The US Securities and Exchange Commission has now considered both Bitcoin and Ethereum as commodities. And this is good news since it means that regulations on stocks and other investment vehicles are not applicable to both cryptocurrencies. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the same for Ripple.
Instead, Ripple dealt with lawsuits. And these lawsuits claim that Ripple’s XRP is a security. The US SEC could be waiting for the court decision before making its statement, while Ripple’s team is currently doing whatever it can in order to solve its problems. They’ve hired people who can help decentralize Ripple. In addition to this, they’ve done what they can in order to promote Ripple by getting celebrities and by making necessary partnerships.
And now, Ripple is targeting the Chinese market. Its offer to the Chinese market is the potential to speed up cross-border payments. According to Jeremy Light, vice president of European Union strategic accounts for Ripple, “China is definitely of interest, it is definitely a target”. He also added that “China is definitely a country and region of interest”.
Earlier this year, Ripple partnered with a Hong Kong-based financial services firm called LianLian International. the aim of this partnership is for LianLian International to provide cross-border transactions between China, US, and Europe. However, it is still not clear whether or not LianLian International is already using Ripple.
Ripple’s goal is to improve XRP’s adoption in the region. And if it becomes successful in entering the Chinese market, this is significant considering Beijing’s banned ICOs and crypto-related activities. Currently, Ripple has built a partnership with 100 financial institutions including Santander, UniCredit, UBS and Standard Chartered.
On Friday, Ripple jumped by more than 16%. And now, the XRP market cap is now at $13 billion. This spike in XRP’s price coincided with Ripple Lab’s announcement that it is strengthening its cross-border banking solutions to different parts of the world. The company has named three “preferred” exchanges as partners and it includes three exchanges from three countries namely: BIttrex (USA), Bitso (Mexico), Coins.Ph (Philippines).
What exactly does it mean? Banks associated with Ripple can now open an account with the three exchanges mentioned by Ripple. Here, they can trade local currency in exchange of XRP which will then be used to facilitate cross-border transactions using the Ripple ledger. As for individuals, they can also make use of the exchanges in order to exchange the funds to their local currency.
This announcement has triggered a positive response from speculators and even from serious investors. On the other hand, Bitcoin and Ethereum had a weaker rally compared to Ripple. Bitcoin spiked only by 3% while Ethereum was up by 5%. It was only EOS that was able to somewhat match Ripple’s gains at 12%.
Until now, the crypto world has struggled with adoption. In fact, Vitalik Buterin thinks that instead of having a Bitcoin ETF, it is more important for the long-term growth of the cryptocurrency market to increase adoption. Could Ripple be able to make this a reality considering the partnerships it has built?
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