Tristan Tate, a media personality with 3.3 million followers on X, has sparked a conversation about the potential for XRP to reach $100.

On Tuesday, he took to X to ask the crypto community to explain the hype surrounding XRP. Specifically, he sought clarification on why XRP could possibly rise to hundreds of dollars per coin.

The inquiry quickly gained traction, accumulating over 3 million views. Notably, many from the XRP community offered insights into XRP’s potential and the reasons behind the buzz.

Foundations for XRP Hype and Why $100 is an Outlook

Among the prominent voices responding was Panos Mekras, a crypto author and co-founder of Anodos Finance. According to Mekras, XRP is worth the hype due to its underlying blockchain, the XRP Ledger, which he refers to as “the OG DeFi chain.”

Mekras argued that XRPL is the first non-PoW blockchain network, offering faster, cheaper, and more scalable solutions. Moreover, he noted that XRPL offered the first-ever global decentralized exchange.

Furthermore, Mekras told Tate that the XRP Ledger was explicitly created to disintermediate banks. He emphasized that it serves as a better alternative to Bitcoin, lacking mining and validation incentives, while offering faster, cheaper, and more decentralized money.

Additionally, Mekras pointed out that XRPL is more advanced, featuring the first DEX, tokenization capabilities, and payment functionalities. 

Meanwhile, Abdullah Nassif, known as Abs in the community, remarked that XRP “makes money move for the banks as quickly and easily as data moves on the internet today.”

Similarly, crypto educator Edo Farina argued that XRP is 1,000 to 1,500 times more cost-effective, faster, and scalable than Bitcoin. He claims that XRP aligns more closely with Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of a functional digital currency.

According to him, Bitcoin has become increasingly “centralized” due to concentrated mining pools. Farina even went as far as to describe Bitcoin as the beta test coin, while XRP is the “Final Product.”

Meanwhile, other prominent voices in the XRP community, such as XRPL validator Vet, extended a podcast invitation to Tate to further discuss XRP.

Critics Dismiss $100 Outlook as Unrealistic 

Amid the discussion, X user “Mr. Random” pointed out an often-overlooked factor in the popular projections of a triple-digit price for XRP. He noted that for XRP to hit $100, its market cap would exceed $5 trillion, or $10 trillion, when accounting for escrow tokens.

Mr. Random stressed that this would surpass the market cap of many major world economies, making it highly unlikely given the current economic landscape. He further added that for XRP to reach $10,000, its market cap would need to hit a staggering $500 trillion.

Meanwhile, XRP proponents continue to argue that market cap implications are irrelevant “in the broader scheme of things.”

XRP has posted its third weekly hammer formation in history, with the two previous instances leading to 2,000%+ price surges.

Notable market analyst Steph called attention to the latest development in his most recent analysis. Interestingly, the bullish commentary comes on the back of a concerning phase in the broader crypto market, as prices witness massive corrections.

XRP Forms Weekly Hammer Candlestick

For context, the broader crypto market collapsed over the weekend, triggered by Bitcoin’s (BTC) slump below the $100,000 psychological mark. As BTC retested $91,000 on Monday, Feb. 3, XRP observed a comparable crash, dropping to a low of $1.76 on the same day before quickly rebounding.

Despite a quick recovery above $2, XRP has failed to reclaim the $3 mark. Most recently, market analyst and order book expert Dom presented evidence that XRP’s sudden crash to $1.76 and swift recovery was not particularly natural. He mentioned this at a time when several analysts pointed to market manipulation across the board.

However, in an interesting twist, it appears this crash to $1.76 and the immediate rebound led to the formation of a hammer candle on the XRP weekly chart. Data from the chart shows that XRP began this week with a price of $2.579 amid the weekend correction.

Nonetheless, the sudden drop to $1.76 triggered a massive wick down, with the quick rebound push eventually leading to the hammer candle formation. For context, a hammer candle features a long lower shadow and smaller body, which suggests that buyers regained control of the market after a massive drop.

Previous Hammers Triggered 2,000%+ Rallies

According to Steph’s disclosure, this current hammer candlestick is the third one XRP has witnessed on the weekly timeframe throughout its history. Interestingly, the last two times the structure formed, XRP saw massive gains shortly after.

Particularly, XRP first observed this candlestick in late 2013. Following its formation, the price recovered from a downtrend, soaring 2,128% to a new all-time high of $0.0614. 

Meanwhile, the second time this weekly hammer candle formed was in January 2017. Following this structure, XRP saw steeper declines before eventually recovering. However, upon this recovery, prices skyrocketed, rallying by a massive 110,085% to the all-time high above $3 by January 2018.

Steph’s disclosure implied that the latest hammer structure could lead to upsurges similar to what the market witnessed during previous ones. With the past ones leading to rallies of at least 2,000%, a comparative increase from the current price of $2.5 would lead to $52.5, a new all-time high for XRP.

However, this might not be particularly feasible, especially considering XRP’s current market position and the concept of diminishing returns. Nonetheless, even a quarter of this increase, translating to 500%, would lead to a new all-time high of $15.