Since December 2017, XRP has seen a decline of 40 percent and is down 89 percent from its peak. Ripple currently works with the biggest financial institutions in the world and its plan is to power the whole financial sector by allowing us to make instant transactions at just a fraction of current cost. But it does all of this without the need for XRP token so where does it fit the bill?
What you'll learn 👉
If Ripple Shuts Down, XRP Will Continue to Trade
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and senior vice president of marketing Monica Long just hosted a live ask-me-anything on YouTube. One of the questions for Garlinghouse was on his thoughts as to whether XRP is decentralized enough and if it can be classified as a security or not.
In his response to the question, Brad Garlinghouse states the following:
I think it is very clear XRP is not a security. There is a whole bunch of base layer reasons for that. One of the most important I think is…if Ripple the company shuts down…XRP trades on over a hundred exchanges around the world and XRP will continue to trade.
Ripple is one important participant in the XRP ecosystem…but there are a whole bunch of participants…
While this is technically true, things look different in reality. XRP is highly dependent on Ripple and should the company detach itself from XRP token, its value would plummet. Additionally, Ripple founders “gifted” XRP tokens to OpenCoin (later rebranded to Ripple Labs) which is a neat trick but it is doubtful if SEC will swallow it. Does anyone really think that it is this easy to avoid the security classification? You just say someone else created this security and gifted it to us so we bear no responsibility towards the holders and the token is completely independent to us?
The two talk about the growth of Ripple, XRP and cryptocurrency in 2018 and look ahead to what may be in store for the new year.
Regulatory jury is still out
As this Forbes contributor explains, some of the most significant partnerships Ripple created are with Israel’s GMT, Turkey’s Akbank, American Express, CIBC, MoneyGram and Earthport in order to facilitate the cross-border payments. Having said this, the jury is still out on the regulatory status for Ripple. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hasn’t decided if it is a security or not. The most obvious reason is the decentralised nature of Ripple’s platform but at the same time, it has tightened its leash for other ICOs accused of selling unregistered securities.
Travala integrates XRP
XRP is now one of the currencies you can use to pay expenses in over half a million hotels across the world that are using the a NEO based project dubbed Travala. Travala is aiming to become a next-generation online travel agency (NOTA) and has over 82,311 destinations with 567,928 properties in 210 countries.
Price analysis
EthereumWorldNews sees buyers in charge—they have been in control since late Sep as laid out in previous XRP/USD trade plans—thanks to Dec 17 upswings. Because of this, XRP prices are now in sync with the broader outlook. With shift of trend of mid-Q3, we expect buyer’s momentum to pick up lifting prices towards Sep highs and even $1.65 as projected by Fibonacci Extension tool based on Sep high low.
Volumes: Increasing
Aside from Dec 8, 1500 HRs bull bar—with high trade volumes 23 million versus 9 million, the level of market participation on Dec 17, 1900 HRs bull bar—20 million versus 5 million average is a mark of bulls. This confirms our bullish bias and since XRP prices broke above Dec 8 highs, buyers should be searching for loading opportunities in lower time frames.
You are a misleading journo. I saw the broadcast and that is not what Brad said. Your heading is so misleading that you should be put out of business .