From a very favorable ending to the four-year-long lawsuit against the SEC to a potential XRP ETF in the States, Ripple seems to be on a massive roll.

However, there’s little impact on XRP’s price, which remains almost 30% away from its all-time high and has failed to make a move in the past few weeks. Why so?

Everything Going in Ripple’s Way

Let’s rewind the type about a year ago. Imagine we are in late March 2024. The crypto landscape is not bad in any case, as the BTC ETFs had just gone live in the States, the devastating 2022 bear market is long gone, and bitcoin even charted a new all-time high. But it’s not great for some altcoins, such as XRP.

The company behind it continues its long and exhausting legal battle against the US securities regulator. In fact, recall that this lawsuit, which started in late December 2020, resulted in numerous partners abandoning the Ripple ship as well as exchanges delisting its native cryptocurrency.

Although the Garlinghouse-led firm had secured some court wins in the following few years, there’s no end in sight to the lawsuit as the SEC’s war on crypto rages on. XRP’s price is stuck at $0.6 after a few unsuccessful breakout attempts.

Now, imagine someone came and told you that a year later, there will be a pro-crypto president in the White House, the SEC will have a new and friendlier leadership, the lawsuit will go Ripple’s way, the company will consider an IPO, XRP could have its own ETF in the US, and the token was even mentioned by the same POTUS to be included in the States’s strategic crypto reserve.

You might think they are insane, right? Well, that’s what happened in the past several months or so. But most of those transpired in the past few weeks, so where’s the XRP price surge?

Where’s the Surge?

The most obvious and probable answer to this lies in what happened between November 2024 and January 2025. The moonshot happened then. XRP stood at the aforementioned $0.6 level ahead of the US elections but skyrocketed to $3.4 in January when it matched its 2018 ATH.

This was most likely a rally driven by hope, also known as ‘buy the rumor.’ It rocketed after the elections, jumped following Gensler’s resignation announcement, and pumped ahead of Trump’s inauguration.

When it came down to the actual regulatory changes, which are more than evident now, the SEC lawsuit closure, and everything in between, XRP failed to register the same type of consistent gains. Don’t get me wrong; it rose in value but quickly lost momentum.

The question now is whether it will fly on the rumors of an upcoming XRP ETF in the States or has that been priced in as well. And, if all of the aforementioned positive developments within the Ripple ecosystem couldn’t help XRP break its ATH, what can?

After yesterday’s push beneath $87,000, the bears seem to have lost control of the market, as BTC has spiked above $88,000 and is eyeing $90,000.

Several altcoins are with notable gains over the past 24 hours, led by reps of the meme coin niche. In contrast, PI keeps dumping.

BTC Stable at $88K

The primary cryptocurrency experienced a brief surge past $87,000 last Thursday morning, after the latest FOMC meeting and the triumphant announcement by Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse. Although it failed to breach that level decisively and was pushed south in the following days, the predominantly positive sentiment remained.

The weekend was quiet, with BTC standing still at $84,000. It wasn’t until Sunday evening that the asset started to chart gains. They continued on the following day, and bitcoin peaked at $88,800 (on Bitstamp), where it faced an immediate rejection that pushed it south by over two grand.

Nevertheless, the bulls remain adamant and helped BTC recover. As of now, the cryptocurrency stands at above $88,000, and its market capitalization sits tall at $1.750 trillion on CG. Its dominance over the alts, which lost just shy of 1% last week, is now at 58.3%.

Memes on the Rise

Meme coins were hit the hardest during the latest crash that transpired in the past few months, with massive 50-60% declines since their local peaks. The past 24 hours have brought some excitement in their niche, as the three largest have posted substantial gains.

DOGE has risen by 11% and sits above $0.2, SHIB has spiked by over 16% to trade at $0.000016, and PEPE is up by 13% and has a price tag of $0.000009.

ETH, XRP, SOL, ADA, LINK, XLM, AVAX, TRX, and LEO are also slightly in the green, while BNB and TON have marked minor losses. PI has dumped the most yet again, losing over 10% of value on a daily scale.

The total crypto market cap has risen by over $30 billion since yesterday and is up to $3 trillion on CG.

Bitcoin’s latest rally past $88,000 has reignited bullish sentiment across the market, with some traders predicting a surge to $159,000.

However, blockchain analytics firm Santiment has issued a cautionary note, suggesting this optimism could backfire.

Greed Could Spell Trouble

Crypto markets thrive on sentiment, and right now, greed is creeping back in after a period in late February and early March that saw fear as the sector’s primary driver. Bitcoin’s recent resurgence to $88,500 has stirred fresh optimism among retail traders, with Santiment revealing that social media mentions of the cryptocurrency’s price targets above $100,000 have spiked.

As crypto has bounced nicely in the second half of March, traders have swung the pendulum back toward mild greed. After showing major fear in late February and early March following two stints of Bitcoin dipping as low as $78K, it appears that this rebound to $88.5K has… pic.twitter.com/WGvmvKSv2X

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) March 25, 2025

Furthermore, in an ongoing poll on X by the analytics platform, more than 60% of respondents believe that BTC will break the $100,000 mark, while 40% anticipate a drop below $75,000. At the time of writing, over 892 people had participated in the poll, with 14 hours left until it closed.

While the community is flooding social media with these lofty price targets, Santiment noted a troubling pattern: historically, markets tend to move contrary to public sentiment, meaning heightened greed could signal an incoming correction.

Bitcoin’s upward momentum was halted just below $89,000, where strong resistance emerged. Analysts attributed this resistance to the convergence of the 50-day moving average and descending trendline from the asset’s all-time high.

Additionally, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has entered overbought territory, indicating that the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap may have reached a local top. Crypto watcher Ali Martinez previously pointed out that such instances have often led to significant corrections.

Recent whale activity supports this concern. While these large holders resumed accumulation earlier in the month, contributing to BTC’s price jump from the $77,000 level to beyond $88,000, on-chain data shows that some have started offloading their holdings. Santiment recently reported that more than 20,000 BTC, worth about $1.8 billion, were sold around the local peak.

Moreover, concerns over the defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox’s recent billion-dollar BTC movement have added to the uncertainty. History shows that such large transfers often create market fear, prompting sell-offs.

Market Outlook

Despite the worries, Bitcoin has gone back above $88,000 as of this writing after spending most of the morning at $87,000. The current price is a meager 1.4% rise from yesterday’s level, but it means that over the past week, BTC has gained 5.7%, outpacing the broader crypto market, which has only gained 2.3% in that period.

However, the number one cryptocurrency’s dominance has dropped to 58.3% as altcoins like Cronos (CRO) and Dogecoin (DOGE) recorded significant gains.