Oh, the world of crypto, there's never a dull moment. The minute never goes by, except for some interesting events. XRP, a token from the all-time-financial platform Ripple, has taken over the South Korean crypto markets, outshoned Bitcoin in related trading volumes, and conduited trading markets. I love it when local markets sometimes push to have their own identity, and South Korea has always been a den of crypto enthusiasm.
What I mean is, from what I see, XRP accounted for a stunning 40% of the trade on UpBit, Korea's largest exchange. That is huge! It does not happen so often that Bitcoin gets dethroned, if only for a while. If you were to ask me, this surge in interest could have been due to the confluence of a lot of factors all at once.
Very recently, the announcements by CME and CF Benchmarks regarding the introduction of XRP indices must have built up some hype. I would say, though, that it was Brad Garlinghouse's positive commentary relating to the settlement of the suit by the SEC that really lit the fuse.
I find the interaction of the news with the crypto prices quite interesting, to be honest. It's almost like running a real-time experiment inside the market's mind. In this case, I think Korean traders are betting big on Ripple's positive result. Pretty risky, but then again, crypto is high-risk by nature.
Yet, I am not too bullish about its move, which can be so drastic. After all, markets have a tendency to overshoot, especially in crypto; therefore, anything moving too far one way is an exception and not the rule, and what goes up must come down. I believe traders who are looking to pile up now on XRP could be in for quite a roller coaster.
Remember: even positive news can lead to "buy the rumor, sell the news.".
It is hard to underestimate the force of local media and influencers in driving those trends. I saw this same phenomenon in the rest of the markets; only South Korea seems more susceptible to these waves of crypto enthusiasm. It is definitely a double-edged sword that the same drives may fuel innovation and adoption but, at the same time, induce volatility and thus potential losses for late entrants.
This should be quite interesting moving forward. Would XRP build on this momentum or experience a pullback? I feel that much lies in suspense for this token vis-à-vis the real resolution of the SEC case. If it were to go in favor, we may see this rally globally. Not so much if not; you wouldn't want to be holding some XRP at the very top.