TL;DR

• Edoardo Farina remains one of XRP’s most vocal supporters, comparing its current valuation to the price of Manhattan land in the 19th century.

• Other analysts offer more restrained optimism, suggesting the asset could climb to $5 soon.

A Massive Buying Opportunity?

Although XRP has gained over 350% in the past year, some market observers believe the asset could still be considered undervalued. Edoardo Farina – who closely monitors the asset’s price dynamics – is among the biggest optimists.

Earlier this week, he claimed that investing in XRP now equals buying real estate in Manhattan in the 19th century. Back in the day, one could purchase farmland in the area for less than $100 per acre, whereas residential lots cost less than $1,000. Nowadays, New York City’s economic and administrative center is one of the most expensive real estate markets globally, with prices often in the millions of dollars. 

It is worth noting that Farina is a huge proponent of Ripple’s native token and has made numerous bullish forecasts in the past. At the start of 2025, he claimed that $10 “seems like a conservative price prediction.” Earlier this month, he speculated that if the price surges to the aforementioned mark, then it can fly all the way to the ridiculous $100.

Reaching triple-digit territory would require XRP’s market cap to skyrocket to almost $6 trillion (based on the circulating supply of 58,6 billion tokens), which would place it 3x above BTC’s. Currently, the coin’s capitalization is less than $150 billion. 

More Realistic Predictions

Farina isn’t the only bullish analyst on XRP, but many others have recently set much more modest targets for the short term. 

The X user CRYPTOWZRD chipped in earlier today (May 16) when the price retested the $2.34 intraday support territory. They claimed a positive reversal from this mark “should trigger a long opportunity.” As witnessed later, the price climbed to as high as $2.43.

At the beginning of the month, Captain Faibik suggested that XRP at $2 is “an absolute gift.” The analyst also envisioned a favorable scenario where the valuation approaches $5 in the near future.

After last week’s triumphant surge past $100,000 following the promising news for a trade deal between the US and China, the current one began with another leg up for bitcoin but there was no all-time high despite the growing hopes.

The meeting between the two great powers took place during the weekend, and they jointly announced a tariff reduction and a pause on Monday morning. This had an immediate impact on BTC’s price, which jumped past $105,000 and neared $106,000 for the first time since January.

However, the asset faced a violent rejection at this point, and the bears pushed it south to under $101,000. Nevertheless, it managed to remain within a six-digit price territory and has stuck here ever since it broke above it on May 8.

More volatility was expected on Tuesday as the US CPI numbers came out. Although they were slightly better than expected, which raises the possibility of an interest rate reduction this year, at least in the eyes of many, BTC’s price remained relatively flat as it has recovered to around $104,000.

That expected volatility arrived a few days later when bitcoin dropped to $101,500 on Thursday amid reports that long-term holders have begun to offload portions of their holdings. Nevertheless, BTC has recovered most losses and now sits close to $104,000 once again.

On a weekly scale, its performance is quite sluggish, unlike ETH, DOGE, and HYPE. All three have jumped by double-digits and now trade close to $2,600, $0.23, and $28, respectively.

PI also had a big week as it faced massive volatility before and after Pi Network’s major announcement, which wasn’t a Binance listing as many anticipated, but a designated $100 million investment fund.

Market Data

Market Cap: $3.447T | 24H Vol: $120B | BTC Dominance: 59.9%

BTC: $103,900 (+0.7%) | ETH: $2,586 (+11.7%) | XRP: $2.42 (+2.4%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

These 5 Altseason Indicators Are All in Alignment, Is it Go Time For Altcoins? As the title of this Market Update suggests, there has been an ongoing narrative in the cryptocurrency community that an altseason has finally started. This article lists five major indicators suggesting that this relatively short period in the market has begun.

Arthur Hayes Predicts Capital Controls Will Propel Bitcoin to $1M by 2028. The former BitMEX CEO remains confident that BTC will eventually surge to $1 million. In his latest iteration of this prediction, he reasoned that such a spectacular 10x surge from the current levels would become possible due to the looming capital controls in the United States.

