Ripple might be the third biggest cryptocurrency based on market capitalization but it has been struggling quite a bit lately. There are a good number of reasons why XRP is struggling with its value. One, you have the fact that it wasn’t considered by the US SEC as a commodity. Only Bitcoin and Ethereum were considered. And the reason behind this is the number of lawsuits that Ripple Labs is dealing with. All of the lawsuits that were filed against Ripple Lab claim that XRP is a security.
But now, things suddenly looked good for Ripple in the last 24 hours. Though Ether has been recovering gradually in the last few days at solid 2.6% a day, Ripple skyrocketed by 15.3%.
What Made Ripple Go Up?
There’s news that Ripple could potentially launch a commercial version of xRapid “in the next month or so” reported on September 17. Sagar Sarbhai who is the head of regulatory relations for the Asia Pacific and Middle East for Ripple talked to CNBC and mentioned that the xRapid product is going to be available for commercial applications.
The xRapid has been catered mostly to banks. It was aimed to help banks speed up transaction times by using XRP. Sarbhai mentioned that “I am very confident that in the next one month or so you will see some good news coming in where we launch the product live in production”.
It is said that the xRapid has been designed in order to “bridge” between crypto and fiat. It is used by banks that allow cross-border transactions a lot easier. How exactly does it work? For instance, a bank can process a transaction from US dollars to a currency of choice. The process will require a pre-funded local currency account for this to take place. Using xRapid, Ripple claims that it can speed the entire process of converting US dollars into XRP, and then XRP going to the fiat currency of choice at the other end.
Partnerships with Banks and Companies
Ripple has already partnered with different banks. Among which is Santander and American Express. Ripple also built a relationship with companies such as Western Union and MoneyGram. Unfortunately, Western Union mentioned that Ripple’s product never really helped them lessen the cost of cross-border transactions. However, Ripple then answered that the sample was quite small to see a difference.
According to Sarbhain, there are around 120 banks and financial institutions that are already partnered with Ripple. These partners have been using xCurrent.
Dozens of Banks Using xRapid by 2019
This could be the reason why the price of XRP is currently bullish. According to Brad Garlinghouse who works as Ripple’s Chief Executive, there are “dozens” of banks that are going to use xRapid by the end of 2019.
Sarghai thinks that regulations helped the way the crypto market improved. Sarbhai mentioned that “a couple of years ago the narrative was blockchain good, crypto bad”. He also added that “What we’re now seeing is more and more regulators, policymakers taking the whole space in one conjunction”. He believes that the regulators now saw the benefits of the crypto market.
