XRP Price Spike Outpaces Bitcoin as Open Interest Nears 6-Month High

As Bitcoin breaks new records, the third biggest digital coin by market cap, XRP, is actually making larger 24-hour gains.

The coin is right now the biggest winner out of the top 10 cryptocurrencies, having surged by over 12% in 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Its price currently stands at $2.79.

And open interest for the coin now stands at a monthly high of $7.2 billion, per data from CoinGlass, not far off its January all-time high mark of $8.3 billion. It’s the highest open interest mark for XRP in nearly six months, bouncing back from a recent low of about $3 billion in April.

In the world of derivatives, open interest is the collective value of futures contracts that have not yet been settled by traders.

Over the past seven days, XRP is also the biggest gainer, just outpacing Dogecoin with a nearly 27% gain during that span.

The coin is one of the oldest in the space, and despite still being 18% off its $3.40 all-time high mark from 2018, XRP has made headlines again following the election win of President Donald Trump. It even had a close call with matching its record mark back in January, but fell just short of beating its seven-year-old peak.

Fintech Ripple, whose founders created XRP, donated to a pro-crypto super PAC during the election cycle and are working to help shape crypto policy in Washington. President Trump campaigned heavily on a ticket to help the digital asset space, and has made numerous moves to support the industry since retaking office.

Bitcoin’s price hit new all-time high marks on Wednesday and Thursday before surging again to a new record Friday. The leading cryptocurrency was recently priced at $117,321, after hitting a new record price of $118,667.

A rise in the flagship coin’s price has brought the rest of the crypto market with it, although while Bitcoin sits near its own recently set peak, many other coins and tokens are still far off from setting their own respective records.