XRP on track for biggest weekly gain in 21 months as Treasury buyback spurs 'curve control' hopes

Payments-focused cryptocurrency XRP is on track for its best weekly performance since November 2024 after a U.S. Treasury announcement fueled market speculation that policymakers could ultimately resort to yield curve control (YCC), an aggressive monetary-easing tool.

XRP has surged 51% to $1.50 since Monday, beating its peers, bitcoin BTC $ 77,145.95, ether ETH $ 2,438.08, and Solana (SOL), by a big margin, according to data from CoinDesk. BTC and ETH have gained 22% and 30%, respectively, while SOL has rallied 28%.

XRP's outperformance follows a period of lackluster price action, during which the cryptocurrency consistently lagged the broader market's bounce. It has been characterized by a massive unwinding of short, or bearish, bets in futures. According to the data source Coinglass, shorts worth nearly $2 billion have been liquidated this week.

The surge in XRP and other tokens began early this week after the U.S. Treasury said that, from Sept. 9 to Nov. 4, it will buy back $4 billion or more of its own long-duration (10- to 30-year) bonds on multiple occasions, double the previous $2 billion cap.