While most of the cryptocurrency market spent September 2018 slowly bleeding out in what many described as full-blown crypto winter, one altcoin staged a rally that left the entire space watching in disbelief. XRP, the native token of the Ripple network, surged more than 103% in just seven days, briefly flirting with Ethereum’s number-two spot by market capitalization and reigniting debates about the future of altcoins in a bear market.
TL;DR
- XRP gained over 103% in the week ending September 22, 2018, pushing its market cap above $22.7 billion
- Ethereum held the #2 spot at $24.5 billion but saw its lead narrow significantly as XRP charged upward
- Bitcoin traded at $6,721 on the same date, down over 65% from its December 2017 all-time high
- The rally was largely attributed to growing speculation around Ripple’s institutional partnerships and xRapid adoption
- Crypto fatigue sentiment was at an all-time high, with traders and commentators openly discussing burnout
A Rally That Defied the Bear
On September 22, 2018, XRP was trading at approximately $0.57, up a staggering 103% over the previous seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data. The token’s market capitalization had swelled to $22.7 billion, putting it within striking distance of Ethereum’s $24.5 billion. For context, Bitcoin was trading at $6,721, Ethereum at $240, and the total cryptocurrency market sat around $222 billion — a far cry from the $800+ billion peak just nine months earlier.
The rally stood in sharp contrast to nearly every other major cryptocurrency. Bitcoin Cash was down 1.97% over 24 hours. EOS had slipped 3.22%. Cardano shed 4.53%. Even Ethereum itself was down 2.72% on the day. Yet XRP kept climbing, driven by a wave of speculative buying that appeared to be fueled by institutional news rather than retail hype.
The xRapid Catalyst
Behind the surge was a growing narrative around Ripple’s xRapid product, which uses XRP for cross-border liquidity. Throughout September, multiple financial institutions were reported to be testing or piloting xRapid for international payments, creating genuine excitement about real-world utility for the token. Unlike many altcoins that relied on vague roadmap promises, Ripple could point to actual banking partnerships and working products.
The timing was particularly notable because the broader market was mired in what had been described as an extended “crypto fatigue” phase. A September 22 article in The Next Web captured the mood perfectly, with the author admitting that the prolonged bear market had given them a “mild distaste for the whole space.” Complaints about dead ICOs, fake partnerships, spam airdrops, and toxic crypto-Twitter communities were rampant. Against this backdrop of exhaustion and pessimism, XRP’s surge felt almost contrarian.
The Bigger Picture: Altcoins in Crisis
XRP’s rally aside, the altcoin landscape was looking increasingly grim by late September 2018. Poloniex, one of the older crypto exchanges, announced it was delisting eight underperforming altcoins: BitcoinDark, Bitmark, Einsteinium, Gridcoin, NeosCoin, PotCoin, VeriCoin, and BitcoinPlus. The delistings followed Circle’s Asset Framework guidelines, which the exchange’s parent company had introduced to establish quality standards for listed assets.
The message was clear: the days of listing every token with a whitepaper and a dream were over. Exchanges were beginning to take quality control seriously, and the long tail of obscure altcoins was getting trimmed. For every XRP that could point to banking partnerships and real adoption, there were dozens of projects with dead GitHub repositories and communities held together by nothing but hopium.
Market Context: A Bleeding Landscape
The top ten cryptocurrencies on September 22 painted a picture of a market still searching for a bottom. Bitcoin Cash sat at $487, down nearly 2% on the day. EOS was at $5.93. Stellar’s XLM had fallen to $0.23, Litecoin was at $60, and Cardano’s ADA traded at just $0.08. Tether, the stablecoin that would later become the backbone of crypto trading, held steady at $1.00 with a modest market cap of $2.8 billion.
Notably, the 24-hour trading volume for XRP exceeded $2.4 billion, suggesting that the rally was backed by significant market activity and not just low-liquidity manipulation. Whether the momentum was sustainable, however, remained an open question in a market where bearish sentiment dominated every conversation.
Why This Matters
XRP’s September 2018 rally serves as a reminder that even in the depths of a brutal bear market, individual assets can break away from the pack when backed by tangible institutional narratives. The episode also highlighted a fundamental shift underway in crypto: the market was beginning to separate projects with real-world adoption from those surviving on hype alone. As exchanges started delisting underperformers and institutional interest gravitated toward tokens with demonstrable utility, the great altcoin purge of 2018 was quietly underway. XRP’s surge was the exception that proved the rule — and a preview of the survival-of-the-fittest dynamic that would define the next phase of the cryptocurrency market.
Disclaimer: This article was written for BitcoinsNews.com as a historical retrospective. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.