XRP has surged to its highest level since May 2021, reaching a peak of $1.67 Friday morning, per data from CoinGecko.

At time of publication, the price of XRP has settled at $1.66, up 13.8% on the day and 12.8% in the last week. Its price move comes amid growing speculation that an XRP exchange traded fund (ETF) may be on the horizon, alongside optimism around the potential of change at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

On Monday, global ETF provider WisdomTree registered an XRP ETF in the state of Delaware, according to Fox Business—the first step to getting the product approved. Then on Wednesday, European XRP ETP rebranded to the Bitwise Physical XRP ETP as Ripple said it'll invest in the fund. 

“Global demand for exposure to the crypto asset class has exploded in 2024, fueled by a growing interest in crypto-backed investment offerings,” Brad Garlinghouse, CEO at Ripple, said as the company announced plans to invest in the Bitwise fund.

In October, Garlinghouse said that he believes approval of an XRP ETF is "inevitable."

This comes in a year where both Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs were approved in the U.S., enabling traditional investors to buy into crypto. At the time of writing, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs have $107.14 billion worth of assets under management, according to CoinGlass, while Ethereum ETFs have $10.74 billion assets under management.

“With the U.S. regulatory environment for crypto finally becoming more clear, this trend is poised to accelerate, further driving demand for crypto ETPs,” Garlinghouse said.

XRP has been embroiled in legal battles with the SEC since 2020, after the regulator alleged the asset is an unregistered security. In 2023, a federal judge ruled that XRP is “not necessarily a security on its face.” Then in October of this year, the SEC appealed key aspects of the ruling relating to the sale of XRP on digital asset trading platforms and the personal sales by Ripple executives.

This regulatory and legal uncertainty has been a dark cloud over the sixth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. With the news that SEC chair Gary Gensler is preparing to depart the regulator as Trump enters the presidency, some of those clouds have lifted.

Upon the news of Gensler's impending departure last week, XRP broke its three year high by reaching $1.49—which it has since broken three times over. That said, the token remains 51% off its all-time high of $3.40 reached in January 2018—almost seven years ago.