After two days of solid gains, it seems the XRP price is finally cooling off a bit. Do not be tricked into thinking this rally is over, as it seems there is still a strong desire to regain lost value against Bitcoin. Even though the world’s leading cryptocurrency is on a tear right now, we will see some more interesting XRP price movement over the next few days and possibly weeks.
Ripple Stands its Ground
Whenever the Bitcoin price goes up, most altcoins will immediately drop against both the dollar and BTC. In the case of the XRP price, however, it seems its uptrend is not yet over by any means. It’s trading at nearly US$0.80, or 0.00004451 BTC. It is evident this digital asset has no real correlation with Bitcoin right now, even though it’s traded on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Granted, it almost appeared as if XRP would surpass 6,000 satoshi yesterday. The momentum was eventually cut short by the rising Bitcoin price, but that momentum is still in place. More specifically, the XRP price is still up by 25.4% against BTC from 24 hours ago. That alone is rather impressive, considering virtually every other asset and currency is losing ground as we speak. Then again, Ripple’s native asset is not a cryptocurrency and is seemingly less bothered by major Bitcoin price swings.
With an XRP price of US$0.799, the market looks rather healthy at this point in time. It all depends on how people value their cryptocurrency portfolio these days. Those looking for short-term BTC gains will be rather disappointed, but rest assured there may be another run up if the Bitcoin price starts to stumble again. This applies to all other cryptocurrencies and assets in circulation as well, as this dog-eat-dog industry has grown a lot more competitive in the past few months.
Unlike what most people would expect, Ripple’s native asset has seen over US$6.4 billion in 24-hour trading volume. That is quite a bit more than most other altcoins in the top 10. Right now, everyone wants to get their hands on XRP in the hopes of a major price increase. While it is unrealistic to think Ripple’s market cap will surpass that of Bitcoin, it is “only” worth 10% of Bitcoin’s total value at present.
Bithumb is once again the go-to place for all XRP trading action, as it controls over 30% of all 24-hour market volume. Poloniex is putting up a good fight, despite having slightly over one-third of Bithumb’s volume. Bittrex is not too far behind Poloniex right now. Bitfinex, Coinone, and Korbit round out the top six exchanges. This means four different fiat currency pairs are injecting fresh capital into Ripple’s ecosystem right now, which is pretty interesting. If this trend keeps up, we may see an XRP price of US$1 sooner than people think.
There is still a lot of positive momentum in the XRP markets right now. Most people expected this digital asset to crumble now that Bitcoin is moving up, but nothing could be further from the truth. There’s still a lot of buy support and more than enough money to push toward that 6,000 satoshi mark. A few interesting days are ahead as far as XRP trading is concerned; that much is evident.
