Ripple Price Surges 84% In A Day To New Record High. Is XRP The Next Crypto Rocket 'To The Moon'?

December 13, 2017

Ripple seizes the #4 spot with $18B market cap.

Alongside major developments in Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum, other altcoins are beginning to gain traction in the broader eye. One such coin is Ripple (XRP), a cryptocurrency known for its connection with the banking world.

24 hours ago, the price of XRP was $0.27. Earlier this morning (PST), it hit $0.51—an increase of 84 percent. At the time of this writing the price is $0.46 (CoinMarketCap).

What you need to know about Ripple

Alongside its cryptocurrency, Ripple operates as a payment network called RippleNet. The goal of the platform is to optimize easy transfer of funds—to almost any other currency or cryptocurrency in the world in 4 seconds. Ripple is working with banks and financial institutions to become the premier cryptocurrency of record, offering a quick, cost-effective way to transfer funds globally.

For example, if you wanted to send your friend in Italy $50, you could trade for $50 worth of XRP, and they could quickly trade that out for Euros.

So why has XRP gone up so quickly?

The increased activity in Bitcoin following Cboe launching bitcoin futures trading on Dec. 10, is generating more activity around the entire cryptocurrency world. As the #4 (and occasionally #5 when Litecoin surpassed it) cryptocurrency, of course Ripple has felt the, well, ripple effect.

Another explanation is that as the Bitcoin craze cools off, more people are trading for Ripple—which some see as a more stable asset.

"I think that markets view XRP as a very stable digital asset, so they feel safe parking funds in XRP when they exit other assets. If someone wants to get out of BTC, but doesn't want to necessarily move into fiat, he or she moves the value into XRP," said Miguel Vias, head of XRP markets at Ripple in an interview with Coindesk.

Especially as network speeds lag and transaction fees soar on Bitcoin, Ripple may be an appealing trading alternative with its super-fast speeds.

AMEX Partnership

Unlike many cryptocurrencies, whose ethos moves away from traditional banking and financial institutions, Ripple seeks to use the new technology to optimize how money is moved.

To that end, a recently announced partnership with American Express could be driving buzz around XRP. Ripple will be working with AMEX to "solve liquidity shortfalls in remittances by offering instant blockchain-based payments."

"American Express has a long history of integrating new technologies...,” said American Express Chief Information Officer Marc Gordon, in a statement. “This collaboration with Ripple and Santander represents the next step forward on our blockchain journey, evolving the way we move money around the world.”

Meet Ripple, the Currency That’s Running Laps Around Bitcoin

XRP, also called Ripple, is up more than 30,000% in 2017

Dec 29, 2017 5:11 pm ET

The price of the digital currency XRP, also called Ripple, surged 50% on Friday, pushing its market valuation to a record $85 billion, second only to bitcoin among crypto-assets.

The sharp one-day move, which brought the price of XRP to $2.17, is the latest outsized swell for virtual currencies in a year that has been rife with spikes. Investors in the field are increasingly placing widespread bets on a number of different currencies.

Based on Friday’s gains, the market value of XRP tokens totals around $84 billion, according to research site coinmarketcap.com. Friday’s move puts it ahead of Ethereum’s $72 billion valuation, and is second to only bitcoin, currently at $244 billion.

That puts XRP’s year-to-date gains at more than 30,000% ; it began the year trading at less than a penny. Most of the gains have come in the last three weeks. On Dec. 11, XRP was trading at 25 cents. By comparison, bitcoin is up about 1,400%, and Ethereum is up 9,300%.

For XRP, the gains come after the latest signs that the company behind the currency, also called Ripple, has shown more progress in signing up banks to its closed-loop network, called RippleNet.

Earlier this month, the currency got a boost after a consortium of Japanese banks signed up to test its network. The company has more than 100 banks, mostly outside the U.S., signed onto its platform. It has not disclosed amounts, but has said that some of those banks have been using it in a live environment to move money, rather than just testing it as a concept.

XRP is different from other digital currencies in that its development is being guided and controlled by a single, for-profit company. Ripple the company launched its currency in 2012, as part of a plan to use the concepts behind bitcoin to build a cross-border, interbank payments and settlement network.

To Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, the gains are a reflection of the fact that the company’s product is further along than competitors. “We have real customers, really in production using this,” he said, “not science experiments. Science experiments are not a business model.”

He stressed, though, that he wasn’t viewing this as a competition between cryptocurrencies. “I want Ethereum to be successful,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “I want bitcoin to be successful. I don’t view this as us versus them.”

When Ripple launched the network in 2012, it created 99 billion XRP. About 38 billion have been distributed; the company holds with rest, with plans to release them publicly over time. With the surge in the currency’s value, Ripple’s XRP is currently worth more than $100 billion, though the company would likely have a hard time monetizing that amount quickly.

Mr. Garlinghouse has also said it may use its XRP for acquisitions or as a resource to help build a wider ecosystem for its network.