The cryptocurrency market has been on a significant uptrend over the past month, adding in around $600 billion to its total market capitalization over the period amid a bull run that helped Bitcoin top the $100,000 mark for the first time ever.
XRP was a major beneficiary of the recent cryptocurrency rally, surging more than 130% over the past 30 days from around $1.12 to now stand at $2.57. The cryptocurrency was a major beneficiary of Republican president Donald Trump winning the U.S. elections, as it’s up over 370% since then.
Nevertheless, today the cryptocurrency saw its price drop around 3.8%, as just 24 hours ago XRP was trading at $2.68.
Several factors could be behind XRP’s downturn. The cryptocurrency market as a whole has been seeing a slight correction ahead of today’s interest rate decision from the Federal Reserve, which is expected to be a 25 basis points cut.
On top of that, XRP in specific recently rallied over hype surrounding the launch of Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. The highly-anticipated cryptocurrency is pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar and positions Ripple in direct competition with established stablecoins issuers, which include Tether, Circle, and PayPal.
The fintech firm has noted that RLUSD will be “available on global exchanges” and that each token is “fully backed by U.S. dollar deposits, U.S. government bonds, and cash equivalents.” The firm will bolster the stablecoin’s transparency through independent monthly audits.
RLUSD will initially be available on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum, but there are plans to expand it to additional blockchains and decentralized finance applications. According to CoinDesk, RLUSD’s launch has attracted bids of up to 836 XRP on on-chain marketplaces ahead of the release.
Featured image via Unsplash.
