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XRP Seems to Be the Top Candidate For the Bull Run in 2019, and Here’s Why

source-logo  coinspeaker.com 18 December 2018 07:07, UTC

Relative to its peers in the crypto community, Ripple has weathered the down market of 2018. Sure it’s down almost 90% from its all-time high, but while Ethereum and Bitcoin have dropped more than 50% in the last three months, Ripple’s XRP price almost is exactly where it was. It saw a spike of nearly double that in October though, but it was the only major coin to spike, a sign that the market could be interested in XRP, if only it could “decouple” from its main trading pair with BTC.

However, it’s worth of knowing that not only XRP, but also other cryptocurrencies are being backed by major players in the financial industries, like the managing director and the chairwoman of the International Monetary Fund [IMF], Christine Lagarde, which is a telltale of massive adoption of cryptocurrencies in real-world.

Christine, who once slammed Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, now says that with central banks creating their own cryptocurrencies, transactions and transfers will be safer, and this could help stand against cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. She voiced out that non-cash payments have been on the rise lately and is now proving to be a challenge to governments and central banks.

Ripple’s infrastructure is designed to make transactions faster and convenient for banks and other financial institutions. It explains why the platform has already seen over 100 institutions adopt its technology and there are more that are joining by the day. The platform’s blockchain, RippleNet, offers businesses and financial institutions different programs that help cross-border payments happen smoothly.

This includes xRapid, a program that allows financial institutions to minimize liquidity cost if they use XRP as a bridge from one fiat currency to another. xCurrent which is a payment processing system for banks. And also xVia which allows businesses to send payments through RippleNet. All three solutions are crucial in enhancing Ripple value.

Ripple’s Partnerships

Using XRP as a bridge currency helps accomplish cross-border payments in a maximum time of 3 to 4 seconds and unlike traditional banks, XRP and Ripple’s technology can be used 24x7x365.

In comparison with other cryptocurrencies, Ripple and XRP make the transfer between any currency, any asset and any commodity possible. With all these partnerships Ripple and XRP, in a tag-team plan to take on the remittance and the cross-border payment industry which is worth $155 trillion in total.

Ripple has now made massive partnerships with major banks and financial institutions around the world, like Israel’s GMT, Turkey’s Akbank, MoneyGram, AmericanExpress, CIBC, Earthport, and many more who have the access to use Ripple’s blockchain technology for cross-border payments and more.

Akbank announced that it was using Ripple’s blockchain technology Ripple Net to transfer the GBP to UK’s Santander, another financial services company. This announcement doesn’t clarify that it is not using XRP as a bridge currency, but it doesn’t mention that it isn’t either.

Lately, we are witnessing the uncertainty around this cryptocurrency. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not provide information on whether XRP is a security or not. However, the SEC has been going behind other ICOs that were accused of selling unregistered securities.

One of the things that are taken into account is the possibility to decentralize Ripple and the XRP network in order for it not to be considered a security. SEC’s William Hinman said that there might be other decentralized networks and systems in which it might not be necessary to regulate the tokens or coins.

Although he was sharing his personal opinion, this is one of the closest things that the market has related to how decentralization plays an important role a the time of evaluating whether a token is a security or not.

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have been described as cryptocurrencies with large communities and many companies working together. Hinman showed that these two cryptos were decentralized. However, Ripple raises some concerns since XRP depends on what Ripple does to a very important extent.

Nonetheless, things are changing. There are other companies such as Omni or Coil, and also some individual developers that are working in order to increase and facilitate XRP payments. Ripple (XRP) has also been added onto a leading travel website Travala.com

Coinbase Taking RippleLabs’ Coin on Their Custodian Services

Coinbase recently announced that it is adding more than 30 assets to its trading list and XRP was one among them. Coinbase has always been known for scrutinizing an asset thoroughly before adding it to their trading lists.

Since that has been thrown out of the window, the cryptocurrency community speculates that it could be due to the bear market wiping off more than 80% of Coinbase’s trading volume since its all-time high in 2018, which was reported by Diar in a research.

Ripple (XRP) used to be the cryptocurrency that was considered an outcast in the crypto community. There is a reason Ripple (XRP) did not end up on Coinbase even though it is an older cryptocurrency than Ethereum (ETH). The crypto community back then was very anti Ripple (XRP) in its early days because of what it stood for. Before 2017, the crypto community mostly comprised of tech geeks who had heard early about Bitcoin (BTC).

Most of them were either developers, miners or early adopters who believed in what Bitcoin (BTC) stood for. This is why most of them first flocked to Bitcoin (BTC) and then Litecoin (LTC) when they realized that Litecoin (LTC) could solve some of Bitcoin (BTC)’s issues that might lead to future adoption for Litecoin (LTC). However, Ripple (XRP) was ignored for the most part during that phase.

Building Trust and Regulatory Clarity in Blockchain and Digital Assets

SVP of Global Operations at Ripple Eric van Miltenburg said in his official announcement that Ripple is an international business by definition.

“We use blockchain technology and digital assets to remove friction from global payments. From the very beginning, we’ve worked within the existing international banking system, as opposed to around it, engaging with regulators worldwide to ensure success for our customers. While we’ve seen exciting regulatory progress over the past year, challenges still lie ahead.”

They’ve held a panel inviting leaders on the front lines of digital asset and blockchain regulation to Ripple HQ. Panelists Kevin Werbach, author and professor at the Wharton School, Valeria Bystrowicz and Sarah Hody, both associates at Perkins Coie, joined Miltenburg for this inaugural Ripple Expert Views event.

The panelists noted that this approach is showing some early signs of success in emerging markets around the world—especially in the ASEAN market.

In this region, millions are gaining access to banking services for the first time through non-banking channels, like mobile wallets. The World Bank estimates East Asian markets received $129 billion in remittance payments last year alone. Further, SMEs are estimated to be responsible for up to 60 percent of employment in the developing world, but that number is thought to be as high as 70 percent in ASEAN countries.

To learn more about XRP coin, Ripple company and their innovative solutions, please check out our awesome guide.

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