Released in 2012 by OpenCoin, Ripple, or XRP has become one of the most popular digital assets of 2017. Considered as the third biggest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and Ethereum, XRP has become a staple currency of Google, Apple as well as a number of banks and financial institutions.
Despite the issues of volatility that XRP has been experiencing recently, here is a list of three essential facts about this digital asset.
Highest Scalability for a Cryptocurrency
Ripple is in fact considered the most scalable cryptocurrency. The XRP ledger can accommodate up to 1,500 unique transactions per second for 24/7, making it the fastest cryptocurrency. Not to mention, XRP has one of the cheapest fees when it comes to cross-border payments, encouraging some banking institutions to seek partnerships with it.
Furthermore, XRP has always sought to create a universal standard for all payments. Considering that it scales faster than Bitcoin, XRP can exceed current BTC standards. What makes it even more amazing is that it serves more than 2,000 unique Visa transactions per second.
Another interesting thing about XRP is that it has not had a single point of failure since its day one up until now. In fact, this track record is unbeatable.
Numerous Partnerships With Financial Institutions
XRP is the only cryptocurrency that has been readily accepted by several financial institutions as well as payment providers. In fact, VISA and American Express, two globally-known lending giants, had put their trust in XRP in late 2017, at a time when the digital asset was just gaining strength.
Aside from these credit card companies, XRP has partnered with the Spanish banking group Santander. Moreover, this particular digital asset has also been chosen by Japan and Korea in their blockchain payments especially with overseas payments. With such partnerships, the stability of XRP in the cryptocurrency industry and the financial world, in general, is almost guaranteed.
Still Positive Far Future Outlook
Currently, there are no definite predictions for a future price increase with Ripple even for the first quarter of 2018. In fact, there are no long-term predictions either. This is because the price is expected to settle into a sustainable range for quite some time. The root is because the price of XRP grew by almost 28,000% in 2017 alone. It also had the second largest market cap for any cryptocurrency at the beginning of 2018. Although the current market cap of $2.00 at the start of 2018 is still considered unusually large.
As all cryptocurrencies hit an all-time low in January 2018, XRP fell more than 30% in just a week. Moreover, even if the company announced new partnerships by January 24, 2018, there were no significant changes in the prices. In fact, the reaction was almost nil.
Nonetheless, because XRP has been an industry standard for several international money transfers with very minimal fees, it is still predicted to reach as much as $100 in the coming years. However, no one can make accurate predictions for XRP this year. Currently, only CEOs who have invested in Ripple are optimistic about it.
Conclusion
Regardless of when XRP will ever reach a value of $5 or $10, the most important thing is that it grew so much in 2017 that it would be impossible to reverse its gains. Moreover, XRP will surely see its reputation grow among financial institutions because of its perfect blockchain system and impeccable track record.
