XRP investors are enjoying the fruits of this bullish cycle, which has taken the cryptocurrency's price to levels not seen in 6 years.
The rapid growth of the currency issued by Ripple Labs has allowed it to position itself as the third most valuable on the market, with a value exceeding $146 billion.
To get to this point, XRP had to go through a long road that spanned years and included a legal dispute between the asset's issuing company and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
However, Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election sparked enthusiasm in the digital asset market, and thanks to this, XRP is experiencing a kind of rebirth. Or, as analyst Marija Matic says, the resurgence of “dinosaur cryptocurrencies”, which due to their longevity and trajectory, are experiencing a resurgence driven by renewed institutional interest.
In the midst of the great moment that XRP is going through, the question arises: Who are the ones who are really betting on this cryptocurrency?
One name that stands out on this list is Chris Larsen, co-founder and former CEO of Ripple. According to data from the XRP explorer Scan, Larsen has six addresses that total 2.9 billion XRP, equivalent to $7.25 billion.
Next up is Arthur Britto, co-founder of Ripple Labs who played a key role in the cryptocurrency’s development. He currently has seven active addresses holding 1.2 billion XRP, valued at over $3 billion.
At the top of the list is an anonymous address holding more than 500 million XRP, equivalent to $1.253 billion. Ripple Labs, meanwhile, has 48 billion XRP in storage, or $115 billion.
Binance, the world's largest exchange, has a total of $3 billion spread across 14 customer addresses It is worth noting that Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse may also be one of the largest holders of XRP. However, there are no major details on how much of the assets he owns. According to the Live XRPL explorer , the entrepreneur has 842 XRP on one address, valued at $2,118, which is really low compared to the billions of XRP.
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple. Source: Wikipedia.
Another thing to note is that companies that have invested in Ripple projects such as Andreessen Horowitz, IDG Capital Partners, and Blockchain Capital, are not listed on the explorers mentioned above.
Although big investors are celebrating the fruit of their patience, there are enough reasons to believe that the asset's good moment could continue for a while longer. This optimism is based on the imminent resignation of Gary Gensler, the current head of the SEC.
Chris Giancarlo , former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said he would bet that with Gensler's departure, the agency will dismiss the lawsuit against Ripple.
A favorable regulatory environment would also be key to accelerating the launch of XRP spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States. This would give the asset exposure to large investors.
If the aforementioned lawsuit were to be dismissed, it would be very likely that these investment products would be given the green light and reach the market. The companies Canary Capital, Bitwise, WisdomTree and 21Shares have submitted applications for their XRP-based investment products.
Finally, we cannot overlook that Ripple is about to launch RLUSD, its new stablecoin, a step that will further strengthen its role as a key player in the institutional market.
