Ripple has been a very peculiar company in the world of blockchain and digital currency. Their desire to strengthen the financial ecosystem rather than replace it has created some bad blood among cryptocurrency diehards. Even so, Ripple is making a positive impact on the market, and their XRP asset should not be overlooked. India’s Koinex exchange will use XRP as a base trading market for all supported currencies.

Another Notch in the Belt of XRP

Although not all cryptocurrency supporters see eye-to-eye when it comes to XRP, no one can deny the success of this digital asset. After a very rough start, the value of XRP has risen gradually and now sits near the $0.85 mark. With the Ripple team locking up over half of the XRP supply in time-locked contracts, there is no risk of anyone dumping large amounts of it on the open market.

The rise in the XRP value has attracted a lot of cryptocurrency speculators over the years. XRP has seen some price spikes – reaching as much as $3 – and bigger price dips in the past eight months. The demand for XRP has not slowed in the slightest, even though it is not the traditional cryptocurrency which some people might expect it to be.

With major financial giants such as MercuryFX and Western Union trialing Ripple technology, more focus is brought upon XRP. Ripple’s xRapid liquidity solution hinges on XRP’s ability to provide instant cross-border fiat transaction settlement. This has caused the demand for XRP to go up even more, although there’s still a long way to go until this digital asset is mainly controlled by entities other than the Ripple team itself.

Despite all of these successes, XRP cannot be found on every major cryptocurrency exchange. Coinbase, for example, openly rejected the listing of XRP, even when the Ripple team was prepared to offer them a great deal of money. To this day, no one outside the company knows for sure why Coinbase decided not to list this asset. Regulatory concerns regarding XRP being labeled a security – alongside Ethereum – may have influenced that decision to a certain extent.

Big was people’s surprise when Koinex, an Indian exchange, announced they would support XRP as a base trading market. All other currencies and assets listed on this platform will have XRP pairs. That is a very unique take on things. Alternative currency-based trading markets are nothing new, as Ethereum is a market for most ERC20 tokens. For XRP, however, it is a major step toward becoming a mainstream digital asset.

It is evident that this decision by Koinex will set a very peculiar precedent in the world of cryptocurrency and digital assets. While it’s unclear if any other major exchange will enable XRP as a base currency, there is certainly a valid reason for doing so. Bringing more liquidity to this particular asset is always a good thing, although it remains to be seen how all of this will pan out.