Bitcoin Metrics Align for Extended Bull Run as Price Holds Above Six Figures: Analysts. Although many believe an altseason is upon us, there are some metrics suggesting that BTC should not be counted out yet. Vital signs, such as the growing realized capitalization as well as renewed capital inflows, hint that bitcoin’s run has just started and the asset is still very much in a bull cycle.

ETH Withdrawals Surge to $1.2B Weekly as Price Nears 3-Month High. Ethereum has turned the whole narrative around it upside down in the past few weeks, and investors have started to pull out massive quantities of ETH from exchanges instead of the recent sell-offs. Its price touched a multi-month peak this week even though it was stopped above $2,700, at least for now.

Retail Bitcoin Investors Are Returning — A Sign of Renewed Confidence? Although BTC’s price rallied hard in the months after the US elections, there was no actual retail hype, unlike previous cycles. Now, though, on-chain information claims that such smaller market participants have finally reemerged, which could mean more gains in the near future but also the nearing of the cycle’s top.

Bitcoin Whales Load Up 83K BTC as Retail Sells Off: $110K Price Target in Sight? The past few weeks have seen a substantial divergence in the overall behavior between whales and smaller investors. The former cohort has continued to accumulate, while the latter has sold off some of their holdings, perhaps to realize profits during BTC’s climb above $100,000.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Hype, and Solana – click here for the complete price analysis.

[PRESS RELEASE – San Francisco, California, May 16th, 2025]

Hawkins Was Instrumental in Strategy, Marketing & Communications That Helped Drive Global Adoption of the USDC Stablecoin, Will Play Central Role at Aleo in Shaping Privacy and Security, Pioneering Voice and Policy Engagements

The Aleo Network Foundation (Aleo), the leading platform for building private, secure, scalable, and programmable Web3 applications, today announced the appointment of Josh Hawkins as Executive Vice President of Strategy, Policy & Communications.

Hawkins joins from Circle Financial, the global fintech firm behind the $60 billion USDC stablecoin, where he served as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications, most recently building a team in Strategy and Policy focused on strategic positioning and global thought leadership, playing a central role in shaping the company’s voice and executive presence.

At Circle, Hawkins helped guide the company through its rapid ascent as one of the most trusted names in digital assets. He led global communications strategy during critical moments of industry evolution, helped manage regulatory engagement across key markets around the world, and was a public voice for transparency, trust, and responsible innovation in crypto. His leadership extended beyond media and messaging — helping Circle navigate policy frameworks, expand its global footprint, and build institutional confidence in the crypto economy.

At Aleo, Hawkins will oversee global communications and policy. His focus will be on amplifying Aleo’s mission to bring programmable privacy to the Web3 world and the enterprise while helping shape the broader conversation around privacy, security, and compliance in the decentralized internet.

“Aleo is playing a critical role in enabling blockchain to deliver on its true potential by offering the most secure privacy in the history of technology,” said Hawkins. “The teams commitment to open-source values, cutting-edge cryptography, and thoughtful engagement with policy and developer communities is exactly what the industry needs. I’m looking forward to joining this exceptional team to help scale that vision globally.”

“We’re excited to welcome Josh to Aleo,” said Leena Im, Chief Operating Officer of the Aleo Network Foundation. “His deep expertise at the intersection of communications, policy, and fintech will be invaluable as we grow our presence in the global Web3 ecosystem. Josh’s leadership will help position Aleo as not just a technology leader, but a public voice for what responsible privacy can look like on the internet.”

Aleo is backed by top-tier investors including a16z, Haun Ventures, SoftBank, Samsung Next, and others. In 2024, Aleo announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to support the deployment and scalability of zero-knowledge applications with a robust developer infrastructure.

About Aleo

Aleo is building the infrastructure for the next generation of private, decentralized applications. Using zero-knowledge cryptography, Aleo enables scalable, off-chain execution with on-chain verification — delivering privacy without compromising programmability. Developers can build powerful, secure applications without exposing user data.

As the industry continues to push toward more secure and privacy-first solutions, Aleo remains committed to making privacy a native, accessible feature for all builders on the decentralized web. For more information about Aleo and to stay updated on its latest developments, visit www.aleo.org.