This Ripple review begins a series where I will be reviewing a handful of altcoin cryptocurrencies in depth. In this review of Ripple (XRP) I will be sharing a bit on the company, the technology, a Ripple price prediction and of course where to buy XRP coins. As an investment I personally believe that XRP is one of the "safe" cryptocurrency investments and what appears to be a potentially big long-term winner, due to its solid technology, strong team and ever-increasing awareness and use.
Ripple Review -XRP at A Glance
Ripple (XRP) offers financial institutions and other payment providers the chance to utilize the XRP coin/digital asset to access new markets and reduce costs. Currently Ripple works with over 100 such customers, including a recent partnership with American Express.
Ripple Review - XRP Uses & Benefits
Besides the benefits highlighted in the graphic above, some of the highlights of Ripple's technology include:
- Fast Payment Settlement - XRP Payments settle in 4 seconds, compared with Ethereum which can take 2 minutes and Bitcoin which can take an hour or more.
- Scalable - Where Bitcoin can handle 3-6 transactions per second and Ethereum can handle 15 per second, Ripple can handle 1500.
- Stable - Started in 2012, XRP has a five year track record, with all ledgers successfully closed with no issues since inception.
Team/Founders
Ripple has a very solid leadership team, headed by their CEO Brad Garlinghouse. His bio:
Brad is the CEO of Ripple and a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to Ripple, Brad served as the CEO of file collaboration service Hightail. Previously, he was President of Consumer Applications at AOL from 2009 to 2012 and held various positions at Yahoo! from 2003 to 2009, including Senior Vice President. Brad formerly served as CEO of Dialpad Communications, held management positions at SBC Communications and @Home Network and was an advisor to Silverlake Partners. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Animoto and OutMatch and has held board positions at Ancestry.com and Tonic Health.
How Many Ripple Coins are There?
As of the time of the writing, there are 38.7 Billion XRP coins in circulation. The total amount of Ripple coins will be capped at 100 billion. It goes without saying that there is a huge supply of these coins (compared to say Bitcoin that is capped at 26 million), however like most other cryptocurrencies it is deflationary, meaning 100 Billion will be it for XRP.
Ripple Price Prediction for 2018 and Beyond
Ripple Price Chart from October 2, 2017 through January 2, 2018. Source: CoinGecko.com
At the time of writing, Ripple is trading right around the $2.50/mark and has the third largest market capitalization of the cryptos, only following Bitcoin and Ethereum. It has actually been trading places back and forth with Ethereum for second place.
Because of the huge number of XRP coins, I personally don't ever see Ripple reaching prices close to Bitcoin or Ethereum, but I do believe the market cap will continue to grow. We could see Ripple take the #1 spot in terms of market capitalization very soon.
There are also rumors that XRP will be added to Coinbase sometime this year. If/when that happens, XRP should see a substantial increase.
My personal opinion is that XRP should definitely reach $5 sometime this year. $8 would be my stretch estimation.
Furthermore, I think XRP is a long-term HODL. It is a coin that is here to stay. As the adoption and awareness of Ripple grows, so too I believe will the price.
Where to Buy XRP Coins
How to buy Ripple is pretty straightforward. Currently over 50 online cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide offer offer XRP in exchange for either Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH). I buy and sell Ripple on Binance.
If you do not currently have any BTC or ETH, you will want to first purchase some on a site like Coinbase or my personal favorite, Uphold. Once you have done that, you can then transfer your BTC or ETH to Binance and then start trading.
Your Thoughts on Ripple?
Thank you for reading and please leave your comments below. What do you think the price of Ripple will be at the end of the year?
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Obligatory Disclaimer
The recommendations contained in this ripple review are my personal opinions. I am not an investment advisor or professional. Cryptocurrency investing is risky and I urge you conduct extensive research when making your own investments.
More on Ripple
Ripple.com - Official website. More info on the ripple coin, team, etc.
Binance - Where to buy ripple! My #1 recommended cryptocurrency exchange.