Price predictions for Ripple (XRP) have been everywhere on the internet, from just about every type of source. Many of these predictions should be taken with a grain of salt, but when a CEO of a major institution tweets a clear price prediction for a different company, one should certainly take notice.
A couple of days ago, Yashitaka Kitao, CEO of Tokyo based Strategic Business Innovator Group (SBI Holdings), tweeted out that XRP will hit $10 in 2018. The significance of his prediction runs very deep. Here's why. Back in the beginning of March, SBI Holdings and SBI Ripple Asia announced a collaborative effort to create a new remittance app called "Money Tap", which will allow its customers to settle transactions at any time of the day or night, every day of the week. The full release of the Money Tap app is scheduled the fall/summer of 2018 and will feature Resona Bank, SBI Net Sumishin Bank and Suruga Bank as the first three to offer the service.
About Money Tap
The app will be powered by Ripple's xCurrent system, the one that does not us XRP to settle. However, SBI did make a statement in March that they are "considering using XRP for bridge currency". Although this is promising for XRP holders, the word "considering" does not exactly sound like a definite move for the group. But, with Mr. Kitao's latest tweet making such a bold prediction as XRP price hitting $10 this year, can we now read between the lines that this means they will most certainly be using XRP, and sooner than later? To add an exclamation point to his prediction, Mr. Kitao added a grand endorsement of XRP, stating that "in the future XRP will become the global standard in cryptocurrencies."
Moon Landing
With Ripple XRP trading at approximately $.65 today, a prediction of $10 by year end is certainly a very ambitious number by any stretch of the imagination. But consider the fact that the Money Tap app will include the unification consortium consisting of 61 Japanese banks and that number sounds on point and even relatively low. Now add the strong possibility of the pending Western Union (NYSE:WU) announcement, which is rumored to be announcing a roll-out using XRP for remittance and that number starts to seem small. Just to add fuel to the fire, if MoneyGram's remittance partnership with Walmart (NYSE:WMT) announces that it will use XRP, which seems likely, then XRP might just have an unexpected "moon" landing this year. Stay tuned!