Ripple’s XRP, currently the world’s third-biggest cryptocurrency by market value behind bitcoin and ethereum, has soared over the last week—adding around 150% to its price.
The XRP price has risen almost four-fold since the beginning of 2020, climbing alongside bitcoin and most other major cryptocurrencies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, after a few positive developments for Ripple’s XRP, it has broken out of a near three-year downward trend though it remains far from its 2017 all-time high.
The price of Ripple’s XRP token has added around 150% over the last week as investors pile into the … [+]
XRP’s latest rally higher comes after the company Ripple, which owns some 60% of XRP tokens, said it’s looking to capitalize on a central bank rush to digitalize their currencies.
The San Francisco-based company is looking to hire a senior director of central bank engagements, according to a new job listing, following comments made by Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse earlier this month that central banks could use the XRP Ledger to issue so-called stable coins that are pegged to fiat currencies. He also said XRP could be used as a bridge asset to exchange digital forms of fiat.
“Just using stablecoins doesn’t really solve the problem that XRP is solving,” Garlinghouse told The Scoop podcast. “XRP as an extremely efficient, extremely scalable blockchain, is ideally suitable for that.”
Meanwhile, the payments and transfers regulatory landscape, which has remained murky over recent years, has recently appeared to clear.
“Unexpectedly, the brightest among alt coins was the XRP token,” Alex Kuptsikevich, senior market analyst at FxPro, said via email, pointing to “speculation” that such XRP’s massive rally may be associated with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency bill, which will prohibit banks from blacklisting competing legal industries, which could include Ripple business.”
“This aims to accelerate and reduce the cost of bank money transfers while having all the necessary licenses,” Kuptsikevich said.
The price of Ripple’s XRP has climbed by just under 140% over the last week alone.
Ripple has battled accusations it’s driven down the XRP price by selling off the cryptocurrency since it hit all-time highs of around $4 amid bitcoin mania in late 2018.
“The coin had a very difficult last few years but especially deeply oversold conditions eventually played into XRP hands,” Kuptsikevich added.
Meanwhile, both bitcoin and ethereum have also climbed this week, adding 10% and 30% respectively as Wall Street and a host of big-name investors show renewed interest in cryptocurrencies.