XRP rebounded sharply on Saturday, similar to a crowd pump recently seen in unfavorable stocks like GameStop.
The cryptocurrency rose 56% to $ 0.50944 and hit its highest level since December 22, according to CoinDesk 20 data. This was the largest daily percentage gain since December 21, 2017.
The double-digit price hike was likely fueled by members of a Telegram-based group called Buy & Hold XRP (t.me/pumpxrp) that launched on Saturday. The group’s membership hit Telegram’s 200,000 mark within the first 24 hours, forcing a migration to a new official channel with a similar title but a different link (t.me/pumpxrpofficial).
“Traditional crypto-pump groups are copied and legitimized by WallStreetBets-style (WSB) crowd pumps and are now directing their burning gaze from Dogecoin to XRP,” said Jehan Chu, co-founder and managing partner of Kenetic in Hong Kong Capital, told CoinDesk .
Classic pump and dump tactics are nothing new to Crypto, especially XRP, which has a strong army of followers. However, their morale may have been boosted by a group of amateur day traders, based on a Reddit forum called WallStreetBets, that recently launched a coordinated buying attack on video game retailer Gamestop, which triggered brief pressure and inflicted heavy losses on hedge funds.
The Gamestop (GME) short squeeze target jumped nearly 400% last week, extending the previous week’s increase by 83%, and attracting unwanted attention from regulators. Meanwhile, meme-based cryptocurrency Dogecoin rose 800% a day before XRP’s price pump. The data suggest that crowd-buy tactics are returning to their homeland after the old markets are democratized.
It remains to be seen whether the members of the Buy & Hold XRP group will stay true to the group’s title by holding the cryptocurrency.
At press time, XRP is changing hands near $ 0.45. The price hike cleared a significant portion of the $ 0.55 plunge to $ 0.20 that was seen after the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs in late December.
