Gary Gensler's Departure Talk Fuels XRP, 'Meme Coin' Play Powers Litecoin As Action Shifts To Lagging Altcoins

 XRP and Litecoin racked up impressive gains Thursday even as blue-chip cryptocurrencies took a breather.

What happened: Payment-focused cryptocurrency XRP emerged as the best-performing cryptocurrency in the last 24 hours, surging nearly 18%. 

The coin's trading volume soared 50% to $10.54 billion, making it one of the most traded cryptocurrencies in the last 24 hours.

The rally followed SEC Chair Gary Gensler's remarks suggesting he may be ending his stint. 

Ripple Labs has been locked in a nearly four-year-long legal battle with the SEC over the status of XRP, the coin at the center of the company's operations.

With the latest upswing, XRP's weekly gains nearly hit 50%.

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Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) hard fork Litecoin was also among the top gainers, surging over 8% in the last 24 hours. The proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrency topped $84 for the first time in over five months. 

The jump came in response to a rather bizarre post by Litecoin's X handle, declaring that it identifies itself as a meme coin. 

While the objective may have been to humorously contrast LTC’s lackluster trajectory with that of meme currencies, it seems that the bait worked.

The uptick observed for XRP and LTC was in contrast to the corrective price action of Bitcoin and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) on Thursday.

Year-to-date, XRP's gains improved by 33%, while LTC continued to be a laggard at 12%. In comparison, Bitcoin was up over 108%, while Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) and BNB (CRYPTO: BNB) rose 105% and 99%, respectively.

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