Cryptocurrencies are struggling for nearly a week: after some of the coins surged to record highs, a big crash came last Friday. Since then, we are seeing a recovery, but just a few hours ago, another slide was seen across the board.
However, one digital currency stands out: Ripple. The price of XRP/USD has reached a record high of $1.45 according to the data on Conmarketcap. At the time of writing, Ripple/USD is back to $1.35, yet this is still 8.55% higher on the day while bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are falling.
Update: Ripple price: XRP/USD breaks above $1.50 – levels to watch
Update: a fresh move sends XRP/USD another 16% higher. The market value of Ripple is nearing that of Ethereum.
Ripple is now the third cryptocurrency in terms of market cap, breathing in the neck of Ethereum. Bitcoin is the clear leader, despite falling over 25% from the peak.
Why is Ripple going strong? Here are three reasons that propelled Ripple to 3rd place:
- Bank adoption: A consortium of banks in Japan has decided to dive into the Ripple technology in order to facilitate transactions. Tokyo-based SBI Ripple Asia consists of around 60 institutions. The tests are due to happen soon, in Q1 2018. This has been the driver of XRP for quite a few days.
- CNBC exposure: Brad Garlinghouse, the Chief Executive Officer of Ripple, went on CNBC to explain the technology and highlighted a key advantage: transactions are completed after around 3 seconds. Among Ripple clients are several global banks such as UBS, Unicredit, BBVA, Santander, and Standard Chartered.
- Troubles with bitcoin: Apart from the perma-talk about a bitcoin bubble and the growing scrutiny by regulators (such as in South Korea), transactions and fees have become cumbersome. We mentioned Emil Oldenburg, the person behind bitcoin.com, saying that BTC has become “unusable”. Ripple enjoys this “schadenfreude” and stands out with its fast transactions.
All in all, Ripple finds reasons to rise while other applications of the blockchain do not, or even find renewed trouble. Will Ripple keep roaring and rallying?
Here is roller-coaster Ripple in the past week, using a snapshot chart from ConMarketCap.
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