On Sunday, October 20, billionaire Elon Musk hosted a town hall meeting in support of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Musk’s extraordinary ability to attract publicity was on full display — the event marked the second instance in which the tech mogul gave a $1 million check to a rally attendee who had signed his online petition.
However, this event did stand out — it had a noticeable and immediate effect on financial markets — crypto markets, to be more precise. This time, Musk did not talk about his favored digital assets, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), or Ethereum (ETH) — instead, the billionaire mentioned XRP (XRP) for the first time in a public setting.
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This single mention — which Musk outright stated was neither an endorsement nor the lack of an endorsement, was enough to generate a marked increase in both XRP activity and price.
Musk’s XRP mention ignites a flurry of activity
XRP has been the subject of a longstanding legal proceeding between the SEC and Ripple Labs. After an initial ruling was made, largely in Ripple Labs’ favor, the SEC appealed the decision on October 17.
What’s more, the appeal is centered around the main subject of the proceeding — whether or not XRP is a security. With uncertainty reintroduced into the mix, XRP has been relatively stagnant — at press time, prices have declined by 9% year-to-date (YTD).
However, Musk’s mention of the token has caused a rapid 3.44% gain on the daily chart.
The Tesla CEO mentioned XRP during the Q&A section of the event, after an attendee asked whether or not the ledger would eventually be adopted by financial institutions — particularly in light of opposition by the SEC’s current head, Gary Gensler.
Musk answered that crypto, in general, is an ‘interesting and probably valuable bulwark against centralized control’ — clarifying that his statement was neither an endorsement nor a lack of endorsement for XRP.
However, markets have seemingly interpreted the statement as a strong, if indirect endorsement — in tandem with the price surge, the token’s market capitalization increased from $30.6 billion to $31.6 billion in the span of just 24 hours, as per the latest data retrieved by Finbold from CoinMarketCap.
XRP’s long-term outlook
Although it remains to be seen if Musk’s first public mention of the token will ignite a significant rally, several factors point toward the conclusion that the token will continue to trade sideways for a little while yet.
While cryptocurrency experts like Alan Santana predict that prices will reach as high as $2 in 2025, per the token’s escrow schedule, the 1.2 billion XRP that entered circulation in October will likely prevent strong movements to the upside in the short term.
The result of the SEC’s appeal will certainly be the driving factor behind long-term price action — and while the appeal has put a damper on any potential rally, traders and investors should remember that the initial ruling was in Ripple Labs’ favor — a result that could very well happen again.
While Musk did not give a straightforward answer, Ripple has set its sights on financial institutions — having recently announced the introduction of a crypto custody storage geared toward banks. These new developments certainly bode well for XRP — and a Trump victory in the November elections could serve as a key catalyst for a breakout.
