Ripple’s native cryptocurrency, XRP, became one of the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap for the first time amid bullish industry sentiment.

At $97 billion, Ripple (XRP) leapfrogged Binance’s BNB Coin (BNB) and its $95 billion market cap during a crypto market uptick on Friday, Nov. 29. Ripple rose alongside the total digital asset market rallying to $3.5 trillion, its highest peak yet.

General market optimism, Ripple’s business expansion, and regulatory tailwinds pushed XRP’s price closer to its all-time high. XRP gained 15.8% in 24 hours and 226% in the last 30 days, trading at $1.70 by publishing time. The token peaked at $3.40 in January 2018.

Ripple catalysts

Bitwise, Canary Funds, Grayscale, and WisdomTree led the charge for a spot XRP exchange-traded fund amid personnel changes at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Former SEC commissioner and pro-crypto regulator Paul Atkins was a top candidate to replace outgoing crypto-skeptic chair Gary Gensler. After Donald Trump won the presidential election, Gensler announced his resignation effective Jan. 20.

Furthermore, Ripple featured in a new crop of stablecoin market entrants. The digital payment firm issued its RLUSD on its XRP Ledger and Ethereum (ETH), the largest decentralized finance ecosystem by user deposits.

Court triumphs over the SEC and forthcoming crypto-friendly U.S. legislation strengthened Ripple’s standing as a digital asset powerhouse. A Southern District Court of New York ruled against the SEC’s argument claiming XRP retail sales broke securities laws. The judge also approved a $250 million fine related to institutional XRP sales.

However, the SEC may file an appeal, and incoming SEC top officials like Atkins could implement a different approach to agency regulation.