Leading executives of the blockchain-based company Ripple Labs met with President-elect Donald Trump, displaying strong bonhomie and potential cooperation for the future.
What happened: On Tuesday, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse posted a photo of himself and the firm's Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, with Trump on X.
"Great dinner last night with Donald Trump & Stuart Alderoty," Garlinghouse wrote. "Strong start to 2025!" Trump was seen giving a thumbs-up in the photo.
Alderoty reshared the post, saying, “And to top it off, the beef bourguignon was really good."
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Why It Matters: The camaraderie comes on the heels of a recent disclosure by Garlinghouse that the company's hiring and business deals have become U.S.-focused since Trump's win in the November elections.
He said that about 75% of open roles are now based in the U.S., contrasting with the last four years when the majority of the hires were from outside.
That's not all. Since the elections, XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), a cryptocurrency strongly tied to Ripple's operations, has soared 363% in value.
The coin's Open Interest has ballooned from $690 million just before the elections to $4.25 billion as of this writing, according to Coinglass, reflecting a 515% surge. A jump in Open Interest implies strong speculative interest.
Some of XRP's technical indicators were also supportive. The Bull Bear Power indicator, used for measuring the strength of buyers and sellers in the market, flashed a “Buy” signal for the coin, according to TradingView.
Most moving average indicators also showed a "Buy" reading, indicating that the asset was in an uptrend.
Price Action: At the time of writing, XRP was exchanging hands at $2.33, down 2.98% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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