Ripple Hits $3 as Surging Cryptocurrency Reaches New All-Time High
It's now the second biggest cryptocurrency behind bitcoin.
Ripple’s XRP token continues to rip through cryptocurrency waves.
After passing the $1 mark for the first time two weeks ago, the latest hot player in the crypto market, by the San Francisco-based Ripple, reached a new all-time high of $3, meaning it has more than tripled in value.
Those values may not sound like much, given bitcoin has reached highs of close to $20,000 in recent weeks and is currently at around $15,000. But the far greater volume of Ripple’s XRP tokens compared with bitcoin means the total value of Ripple is, if not yet comparable to bitcoin, then at least a very credible runner-up. Ripple is up to $3.15 as of this writing.
This latest surge cements Ripple’s place as the highest valued cryptocurrency behind bitcoin in terms of market capitalization, firmly placing it ahead of the previous second biggest, ethereum. The surge also crowns Ripple as the latest breakout in the current cryptocurrency trading craze.
Ripple’s rise also pushed the overall cryptocurrency market to a total market cap surpassing $713 billion, from $667 billion the previous day.
As Coindesk reports, XRP is now up a whopping 144 percent on the week, having been trading at just $0.26 just over a month ago.
According to data by CoinMarketCap, XRP managed to rise 21 percent in just the past 24 hours. That’s a decent bounce-back, considering XRP dipped down to $2 just a few days ago on December 30.
Ripple appears to be 2018’s biggest beneficiary of the current crypto momentum that bitcoin set off late last year. As investors look for more currencies to trade, the bullish attitude to buy and sell continues, Forbes writes.
Released back in 2012, Ripple provides a “basic infrastructure technology for interbank transactions — a neutral utility for financial institutions and systems.” Before it became a powerhouse investing currency, much like other blockchain technology, XRP was built to make sending money across borders easy and fast.
It’s also got some benefits over uber-popular bitcoin.
Not only does it act as a secure currency, Ripple also claims that it provides faster transactions than bitcoin. While bitcoin needs more than an hour to complete a transaction, Ripple only takes a few seconds.
However, at the rate it’s rising, using Ripple for everyday transactions may become as impractical as using bitcoin has recently due to the frequent buy-ins happening.
