XRP overtakes Bitcoin in South Korea: Will positive sentiment fuel the altcoin?

• XRP’s 24-hour trading volume in South Korea reached $650 million, outstripping Bitcoin’s $282 million.
• This trading surge coincided with optimistic sentiments around Ripple’s ongoing legal battle with the SEC.

In recent weeks, Ripple [XRP] has emerged as a formidable player in the cryptocurrency market, particularly in South Korea, where it has now surpassed Bitcoin [BTC] as the most traded cryptocurrency. 

This shift comes amid XRP being on a bullish ride over the past weeks, up by nearly 40% in the past 14 days and 20% in the past seven days.

This bullish price performance has brought the asset to breach the $0.6 mark and trade as high as $0.63 as of the 18th of July. 

However, as of press time, the asset appeared to be seeing a correction in price, down by 6.1% in the past 24 hours to bring its price to trade at approximately $0.5485 at the time of writing.

Surpassing Bitcoin 

The trading volume of XRP in South Korea has notably skyrocketed, with data indicating a 24-hour trading volume of $650 million, significantly outpacing Bitcoin’s $282 million. 

The bulk of this trading activity has been centered on the Upbit exchange, where XRP’s volume reached $526.8 million.

This surge not only reflected the growing investor interest in XRP, but also its increasing relevance as a major contender in the crypto market within the region.

Ripple-SEC case plays a part?

The rise in XRP’s trading volume and price coincided with heightened market optimism surrounding Ripple’s ongoing legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

This legal entanglement seems to have excited investor interest, particularly in South Korea, suggesting a strong confidence in the asset’s future prospects.

In July 2023, XRP achieved a similar dominant trading position, which correlated with a peak price surge following favorable regulatory news from the SEC.

This pattern appears to be repeating, with XRP’s current market performance mimicking past trends that have historically led to significant price increases.

How is XRP faring in the overall market?

Not only as XRP has been doing well in South Korea, it also appears to be doing well in the overall crypto market,

Santiment, a prominent market intelligence platform, has earlier revealed a surge in network activity for XRP.

New and total addresses interacting on the XRP Ledger have reached levels not seen since March, indicating a vibrant and expanding network. 

This uptick in network activity is paired with historical comparisons to 2017, where similar patterns preceded a run-up to all-time high prices for XRP.

Meanwhile, AMBCrypto recently reported that XRP was mimicking a pattern that it followed back in 2017, which resulted in the token reaching an all-time high. 

Understanding the significance of the Network Value to Transactions (NVT) ratio can provide deeper insights into XRP’s market position.

The NVT ratio, which compares the market value of a crypto network to the volume of transactions on that network, is an indicator of the asset’s relative utility and value. 

Source: CryptoQuant

Realistic or not, here’s XRP market cap in BTC’s terms

For XRP, a press time NVT ratio of approximately 110 suggested that the market may be valuing the network highly, compared to the volume of transactions it processes.

This could be interpreted as a bullish signal, particularly if the high NVT ratio is supported by growing transaction volumes or increasing utility of the XRP Ledger.