Over the past several weeks, XRP has experienced a monster rally, fueled by Ripple Labs’ recent triumph in their legal battle against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The partial victory has rekindled investor interest, propelling XRP to the forefront of the cryptocurrency market.
Notably, XRP now stands as the most actively traded altcoin in 2023, with more than $150 billion in trading volume, crypto market data provider Kaiko noted on July 25. Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), Binance Coin (BNB), and Polygon (MATIC) come next.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s (BTC) volume dominance plunged 8% since the start of July in the wake of the Ripple ruling to the lowest level since April, at 27%.
The slump acted as a catalyst for the altcoins, driving their trading volumes notably higher. As a result, altcoin dominance rose to the highest level in 4 months.
XRP price analysis
At press time, XRP was trading at $0.68, down 5.6% in the last 24 hours. Over the past week, the crypto token fell by more than 8.2%, wiping some of its recent gains.
Still, on the monthly chart, XRP is over 38% in the green, adding around $10 billion in market cap during that period.
Year-to-date, XRP is up more than 100%.
Why is XRP down today?
XRP’s slump on Tuesday comes amid a broader crypto market decline, as investors brace for the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, where the US central bank is set to decide its next interest rate move.
The vast majority of economists expect the Federal Reserve to deliver another 25 basis points (bps) rate hike at the July 25-26 meeting, weighing on the crypto investors’ sentiment.
A high-rate environment is typically deemed unfavorable for cryptocurrencies like XRP, and because of that, some investors have rotated away from high-cap crypto to more safe-haven assets such as the US dollar.
