Why has XRP become popular this time? To put it simply, the regulatory boot has finally dropped. The previous lawsuit with the SEC had a tough impact on XRP, causing it to fall from $3.84 in 2018 to $0.31 in 2022, turning it from a top trading pair into a fringe coin. But last year, the situation reversed: the court ruled that XRP sold on exchanges is not considered a security, and Ripple was only fined $125M (far less than the SEC's $2B demand), with exchanges gradually relisting XRP.

The current catalysts are piling up: ETF applications in queue, the Trump administration listing XRP as a strategic digital asset reserve, Ripple applying for a banking license... All of these are attracting capital back. But what's interesting is that XRP is still 40% away from its historical high, indicating that the market has not fully priced in these positive factors.

In the long term, the core competitiveness of XRP is cross-coin bridging. Ripple's CEO has claimed that by 2030, they could capture 14% of SWIFT's business volume. If this is to be realized, the demand for XRP as an intermediary asset will rise. Additionally, there is still potential for the ecosystem if sidechains supporting Ethereum smart contracts are opened.

Of course, a small trial and error with $100 is fine, but don't put your pension into it. This stuff is still mainly speculative, although the fundamentals have indeed improved.