Cryptocurrency markets are surging on the first official trading day of 2025, with the top three coins by market capitalization up between 4% and 11% before U.S. markets open.

What Happened: XRP has overtaken Tether (CRYPTO: USDT) to become the third-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, surging to $138 billion at the time of writing.

CoinDesk on Thursday morning reported that XRP’s price surge coincided with an increase in trading volumes on South Korean exchanges, particularly UpBit, which saw $1.3 billion in XRP trades.

This aligns with a CoinDesk analysis from earlier in the week that highlighted unusually high XRP trading volumes from South Korean exchanges, historically a precursor to upward price volatility.

Bitcoin’s uptick has come despite the U.S. dollar having strengthened since Donald Trump‘s election victory.

The DXY Index, measuring the dollar’s value against major trading partners, has risen over 3%, mirroring a pattern seen in the run-up to Trump’s first term in 2016.

This dollar strength could potentially impact Bitcoin’s rally, as noted by Andre Dragosch, Bitwise’s head of research in Europe, who told CoinDesk that “macro is a headwind right now.”

Industry analysts are making bold predictions, with Galaxy Research targeting a $185,000 price for Bitcoin and $5,500 for Ethereum by year-end.

Read Next: 

• Bitcoin Reserves, Spot ETFs, AI Agents: Key Trends To Watch In Crypto In 2025

Image: Shutterstock