The Ripple cross-border payment token has climbed almost 15% over the past 24 hours, hitting an intraday high of $2.44 during early trading in Asia on Jan. 2.

It is the highest XRP has been since mid-December, as payment coins lead the way into the new year.

The Ripple token exploded to top $2.90 in a seven-year high in early December but had fallen back to dip at $2 by the end of the month.

“Momentum and increased focus on real-world utility continues to build,” said CEO Brad Garlinghouse on Jan. 1.

just smash the LIKE button if you are HOLDING $XRP! pic.twitter.com/Ynqf6qWvjx

Altcoins Lead Into 2025

Also on New Year’s Day, community member ‘Jack the Rippler’ observed that the fintech firm has released its monthly 500 million XRP from escrow, “but with an interesting note!”

The memo in the transaction stated, “January 20 is around the corner,”

“Donald Trump will be in the White House, and we are going to make crypto great again.”

There have been a lot of unsubstantiated rumors about Ripple working closely with the new Trump administration.

He also noted that XRP “broke out from a descending triangle and is ready for $3!”

BREAKING: @Ripple has released its monthly 500 million #XRP from escrow, but with an interesting note! ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/mQ4WqZ69Gh

Ripple’s sibling, which was forked from the chain, Stellar Lumens (XLM), was also performing well, as it usually mirrors XRP momentum.

XLM has surged 28% on the day, hitting an intraday high of $0.456 during the Thursday morning Asian trading session. Stellar spiked to over $0.60 in late November, but it still remains down 50% from its 2018 all-time high.

Cardano (ADA) is also performing well today with a 10% gain to reach $0.95, its highest price for a fortnight.

Other altcoin gainers include Avalanche (AVAX), Chainlink (LINK), and Hedera (HBAR).

Bitcoin Consolidation Continues

Bitcoin has made just 1.3% over the past day to top $95,000 during Thursday morning trading. The asset has remained in consolidation since its fall below $100,000 in mid-December.

BTC dominance is currently at 57.44%, dropping 7% since its multi-year high of almost 62% in late November when it was rallying hard.

Some analysts believe that a big altcoin rally will occur in the first three months of 2025, and this could be at the expense of BTC if capital is rotated into alts.

The biggest Altcoin rally will happen in Q1#Altseason is coming pic.twitter.com/9uiwKi2OZJ