The price of Ripple, the cryptocurrency that Japanese banks are warming to, is not stopping after the big break above $1.50. At the time of writing, XRP/USD is trading at around $1.93 according to the Bitsmap exchange. The high so far has been $1.95. Ripple at $2 is getting close less than a week after the price hugged the $1 level.
Update: the price eventually broke above the $2 barrier and reached a new high of $2.47. From there we are finally seeing some kind of a correction.
Update:Â Ripple price: Rumors of Coinbase beta testing help stall the big correction
We noted three reasons for the Ripple rally and the biggest driver is the potential adoption by Japanese and perhaps other Asian banks. Credit card companies in Japan are being encouraged to adopt it to facilitate faster transactions. With a lengthy and costly process to complete a bitcoin transaction becoming irritating, Ripple clearly stands out.
Earlier today, the market cap of Ripple, as noted by CoinMarketCap, surpassed the market cap of Ethererum. ETH/USD is also experiencing gains today: it is up over 2% to $728, but this is way behind the roar of ripple.
After an initial battle for second place ahead of bitcoin, current valuations put Ripple as a decisive winner. Ripple’s market capitalization is around $86 billion and Ethereum’s is only $72 billion. This is a considerable gap. ETH/USD would need to rise nearly 20% to reach the current valuation of Ripple.
XRP/USD: to $2.50, $3 or a huge downward correction?
What are the next levels to watch? With these recent moves towards the stratosphere, the next foreseeable level is $2. And beyond? It is hard to use normal technical analysis tools with such moves. Round numbers play a bigger role, making $2.50 and $3 the next potential targets.
We may also see a correction from here. Gains of 50% are extreme also in the wild world of cryptocurrencies. Just last Friday, we had the great crypto-crash. For Ripple/USD, it meant a plunge from the previous peak of $1.25 to $0.82, a loss of around a third of its value within a day.
Speaking about a third of value: the market cap of Ripple is now more than a third that of bitcoin. BTC is worth some $244 billion while XRP some $86 billion.
Will we ever see Ripple becoming No. 1? That would require a huge stretch in price and in the imagination.
More:Â Companies Dabbling in Cryptos and Making Big Bucks
Here is how the rally looks on the one-hour Ripple/USD chart:
