XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger network closely linked to Ripple, soared to a six-year high on Wednesday and Bitcoin (BTC) rebounded to $100,000 as traders were encouraged by this morning's much-anticipated U.S. CPI inflation data report.

The coin briefly topped $3 during early U.S. trading hours for the first time since early January 2018, before retreating slightly. It recently changed hands at $2.95, rising 11% in the past 24 hours, outpacing Bitcoin’s (BTC) 3.6% gain and the broader market benchmark CoinDesk 20 index’s 6.7% gain over the same period.

XRP has been one of the best-performing coins, rising 488% since the election of Donald Trump. It has now become the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, behind BTC and Ethereum’s Ethereum (ETH), taking back the third spot from Tether’s USDT stablecoin. The token has a market capitalization of $170 billion, now surpassing that of asset management giant BlackRock (BLK). The gains were fueled by expectations of crypto-friendly policies and an overhaul of U.S. digital asset regulation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple have been engaged in a legal battle over XRP token sales for years.

Diego Cardenas, an OTC trader at digital asset platform Abra, said in a report shared with CoinDesk: “This surge is driven by the increasing number of partners, Ripple stablecoin RLUSD Ripple President Monica Long said in an interview last week that she expects spot ETFs to be accelerated with the incoming administration’s approvals. Approval will be obtained "soon".

XRP also broke out of a consolidation pattern that began in early December that CoinDesk market analyst Omkar Godbole noted last week, paving the way for the token’s next move higher. Another 15% increase from current prices would mean a break above the January 2018 high of $3.4, setting a new all-time high. Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, said in an

The accumulation of XRP tokens by large investors over the past two months could also drive the rally to a new record.

Analyst firm Santiment noted that since November 12, addresses holding between 1 million and 10 million tokens have increased their holdings by 1.4 billion tokens (worth approximately $3.8 billion), continuing to accumulate while the price is at 12 Consolidating after early highs. Read more: XRP interest surges as Brad Garlinghouse meets Trump