Bitcoin Starts 2025 on a High, Boosting XRP by 11%.

XRP Leads Crypto Market with 11% Surge as South Korean Trading Drives Momentum

XRP posted a notable 11% increase on Thursday, emerging as the standout performer among major cryptocurrencies. This surge came alongside a spike in trading volumes from South Korean exchanges, which has historically been a signal of potential price volatility, often with an upward bias. A CoinDesk analysis earlier this week highlighted the unusually high volumes of XRP trades on platforms like UpBit, a Korea-based exchange, which saw $1.3 billion in activity.

As of Thursday, XRP’s impressive rally led growth in the market, followed by other major cryptocurrencies such as Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), and Chainlink (LINK), which all gained up to 8%. Meanwhile, Ether (ETH) and Binance Coin (BNB) each rose by around 3%, and popular memecoins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) saw a 5% boost.

The CoinDesk 20, an index that tracks the 20 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization (excluding stablecoins), gained 5.8% in total, signaling broad-based strength across the crypto sector.

The optimism fueling the market as 2025 begins is largely tied to the potential for a more crypto-friendly environment in the U.S. under the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. Trump’s campaign promises to implement policies favorable to digital assets, including a proposed strategic bitcoin reserve, have added to the positive sentiment.

Additionally, the upcoming Bitcoin halving event in 2024 has historically been a catalyst for bullish market trends, as the halving reduces the supply of new bitcoin entering the market. The broader crypto market tends to follow a four-year cycle tied to these halvings, with key sectors like memecoins, AI, and real-world assets expected to emerge as the leaders in the next cycle.

While much of the market’s optimism is rooted in historical cycles, firms like Galaxy Research have predicted large-scale adoption by institutional investors, corporations, and even nation-states. The research firm expects at least five Nasdaq-100 companies and five countries to make substantial bitcoin investments in 2025, with target prices of $185,000 for bitcoin and $5,500 for ether.

QCP Capital, based in Singapore, echoed these sentiments, noting that January could be a pivotal moment for institutional rebalancing. “With broad institutional adoption of bitcoin, we expect higher allocations, which will further strengthen Bitcoin’s market dominance and stabilize price movements,” the firm stated in a recent Telegram message. “This will likely reduce volatility, aligning bitcoin’s market behavior more closely with traditional asset classes.”

Some analysts believe that bitcoin’s increasing mainstream acceptance could lead to reduced volatility, further enticing institutional investors to integrate it into their portfolios.

Augustine Fan, head of insights at SOFA, explained to CoinDesk that “Bitcoin’s strong correlation with the S&P 500 remains the most prominent as we wrap up 2024. This further suggests that bitcoin is heading toward becoming a mainstream asset class. As bitcoin’s realized volatility declines, it will provide traditional portfolios with better diversification and alpha potential.”

Fan concluded, “We expect volatility to continue decreasing as the asset class matures, and we believe that crypto, much like other asset classes, will follow this trend.”