[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee] XRP climbed to fifth in cryptocurrency market-cap rankings after adding more than $10 billion to its market value in a day.

On Aug. 20 (local time), blockchain media outlet The Crypto Basic reported that XRP traded at $1.26, up about 15 percent over the past 24 hours. Over the same period, its market capitalisation rose by $10.14 billion to $72.77 billion, overtaking USDC to move into fifth place.

A broader recovery in the cryptocurrency market also supported XRP's rise. The overall market added $161 billion a day earlier and gained another $58 billion on the day, taking total market capitalisation to $2.41 trillion. That was the highest level in the past 3 months. Bitcoin also rose above $72,000 for the first time since early June.

The rebound is attributed to a U.S. Treasury plan to expand liquidity support. The Treasury decided to increase the size of each liquidity-support operation for long-term Treasuries from about $2 billion to at least $4 billion. The expanded operations are expected to start around Sept. 9 and continue until early November.

The announcement came after 30-year Treasury yields rose to multi-year highs near 5.34 percent. Yields later eased to around 5.2 percent, and bond prices rose, improving market liquidity.

Moves in the derivatives market also amplified the gains. Over the past 24 hours, short positions worth about $2.7 billion to $3.0 billion were liquidated across the cryptocurrency market. As loss-making shorts were unwound, buy orders emerged, and the forced buying further increased upward pressure across the market.

Policy expectations also supported investor sentiment. U.S. President Donald Trump recently met crypto industry figures at the White House, including people from Coinbase, Gemini, Ripple and Chainlink Labs. He then urged Congress to pursue a "fair version" of the Clarity Act.

Still, the market-cap gap between XRP and higher-ranked assets remains large. XRP has recently risen more sharply than BNB, but BNB's market value is $85.5 billion, $12.73 billion more than XRP. For XRP to reach BNB's level, its price would need to rise about 10 percent from current levels to $1.36.

The sharp rise is seen as the result of expectations for improved macro liquidity, large-scale short liquidations and the possibility of U.S. policy changes, rather than XRP-specific factors. In the short term, key variables are whether XRP can settle around the $1 level and whether the broader market's liquidity recovery continues.