The momentum behind some of the hottest cryptocurrencies on the market continued over the weekend and into the start of trading on Monday. XRP (XRP 17.95%) continues to be the biggest name trending higher and is now the third largest cryptocurrency behind it Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) And Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH).

As of 12:30 p.m. ET, XRP is up 36% in the last 24 hours alone and is up 55% since the market closed on Friday. chain link (LINK 23.37%) is up 17.6% in the last 24 hours and up 22.6% since Friday. Hedera (HBAR 21.88%) is up 45.6% in the last day and up 87.9% since the last market close.

XRP’s momentum continues

In the crypto market, momentum can be enough to push a cryptocurrency significantly higher in a short period of time. This is happening with XRP due to speculation that the new Trump administration will be more positive towards cryptocurrencies.

This is particularly significant for XRP, which has spent much of the last four years battling regulators in court. Ironically, Trump was president when these lawsuits began.

The XRP blockchain is designed to disrupt the traditional financial system. So if it’s allowed to thrive, it could be a win for investors, but it’s not clear if that will happen or how that value will flow back to token holders in line with the current $164 billion market cap.

Chainlink is heading to Europe

21X announced today that it is using the Chainlink standard for its tokenized securities and settlement system in Europe. Tokenizing securities is one of the ways blockchain could disrupt traditional finance, and this is a big step toward more tokenization in one of the most highly regulated places in the world.

Such cryptocurrency utilities are on the rise, which will help the blockchain, but it is not yet clear whether much value will flow back to token holders in the long term.

Hedera’s big move

Hedera’s value is rising in part because analysts have found that large holders are accumulating the token and delisting it from exchanges, suggesting they may be looking to hold onto it for the long term.

Another point of speculation is the news that Hashgraph board member Brian Brooks has been named as a potential head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He doesn’t seem to be the front-runner, but having people close to the president is currently seen as a good thing for crypto.

The crypto bull run continues

The rapid moves in cryptocurrencies recently are reminiscent of late 2021 when the bull market was hot. The tokens would rise quickly on little more than speculation and momentum as investors fear missing out on the next rise.

Many of the recent moves have been driven by speculation that a second Trump term would be good for cryptocurrency as he will replace the hostile regulators who have been in office for the past four years.

While the regulatory environment may be more favorable, remember that in order to generate value, cryptocurrencies must be valuable for something other than trading. Most utility transactions today take place in stablecoins rather than native cryptocurrencies, which leads me to believe that the blockchain could become more valuable in the future, even if the cryptocurrencies themselves do not. I’m cautious at the moment because FOMO (fear of missing out) has taken over and this has historically been a bad time to be a cryptocurrency buyer.