The price of Ripple has been climbing this month, reflecting the gains of other larger cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Ripple is valued at around $1.20 as of Thursday afternoon, down from a two-month peak of $1.34 on Wednesday.
It reached its highest ever price back in April, when it exceeded $1.80 for the first time, before crashing along with other crypto coins.
Here is what you need to know about Ripple, and where it could go next.
What is Ripple?
Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange and remittance network that was released in 2012.
Its token is known as XRP, which currently has a market cap of over $120 billion.
XRP’s purpose is to serve as an intermediate mechanism of exchange between two currencies or networks. Its transactions are both cheaper and much faster than Bitcoin.
A class action was filed against Ripple in May 2018 “alleging that it led a scheme to raise hundreds of millions of dollars through unregistered sales of its XRP tokens”.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated legal proceedings against Ripple Labs, CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen in December last year.
In its initial response, the company said it had been unfairly singled out, adding: “The SEC’s theory that XRP is an investment contract ignores the economic reality that XRP is, and has long been, a digital asset with a fully functional ecosystem and a real use case as a bridge currency that does not rely on Ripple’s efforts for its functionality or price.”
The case is not due to be concluded until next year. It initially dented Ripple’s price, before it returned to reach April’s record high.
Ripple pride prediction
The current market consensus is that Ripple is trending in a good direction.
XRP price analysis from CoinCodex shows 27 indicators giving off bullish signals, with one bearish signal.
DigitalCoin‘s analysis says its price should reach average of $2.17 in 2022 and $3.94 in 2025. It could hit an average of $4.46 by 2026, the forecast suggests.
Should I invest in cryptocurrency?
People invest at their own risk and cryptocurrencies are not regulated by British financial authorities.
All crypto investments are risky, but meme coins like Shiba Inu are particularly volatile, and you should be prepared to lose everything you invest.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned in January: “Investing in cryptoassets, or investments and lending linked to them, generally involves taking very high risks with investors’ money.
“If consumers invest in these types of product, they should be prepared to lose all their money.”
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown previously explained the risks to i.
She said: “On top of being extremely volatile, most cryptocurrencies are unregulated, which not only adds another layer of uncertainty but also means that investors have little or no protection against fraud.”