontiers.