What You Need to Know
- XRP jumped 11% this Thursday, leading growth among major cryptocurrencies, with trading volumes reaching $1.3 billion on the South Korean exchange, Upbit.
- A recent analysis highlighted the unusually high trading activity for XRP on South Korean exchanges, historically associated with price fluctuations favoring increases.
- Projections suggest a bullish year, with firms anticipating Bitcoin to hit $185,000 and Ethereum (ETH) to reach $5,500.
Crypto currencies experienced significant increases over the last day as the market looks forward to a favorable year ahead, with Bitcoin (BTC) rising above $95,000 after last week's downturn.
XRP's sharp rise in value is attributed primarily to over $1.3 billion in trading on Upbit, a report by CoinDesk noted. Other major coins saw increases too, with Cardano's ADA, Solana's SOL, and Chainlink's LINK all up to 8%. Ether (ETH) and Binance's BNB saw gains of 3%, while lesser-known coins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) increased by 5%.
The broader CoinDesk 20 index, which tracks leading tokens while excluding stablecoins, rose by 5.8%.
Optimism for 2025 is largely driven by the anticipation of favorable policies under incoming U.S. president Donald Trump, who has promised a supportive environment for cryptocurrencies and a strategic reserve for Bitcoin. Bets are also placed on the Bitcoin halving event in 2024, which usually leads to increased prices due to a restricted supply of new tokens.
Firms like Galaxy Research predict substantial institutional adoption of Bitcoin and assert that a number of Nasdaq-100 companies and nation-states are expected to start investing in this cryptocurrency.
"For 2025, while optimistic regulatory changes are anticipated post-Trump's inauguration, we expect January to bring significant institutional reallocation of assets," QCP Capital shared.
Some analysts predict that Bitcoin’s maturation as a mainstream asset may stabilize its notorious volatility, fostering broader institutional engagement.
"The correlation of BTC to SPX remains the highest as 2024 ends, marking a significant trend in Bitcoin's journey towards mainstream acceptance. This maturation phase might lead to decreased volatility, facilitating more diversification in traditional investment portfolios," said Augustine Fan, head of insights at SOFA.
