XRP, once a touted rival to Bitcoin, has overcome years of a downtrend as it skyrocketed "to the moon" over the weekend to first topple Solana (SOL) then ultimately flip Tether (USDT), the world's largest stablecoin, to claim the Top 3 throne on cryptocurrency's most valuable ranks.
Data from CoinMarketCap showed that XRP made the flip Sunday night as its price surged above $2 – about a dollar away from its all-time high of $3.40 back in 2018.
At one point on Sunday night, XRP's market capitalization surged above $140 billion, compared to USDT's $134 billion.
$XRP Chart Takes on 'God' Form
XRP, the native crypto asset of the XRP Ledger, has been up by more than 30% in the last 24 hours amid an above-80% spike in the last seven days.
Barchart posted the token's chart Sunday night, showing what it called the formation of a "God Candle," which is a significantly bullish signal in an asset's movement, suggesting that there is strong buying pressure.
The altcoin, which once challenged Bitcoin (BTC) as it overtook Ethereum (ETH) at some point during the pandemic year and became the world's second-largest crypto by market cap, is now on its way toward challenging Ethereum in Top 2.
As XRP holder Edward Farina put it minutes after the token flipped USDT, the "$XRP train has left the station."
#XRPArmy Vindicated in 4-Year HODL Strategy
Notably, XRP was the world's third-largest crypto by market cap before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple, the token's largest holder, late in 2020.
New Chair Gary Gensler picked up the case when he entered the SEC in 2021, and since then, the digital asset's price has plummeted and struggled to get back above $1.
For the XRP Army, the community of XRP holders who did not waver in believing in the XRP Ledger's potential through years of legal woes, their beloved token's return to the Top 3 powerhouse is a vindication.
Holders took X by storm, filling the social media platform Sunday with memes to express how they felt now that XRP has risen above the SEC storm. Other crypto users also congratulated their peers for "hodling" all these years, even as others doubted whether the token would ever recover.
XRP is a top business and finance trend on X as more XRP holders celebrate the return of what could be the only cryptocurrency "that actually has a feasible chance of surpassing Bitcoin," as analyst Jacob King projected.
Are $BTC Maxis 'Scared' of $XRP?
King, a well-followed figure in the crypto space for his expertise in finance, said Saturday that there is "a reason" why Bitcoin maximalists – people who believe there is no alternative to BTC – "relentlessly attack" XRP and "corrupted" regulators like the SEC file "bogus" lawsuits against Ripple. "They're scared of it," he said.
He went on to say that Bitcoin is "entirely propped up by Tether/Fraud," while XRP has real utility. His statements came a few weeks after 21Shares filed with the SEC to issue an XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF).
In its filing, the crypto investment provider compared the Bitcoin network and XRP Ledger, saying the latter's consensus-based algorithm allows it to be "fast-energy-efficient and scalable" for cross-border financial transactions.
