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Crypto Chaos: Will Ripple’s XRP Make You Richer Than Your In-laws?

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In the grand bazaar of cryptocurrencies, where coins jostle for attention like street performers with suspiciously dexterous monkeys, XRP (that’s Ripple to its friends and enemies alike) has been doing something extraordinary this week: absolutely refusing to collapse. Instead, it’s been floating serenely above the murky depths it inhabited earlier this year, up 40% and giving smug looks to the other coins bobbing below.

On Monday, XRP found itself strutting around with a price tag of $2.27 and a market cap that could make a Swiss banker develop a nervous tic: $136 billion. That places it at number four in the global cryptocurrency popularity contest—a podium finish, if you’re the sort of person who counts down from infinity.

So, what magical forces could send XRP soaring higher? There’s the growing role of Ripple in the financial services industry, which is, frankly, not as boring as it sounds. Banks love it, which is either a terrifying omen or a sign of the apocalypse depending who you ask. And, of course, there’s the tantalizing specter of an Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) approval, the crypto version of a royal decree.

Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple Labs, has decided to do what anyone would after a wrestling match with the SEC: expand everywhere. He’s busy shaking hands with bankers and generally trying to break the stranglehold of SWIFT, the dinosaur of international payments—even though nobody ever asked for a Jurassic Park remake featuring money wires.

ETF fever is spreading: the SEC has been bombarded by applications from Bitwise, 21Shares, Franklin Templeton, and WisdomTree—names that sound like competitors on a particularly aggressive season of “The Apprentice.”

Not to be outdone, ProShares and Teucrium have got their futures-based XRP ETFs approved already, which means spot-based ETFs are now just hanging around in the agency’s inbox, clutching hopeful resumes and waiting for a callback.

Polymarket puts the odds of an XRP ETF becoming reality at 78%, which is about the same chance as getting rained on during an English summer picnic. Even JPMorgan, a mighty fortress of men in pinstripes, predicts over $8 billion in the first year. If they’re right, XRP could leave Ethereum’s $2.5 billion ETF-flavored lunch looking rather meager.

If you need further tea leaves: the new Teucrium 2x Long Daily XRP ETF vacuumed up $54 million in under a month. That’s just long enough for a blockchain bro to tweet “wen moon?” and actually mean it. 🚀

XRP price technical analysis: Can it hit $5?

On the daily chart (which is where traders go to stare at squiggly lines and pretend it’s not gambling), XRP has clawed its way back up from $1.60 to $2.355, breaking above what the experts call a ‘falling wedge’ but what looks suspiciously like a slice of pizza with better prospects. Historically, that’s a bullish sign—unless it isn’t, in which case, never mind.

Apparently, the Relative Strength Index has recently strutted above the neutral 50, which is meant to indicate “strengthening momentum” but mostly sounds like something your gym coach yells until you buy new sneakers.

XRP is now swaggering above the 50-day and 100-day moving averages, looking back at them in its rear view mirror with a smirk. Bulls are setting their sights on the magical $3 level, because round numbers always have special powers in financial folklore.

A break above that would put the head-and-shoulders pattern in the chart (yes, that’s genuinely what it’s called) in jeopardy of being chucked into the creative financial pattern bin. And if ETF approval magic happens, who knows? The next stop might just be $5—which, in crypto years, is right around the corner from “I told you so” and just past “please send snacks.” 🤑

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2025-04-29 17:54

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