There is a new cryptocurrency that has emerged as the favorite choice of the retail traders this market cycle, beating Bitcoin. And it’s not Ethereum.
The coin’s daily active addresses have grown a whopping 480% more than those of Bitcoin since the 2022 bear cycle.
Well, the coin we are talking about is XRP, the fourth largest cryptocurrency.
The latest report by the on-chain analysis platform Glassnode sheds further light on this development.
Since the 2022 bottom, XRP’s quarterly average of daily active addresses has risen by more than 490%. In contrast, the figure for Bitcoin stands at a mere 10%.
Though both the cryptocurrencies have shown a similar price appreciation of roughly 5-6 times since the 2022 low, their trajectories couldn’t be more different.
While Bitcoin's price rally has been rather organic over the period, XRP didn’t experience a substantial surge in its value until December 2024.
The price pattern of XRP is indicative of retail-driven speculation rather than a sustained inflow of new demand, the report said.
The asset has seen its realized cap add $30 billion within the last six months, thanks to the new retail capital influx. The figure now stands at over $64 billion.
It is noteworthy to highlight that the growing retail interest in XRP is primarily driven by two factors.
First is its inclusion in the U.S. digital assets stockpile as per President Donald Trump’s executive order. Another is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropping the securities violations case against Ripple.
However, XRP investors are likely to be vulnerable to downside volatility, as profit-taking seems to be waning now, the report cautions.
As per Kraken's price feeds, BTC and XRP were trading at $82,467.45 and $2.05 at press time, respectively.