A “Flippening” has once again arrived in the cryptocurrency markets, but — much to the chagrin of ethereum investors — it’s not the one that ETH holders have long anticipated.

Bolstered by a seemingly-parabolic rally not seen since January, ripple (XRP) has managed to unseat ethereum as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

According to CoinMarketCap, XRP currently has a total valuation of $23.9 billion, placing it more than $400 million ahead of ethereum. The ripple price has risen an astounding 64 percent in the past day, capping off a week-long rally of more than 113 percent.

There’s no clear trigger for the XRP price rally, other than San Francisco-based blockchain startup Ripple’s recent announcement that XRP-based commercial blockchain applications will go live “in the next month or so.”

Commenting on XRP’s recent rally, Matthew Newton, an analyst at eToro, told CCN.com that “the stars seem to have aligned” for the coin.

“Despite being one the most polarizing cryptos of them all, eToro customers can’t get enough of XRP at the moment; it has more exposure than any other asset on our platform. As we’ve seen in the past, the price tends to move in short, sharp bursts, picking up a lot of momentum when the hype builds. It remains to be seen how much further it could go.”

Ed Cooper, head of mobile at crypto-friendly fintech company Revolut, said in an emailed statement that it “remains to be seen” whether the rally will hold.

“The high transaction values, coupled with market sentiment following the announcement on Monday could indeed be the reason why XRP reached new highs, having gained nearly 50% in the last 24 hours. While this is great news for many crypto enthusiasts and especially for XRP fans, it remains to be seen if the bullish trend will prevail, given the current market conditions that have seen nearly all cryptocurrencjy losing around a great deal of their value since the beginning of the year.”

As CCN.com reported, XRP briefly surpassed ethereum’s market cap in December and early January, when investor mania and the “Kimchi Premium” drove its price as high as $3.84 and made ripple the first cryptocurrency after bitcoin to achieve a $100 billion market cap. However, ethereum ultimately regained the silver podium, a position it has held throughout 2018 — until now.

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