XRP sees large trading growth as Trump’s treasury-elect nominee rejects CBDCs

credit: Shutterstock
credit: Shutterstock

The US cryptocurrency sector in 2025 is set for a year of incremental growth under Donald Trump and XRP is the latest to feel the benefits of the President’s pro-crypto stance. 

XRP, the cryptocurrency owned by Ripple Labs, became the most traded digital asset on crypto exchange Coinbase recently, overtaking Bitcoin

The rally of support behind XRP follows Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s meeting with Trump two weeks ago as pace gathers surrounding the impending approval of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for XRP spot trading, similar to Bitcoin and ETH

In the last 24 hours of Coinbase trading, XRP and its USD stablecoin equivalent saw a 25% increase in trading volume. XRP also saw growth on Binance, becoming the second-most traded coin. 

According to Coinmarketcap, XRP’s price was as low as $1.98 on 20 December, but external forces, such as Garlinghouse’s meeting with Trump, has seen it currently trading at $3.3 at the time of writing (17 January). This is the highest valuation for the cryptocurrency since 1 May 2018. 

As previously mentioned, Trump made his support for the crypto sector a prominent feature of his campaign. The President-elect has already put the wheels in motion for future crypto growth in the US by naming Scott Bessent as his nominee for Treasury Secretary. 

Bessent has been a huge supporter of the digital asset sector. He stated in an interview last July that “crypto is about freedom” and believes that it opens up new financial inclusion opportunities, particularly for younger people. 

Trump may have also nominated Bessent for the role of Treasury Secretary due to his aligned beliefs on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), both avid critics of the digitised central bank currency

Bessent made his feelings known on CBDCs to US senators during his nomination hearing yesterday (16 January), describing the need for CBDCs is “for countries who have no other investment alternatives”. 

It is widely believed amongst staunch crypto advocates that CBDCs represent the opposite of the financial freedom crypto affords as transactions can be traced and tracked by the government. 

If appointed to the position, Bessent aims to steer the US’ financial outlook with new, modern approaches under Trump’s Presidency, with crypto being central to these plans.