Key Insights
- The crypto market has made a comeback over the last day, with Bitcoin reclaiming the $100,000 zone.
- XRP appears to be leading this rally with an 11% price increase in the last 24 hours.
- This price increase came just as Ripple secured more MTL licenses in two key US states.
- As far as technical analysis goes, XRP could be hitting a $5 high as early as February.
XRP has been a major gainer over the last day, and is by far the best performing cryptocurrency among the top 5.
The cryptocurrency gained an impressive 11% over the last 24 hours, hitting an intra-day high of $3.21 and consolidating around $3.17 at the time of writing.
The reason for this impressive performance interestingly comes from some new developments in Ripple’s regulatory battle with the SEC, as well as a new license that has now been awarded to Ripple.
Here’s the full story of XRP’s performance, the wave of bearish liquidations it has experienced, and the bullish indicators pointing towards an even stronger upside move.
Ripple Secures MTL Licenses in Key U.S. States
One of the major factors that influenced XRP’s performance was Ripple’s recent acquisition of Money Transmitter Licenses (MTLs) in New York and Texas.
Interestingly, New York and Texas are known for being some of the most regulatory stringent states in the US—meaning that the MTLs Ripple secured are a major milestone.
As it stands, Ripple now boasts over 50 of such licenses in the US and has added these to its global compliance portfolio of more than 60 licenses from countries like Singapore, Ireland and the Cayman Islands, among others.
These licenses mean that Ripple is becoming more and more able to conduct cross-border payments in a legal manner.
As expected, this is extremely good news for XRP, its native cryptocurrency.
Overleveraged XRP Shorts Wiped Out
The rally on XRP also triggered a wave of liquidations in the derivatives market, as Coinglass data shows.
The online resource shows that over the last 24 hours, around $4.1 million in shorts were wiped off the market, compared to less than $1 million in longs.
Moreover, something similar happened around 13 to 16 January, where nearly $60 million in shorts were wiped out and XRP jumped to its new 8-year high of $3.4.
This liquidation pattern shows that something big could be on the way for the cryptocurrency, as long as the bulls continue to push XRP upwards and past key resistance levels.
Bullish Technicals Point to $5 Target
According to the daily XRP charts, the cryptocurrency is showing some strong bullish potential.
The 4-hour chart shows a bull-flag pattern, which is formed when a consolidation phase occurs after strong bullish action.
The consolidation is looking towards a break, just as XRP continues to test the $3.3 price level at the upper trendline of this formation.
As far as the charts show, a breakout above this formation could lead XRP towards the $5 price level easily.
Moreover, the cryptocurrency hitting this target could occur as early as February.
Considering how the RSI momentum has shot upwards from 58 to 62 in a matter of hours, the bulls seem to be extra-active and ready to take XRP towards new heights.
