Bitcoin dropped to its lowest value of the year. It happened when Bitcoin was showing signs of stability at $6,200 and $6,500 for a couple of months. Some experts such as Mike Novogratz even thought that Bitcoin may have already bottomed. It was believed that the market was slowly maturing and investors are holding on to their Bitcoin.
However, in the last 48 hours, Bitcoin in such a way that the bottom was broken and there was no longer a support to look at. However, despite the ruckus caused by Bitcoin Cash hard fork, there is a cryptocurrency that managed to still get some minor victories.
For instance, Ripple has overtaken Ethereum once again as the world’s second largest cryptocurrency. This wasn’t the first time that Ripple has done it. In fact, Ripple was able to overtake Ethereum mainly after xRapid was announced. xRapid was considered to be the Ripple product that would bridge fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies helping to lessen the cost of cross-border transactions.
As for Bitcoin, it remained as the world’s largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap. It has a market cap of $95.6 billion. It was the first time that Bitcoin’s market cap traded below $100 billion since October 2017.
Financial Industries Saving Ripple?
One of the main reasons for the recent turn of events is Bitcoin Cash’s hard fork. Many are nervous as to what is going to happen next. In fact, the miners of Bitcoin Cash are going to decide which version they are going to support.
Bitcoin was affected and even dropped below $5,400 momentarily. As for Ripple, it has outperformed other cryptos since it has lost just by under 10%. The reason for this is its established association with financial industries.
This week, Brad Garlinghouse mentioned to Bloomberg that Ripple is “solving a cross-border payment problem”. And also, he added that a cryptocurrency’s value is “based on its ability to solve problems”. Could he actually be right on this one?
What Makes Ripple Special?
Garlinghouse explained that the technology of that the company uses makes XRP “1,000 times faster and cheaper than Bitcoin”. However, Ripple had its own challenges especially this year. In fact, Ripple peaked at more than $3 last year during the bull run. However, this year, it is down by some 80%.
Many are hoping that the bearish trend is only short-term. According to Nigel Green who is the chief executive of financial advisory group deVere, “The sudden drop in the value of bitcoin will have caught many investors off guard—even though history teaches us that this is likely to be temporary, with prices rebounding again fairly quickly”. He also said that “Cryptocurrencies are now being widely accepted as the future of money. They are the bedrock of the digital global economy and, as such, I am confident the sector will increase 5,000% in the next decade”.
Ripple has been saved by the partnerships that it made with banks and other institutions. It even attempts to enter markets in South East Asia to solve cross-border transactions. Is XRP price going to recover any time soon?
