The Ripple cryptocurrency is the one with the worst performance among the five main digital currencies by market capitalization in this first quarter of 2018.
The whole sector has been hit this year due to regulatory issues and advertising repression. The total market capitalization for cryptocurrencies has fallen by more than 50 percent so far in 2018, according to the portal CoinMarketCap.
Ripple leads that recession and has lost more than 74 percent this year, according to CoinMarketCap. The two largest digital currencies by market capitalization, Bitcoin and Ethereum, have also fallen by around 40 percent, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, Bitcoin Cash fell 66.05%.
However, a currency exceeds this trimester fall: Cardano, the cryptocurrency that is ranked 7 according to its market capitalization and whose price this year has fallen by 77.73%.
Ripple, based in San Francisco, is developing a network for fast and global financial payments. XRP stands for the digital token that financial institutions in the network can use to make transactions quickly.
The cryptocurrency skyrocketed by 35,000% in 2017 after starting last year to less than one cent, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Ripple touched a high close to USD $ 3.50 on January 7 and is trading near USD $ 0.48 today, according to data from MercadosDiarioBitcoin.
XRP, which has a market capitalization of more than USD $ 19 billion, appears in more than 60 exchanges, but is not yet available in the popular US exchange Coinbase. Speculation about when it could be added to Coinbase pushed up prices in early March.
A CoinDesk article that came out in early March added to speculation about a major exchange that would host Ripple, citing an appearance by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Coinbase president and chief operating officer Asiff Hirji in " Fast Money "of the CNBC channel.
Since then, XRP prices have decreased by approximately 50 percent.
The worst performances of cryptocurrencies (first quarter of the year)
Bitcoin Cash: -66.05%
Ripple: -74.87%
Cardano: -77.73%
The best performances of cryptocurrencies (first quarter of the year)
VeChain: 26%
Tron: 9.25%