XRP soars nearly 25% after Gensler exit date announced

XRP has gone up by 24.9% in the past 24 hours of trading. The token’s price bounced after SEC Head Gary Gensler announced he will be leaving his post, effective on Jan. 20 2025.

According to data from crypto.news, XRP(XRP) is currently trading hands at $1.38 after going up by more than 24% in the past 24 hours of trading. In the past seven days, XRP has been on an ongoing rally with its price skyrocketing by nearly 75%.

Since the start of November, Ripple’s token has seen a rise of more than 161.26%, surging past the $1 threshold and even breaking through the token’s three-year high of $1.268 after positive regulatory news and increased whale investor activity. Though, it remains to be seen whether XRP is capable of surpassing its all-time-high of $3.40.

XRP is currently ranked at sixth place on the crypto leader board by market capitalization, maintaining a $78.7 billion market cap at the time of writing. The token holds a fully diluted valuation of nearly $140 billion and a maximum supply of 100 billion tokens.

XRP rises after Gensler’s planned exit

XRP’s latest surge is likely to be due to U.S Securities and Exchange Commission Head Gary Gensler confirming he will leave his post. Since 2020, Ripple Labs and the SEC have engaged in a legal battle over the agency’s accusations that the company sold XRP as an unregistered security.

On Nov. 22, Gensler posted a thread on X, announcing that he will be “stepping down” from his position as Chairman of the SEC, effective on Jan. 20, 2025. Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty promptly reposted Gensler’s thread with the caption “… and scene.”

Shortly after, the XRP token went up to $1.22 before continuing to climb higher until it briefly reached a peak of $1.42 in the hours following Gensler’s confirmation.

Before Gensler’s post, Alderoty weighed in on the discourse surrounding who would be the best candidate for Gensler’s replacement. He did not mention names, but he did list down what he believed were the “table stakes” for the SEC’s future chairman.

“A lot of unsolicited advice on here about who should (or shouldn’t) be the next SEC Chair. I trust the transition team to make the right call with these table stakes for crypto in mind,” said Alderoty.

Among the points he mentioned were to put an end to non-fraud crypto legislations on the SEC Head’s first day, get pro-crypto SEC commissioners Mark T. Uyeda and Hester M. Peirce to stay on, work with financial regulators and Congress on clear crypto regulations and renounce the 2018 Hinman speech and the 2019 “Framework for Investment Contract Analysis of Digital Assets.”