XRP Overtakes BNB in Market Cap Rankings

XRP, a cryptocurrency, has moved up to fourth place in market cap rankings, overtaking Binance’s BNB for the first time in over two years. At the start of the year, BNB was worth twice as much as XRP. Despite facing regulatory issues, BNB managed to hold its value through 2022 and 2023.

The rankings changed when a New York judge ruled that sales of XRP were not considered securities when sold on secondary markets, like cryptocurrency exchanges. BNB now has a market value of $40.1 billion, which is 4.7% less than XRP's $42 billion, according to Coinpaprika.

Derivatives markets reacted quickly to the judge's ruling, increasing the open interest for XRP futures by 99%. XRP's current trading price is $0.79, more than twice its previous daily closing price of $0.47.

Pressure from regulators on Binance, a global crypto exchange, has led to a lot of selling of BNB. Despite this, XRP's value has increased by over 130% this year, compared to BNB's 5% and BTC's 70%.

Ripple, the company that created XRP, is in a three-year legal fight with the SEC over whether it illegally offered securities in the form of XRP. After the recent ruling, both Coinbase and Kraken pledged to list XRP again, though some legal experts warn the ruling is not final. 

Following the U.S. judge's ruling, XRP-tracked futures traders suffered total losses of $58 million, according to Coinpaprika data. Those betting against price rises, known as shorts, lost $33 million, while the rest was lost by those expecting a price increase, known as longs. The most significant losses were on the Bybit crypto exchange ($21 million), followed by OKX and Binance, both with $14 million in losses.