If you know anything about cryptocurrency world, you know that Ripple (XRP) is one of the most followed, debated, but also top-ranked cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization above $30 billion.
We will take a quick look at recent happening around Ripple, they are very active on business side of their development, partnering mostly with top banks and financial institutions.
What you'll learn 👉
Ripple gathering featuring Snoop Dogg
Ripple has announced they are hosting a VIP gathering featuring Snoop Dogg – and they will be giving away 10 tickets to the event on Twitter.
RippleLabs announced Tuesday that famous rapper would perform at its Ripple Community Night during Blockchain Week NYC in May. The event itself is organized to celebrate firm’s work to date in developing its XRP token and the underlying ledger technology.
Real and rumored partnerships
Rumours foating around Ripple community indicate a possible Apple partnership – biggest company in the world allegedly decided on implementing Ripple’s interledger protocol into ApplePay. Ripple’s inter-ledger payment system does not correlate directly to XRP currency but sure does bring anticipation for a possible XRP integration in future, which could fuel a possible price rocket.
Confirmed partnership is with Santander bank – they will be entering the fintech market in the form of Open Pay FX. The service in question is active in Spain, UK, Brazil and Poland and guarantees same day settlement . Expansion of the service to other jurisdictions is being worked on by the Santander group.
Digital payments startup Revolut is also looking to add Ripple (XRP) to its platform in the following days.
The company announced its plans to integrate XRP in March, and followed up to specify its plans to officially release the new addition by the end of April.
Revolut is a digital banking alternative that seeks to bridge the gap between cryptocurrencies and the traditional banking world by enabling users to directly link their bank accounts with their digital assets. It currently only supports Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, but with the addition of XRP support, it will mean that XRP holders can exchange freely between any supported cryptocurrencies using just the Revolut app.
In addition to Santander partnership, Ripple secured couple of more lucrative deals with SBI Holdings, and LianLian International – all prominent players in their respective industries. This exposes Ripple to more people and expands adoption. LianLian is one of the top payment systems in China, and as the Chinese middle class grows, the frequency of payments is expected to rise.
Danger of being classified as security
The only negative that could potentially hurt Ripple’s Cinderella story is Gary Gentler. Gentler is the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC), said that both Ethereum and Ripple, could be classed as securities, bringing them closer to potential regulation.
“There is a strong case for both of them — but particularly Ripple — that they are noncompliant securities,” Gensler told the New York Times.
That’s because both Ripple and Ethereum have been sold by their founders and purchased by investors primarily as investments for speculative reasons. Bitcoin, on the other hand, was never issued in this manner and is thus unlikely to be deemed a security by regulators.
Ripple has repeatedly claimed that XRP is not a security, though cryptocurrency exchange operator and brokerage firm Coinbase has suggested that it does not believe there is regulatory certainty that prevents it from listing the token.
“XRP does not give its owners an interest or stake in Ripple, and they are not paid dividends,” Ripple spokesman Tom Channick told the NYT. “XRP exists independent of Ripple, was created before the company and will exist after it.”
Investing in innovations
Ripple created a dedicated fund to invest in projects that will identify new use cases for the XRP Ledger and Interledger Protocol. This news, among others, is propelling the growth of Ripple.
Much more lucrative to invest in than Bitcoin
Ripple to date is trading around $0.70, whilst its all-time highs were closer to $3.30, marking a potential 5.44x growth. Bitcoin, on the other hand, only has around 1-1.5x, comparing its current price to previous all-time highs. Assuming both assets gain traction and march closer to their previous highs, XRP would pack a much larger return on investment.
