Rising XRP price, can it continue to race in the digital asset market?

Recently, the price of XRP broke the $3 barrier, reaching its highest level since 2018, making it the leader in the digital currency market for 2025. In just 15 days, its price rose by 63%, surpassing other top ten digital currencies.
Currently, the price of the digital asset XRP is very close to its all-time high of $3.4, with a market value of $1.9 trillion, successfully surpassing asset management giant BlackRock. Behind this tremendous increase, there are expectations of friendly policies towards digital assets and a push for regulatory reform on digital assets in the United States. For many years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has engaged in a fierce legal battle with Ripple over the sale of the XRP token, and now it seems that everything is moving in a positive direction for XRP.
According to Diego Cardenas, a digital asset trader at Abra's platform, the rise of XRP is attributed to the increasing number of partnership partners and the launch of the stable RLPUSD currency, as well as speculations about potential ETF funds for the underlying assets. Monica Long, CEO of Ripple, also expected that ETF funds for the underlying assets will be approved soon, and that the new US government will expedite this process. Ripple's leadership has already been in direct communication with the incoming new US government, indicating the possibility of cooperation between the two sides in shaping a favorable regulatory environment for digital assets.
It is worth noting that the rise in the price of XRP aligns with the continued accumulation of "whales" owning from 1 million to 10 million tokens. Santiment analysis company pointed out that these whales have increased their ownership by 1.4 billion XRP tokens, valued at approximately $3.8 billion since November 12. Even during price stability, they continue to accumulate.
In addition, XRP also surpassed Bitcoin in Google search volume on January 15, and this is the second time in the last year that this has happened. Analysts believe that the rise in XRP's price is primarily attributed to investors in physical commodities, not to the derivatives market. Dom, one of the order flow analysts, pointed out that the cost of funds and the actual purchase price did not increase significantly during the 15% increase in XRP's price.
Some sectors believe that if the two assets continue to rise at a similar percentage, XRP's performance may be able to surpass Ethereum. Jith, the founder of Sovryn, says holding Ethereum now 'there is no reason for it' because XRP has received positive regulatory support and the first US government to support digital currencies is about to take office.
From a technical perspective, XRP shows strong signs of growth. After rising by 105% at the end of 2024, it surpassed the multi-flag pattern. However, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 79.5, indicating that the token is already overbought and may experience a temporary decline or sideways trading. Nevertheless, technical analyst Dark Defender remains optimistic about the long-term prospects of XRP. Based on Fibonacci retracement levels from the 2017 high, he believes that the price of XRP could reach $10.23 or even $18.23 in the short term. These targets may be achieved by 2025, making people eagerly look forward to the future of XRP.