About an hour ago, it appeared as if we would not see any major Bitcoin price action later today. Right now, the price is surging upward toward the $4,500 target once again. Another currency making a lot of waves right now is Ripple, or to be more specific, their native XRP currency. With a 13.58% gain over the past 24 hours, things are looking quite good for this digital asset. It is still not a cryptocurrency by any means, though.
XRP PRICE SHOWS SOME POSITIVE MOMENTUM
The year 2017 has been pretty impressive as far as XRP is concerned, even though the current value may not reflect the momentum entirely. More specifically, at its peak one XRP was worth nearly $0.40, with the price currently hovering around the $0.22 mark. Considering how one XRP was worth far less than that a few months ago, no one can deny the digital asset has seen its fair share of momentum over the past eight months.
That being said, the current XRP price reflects a 13.58% gain over the past 24 hours. Most day traders are having a lot of fun as far as XRP is concerned these days. More specifically, the value of Ripple’s native asset fluctuates so much, can repeated buy low, sell high, and repeat. Although the gains are not necessarily all that lucrative, a lot of smaller profits still add up to major gains over time. Flipping XRP across exchanges can easily result in 10-50% portfolio growth every single day, assuming it is done right.
That doesn’t mean the market is dominated by speculators entirely, but it certainly appears to be. Someone is actively pushing up the XRP price on a regular basis and bringing it back down accordingly. This pump-and-dump mechanism also ensures the XRP price in US Dollars remains virtually the same, but fluctuates heavily against the Bitcoin value. With the Bitcoin price going up right now, XRP may very well drop to 3,500 Satoshi in the next few hours.
Considering how Korean exchanges are effectively dominating the trading volume – together with Poloniex’s XRP/BTC market – it is not hard to see why the prices go up and down so much. Just this past week, XRP has been valued of $0.19, $0.28, $0.212 and now $0.224 respectively. This wild gains and losses are not by accident, mind you, as it is clear someone would like nothing more than to shake out weaker investors and take their money accordingly. Buying 4BTC worth of XMR at $0.19 and selling them at $0.28 results in a nice gain, especially when considering that price difference was established within 24 hours.
All of this doesn’t mean Ripple hasn’t gotten positive momentum on the technological front, though. There have been various developments throughout 2017 which indicate XRP is only just getting started, even though no one knows for sure what the future may hold in this regard. Right now, it seems an XRP price of $0.25 is well within reach, but it could equally drop to $0.17 for all we know.
In the end, XRP is not a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ethereum. However, it is victim to the same market trends as cryptocurrencies and the manipulation that goes along with it. There is good money to be made with XRP regardless of how you may feel about the asset and its project. Speculating on prices is always a risky endeavor, though, and Ripple is often one of the most volatile assets the world has seen. Especially now with his Bitcoin price going up, things are more dangerous than ever before.