The boom in XRP
Ripple’s XRP has been one of the many cryptocurrencies that have dropped significantly from the peak of last year. XRP, in particular, has been down 70% from its 2017 peak of 3 dollars. However, Ripple (XRP) has been in the news a lot this week. Ripple announced that they’re launching a program that would allow banks to process transactions using XRP a lot faster. Later in the week Ripple revealed that they’re working with a company called Coil to be able to allow platforms to accept XRP token payments directly; this collaboration also included working with sites like Wikipedia, youtube, and Twitch. Coil working with Ripple would allow content creators on sites like Youtube to accept tips from viewers in XRP. All this news caused XRP to shoot up and was fighting Etherium for second place slot as the coin with the highest market cap. XRP, as of yesterday, was having a market cap of 22.2 million dollars.
Being able to tip content streamers in XRP is a great practical application for cryptocurrency and will undoubtedly increase the value of the token even more as people get used to the idea. Twitch currently uses its “Bit” system which is bought using money. In 2016, Twitch reported that streamers made 5.9 million dollars from bits. However, if Twitch transferred over to XRP that would be preferable in many ways as you’re giving a streamer a token that could increase in value as an investment. With all that traffic for XRP, it would surely increase again in value.
Photo by David Becker on Unsplash
Is Steller next?
Those in the know about Stellar and XRP know that Stellar tends to mimic XRP in the market, as the tokens are very similar. People have been expecting that Stellar may soon see an influx in value, at least that was until XRP's sudden fall.
Sudden Loss
Although XRP was riding high at the start of the week, they had an initial dip again just yesterday. Although it looks initially that the hype may be for naught, Forbes.com reported that they believe the drop was merely investors selling off to make a quick buck. With all the technological advancements Ripple has been making I’m sure we’ll be seeing them in the news again very soon.
-Written by James Hepburn