Ripple’s CEO says XRP is 1000 times better than Bitcoin,  XRP/USD gains 3.5%

• XRP/USD has recovered some ground, but it is still capped by $0.5400.
• Brad Garlinghouse speaks about benefits of Ripple’s cryptocurrency and technology behind it.  

XRP/USD is changing hands at $0.5397, off Wednesday’s low reached at $0.5064. The third largest coin by market value has gained 3.5% day-on day basis, though it is still below key technical level of $0.5400, which makes the recovery unconvincing. XRP’s market capitalization has settled at $21.4B, while an average daily trading volume is registered at $730B, slightly off Wednesday’s figures.

What’s going on

Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse  goes on bragging about the benefits offered by the company’s technology. Speaking at Swell Conference in  San Francisco he claimed that XRP is much better than Bitcoin as it is 1000 times cheaper and 1000 times faster. Meanwhile,  Brad Garlinghouse explained why he is not bothered with coin’s price fluctuations:

“I really don’t think about the price performance. I do think about the technical performance. And I think about the fact that XRP is about 1,000 times faster than a Bitcoin transaction and about 1,000 times less expensive than a Bitcoin transaction.”

“XRP has demonstrated it is the most efficient digital asset to solve a payment problem. What I say internally at the company, very genuinely, is I don’t know how to think about the price of XRP over three days, three weeks or three months. I think about how do we build an incredibly successful product and solutions on top of this decentralized open-source technology to solve a customer problem.”

XRP/USD, technical picture

Looking technically, XRP/USD is now supported by $0.5300 area with a few strong technical indicators clustered below this level, including Fibo 38.2% daily, DMA200 and Bollinger Band 1-hour Middle. Once this area is cleared, the sell-off will extend towards $0.5110-0.5100 (short-term support area) and to critical $0.5000.  

On the upside, the immediate resistance is seen at $0.5463 (SMA200, 1-hour), followed by $0.5500 (psychological level and the short-term upside trendline).

XRP/USD, 1-hour chart