Despite the fact that 2018 wasn’t generally good for cryptocurrencies, there is no denying that digital coins are still a hot commodity today especially for those who are trying to still catch up the potential spike in the value of cryptocurrencies.
One of the hottest altcoins today is Ripple. Ripple has gained popularity mainly for the possibility of catering cross-border transactions in a more efficient way.
And recently, Ripple has hired a chief market strategist that can take the cryptocurrency to another level. Bloomberg Television’s Cory Johnson has confirmed that he already left his post on the news network in exchange for his spot in Ripple. Johnson was a former hedge fund manager. He also spent eight years covering for Bloomberg mainly for technology for TV as well as Bloomberg Radio.
Will Johnson Make a Huge Difference?
Will Johnson make a difference to the six-year-old company? Ripple is currently worth $49 billion. However, it has reached a high of $3.84 around January 2018 and fell all the way to 83 cents this week. The challenge for Ripple is to be able to build a business by selling a blockchain-based payment software to financial institutions.
The job of Johnson is quite clear. According to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) has plagued the company and the rest of the cryptocurrencies. However, it is Johnson’s job to make things a bit less confusing for Ripple.
Johnson mentioned that “The role of Ripple as a company and XRP as a currency in financial markets, to regulators, financial institutions and investors could use more explaining”. He also added that “I’m going to try and explain, listen, and set strategies to make it easy for Wall Street and the world of finance to understand what we’re doing”.
Johnson has two decades-worth of experience in the Bay Area working for different organizations that includes CNBC. Now, for his new role, he will be working closely with Ripple’s CFO Ron Will. With his experience, could this actually help Ripple gain a bullish trend in the coming weeks? And will his presence provide adoption of Ripple by established companies?
Johnson hasn’t commented whether or not he is receiving XRP as part of his compensation. However, he did say that he looks forward towards educating the crypto market what the digital currency can bring to the table. And the goal is to get financial institutions to embrace the utilization of Ripple.
MoneyGram Adoption
One of the things that make Ripple grow as a company is an adoption that it has gained as of late. MoneyGram announced that it is testing Ripple’s xRapid technology. Its goal is to make use of XRP in cross-border payments. What it hopes to do is to be able to settle remittances and corporate transactions better.
Johnson will be splitting his time between San Francisco and New York to work for the company. He mentioned that though he is quite new in Ripple, he observed that “These people move a thousand miles a minute around the globe like their pants are on fire”.
