XRP Price Falls. Why Trump's Return Could Spell More Volatility for the Crypto. — Barrons.com

By George GloverRed-hot cryptocurrency XRP was sliding Tuesday — a reminder to investors that Donald Trump's return to the White House could bring about more volatility, not further gains.The token, which is used to facilitate and settle transactions on Ripple Labs' digital-payments platform, was down 4.8% to $3.09 over the past 24 hours, according to data from the crypto exchange Kraken. Bitcoin fell 5%, and Ethereum was down 3.4%.XRP has soared nearly 500% since Trump's election win on the expectation that his administration will cut digital-asset regulation. Trump has nominated crypto-friendly Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, and bulls hope he will drop the regulator's long-running legal battle with Ripple. Atkins will need Senate approval before taking up the position.But the token's slide on Monday could be a sign that it won't be plain sailing under Trump. While the 47th President had signaled his support for crypto over the election cycle, investors were disappointed that his barrage of inauguration day executive orders didn't include a directive to set up a strategic Bitcoin reserve."If Donald Trump delivers on his election promises, we could see cryptocurrency markets continue to surge. However, investors would do well to resist the siren call of fear of missing out, and sit on their hands," Morningstar analyst Kenneth Lamont said Tuesday, adding that the market ought to remember that even well-known tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum have been a lot more volatile than stocks over the past decade.Write to George Glover at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.