What God giveth, God taketh away. Ripple (XRP) dropped below $1 early Thursday after reaching an all-time high near $4 in December. It is the second time it has fallen below that benchmark in the last ten days, with its recovery now wiped out.
Ripple was at $0.996 as of 1:00 pm EST, losing over 12% of its value in the previous 24 hours. The fall coincided with bleak results across the markets.
XRP took the position of second largest cryptocurrency by market cap on December 29th. It reached an all-time high of $3.84 midday on January 4th at a market cap of over $148 billion, before steadily climbing down from its record highs. XRP fell as low as $0.80 on January 17th, but rallied to reach a high of $1.73. Those gains have again been wiped out.
Ripple is the cryptocurrency belonging to the company of the same name, which runs the Ripple protocol that seeks to offer more fluid transactions between major financial institutions across borders. Skepticism does hover over XRP, as its parent company boasts that over 100 financial institutions use the company's services. Some traders might have the false impression that those banks are using XRP, which they are not. Only a very limited number of companies are test-driving it for cross-border payments. That includes Mexican bank, Cuallix, as well as some unnamed partners.
Its time above $1.00 has been brief, only achieving that in December. The last time it managed to hit second worldwide for market cap was back in May when it was worth $0.36. Ripple boasts that XRP has a four-second settlement time, far faster than Ethereum and Bitcoin.
Ripple's losses might not be related to debate about its utility. The crypto markets have suffered throughout January after unprecedented gains in December.
A steady flow of stories about new government regulations have cooled the trading indexes. The latest falls seem connected to a report stating that Bitfinex and Tether received subpoenas from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to testify about their currency. The two intertwined entities claim their tether (USDT) token is pegged to USD and backed by reserves. Many have raised doubt that that is true.
Bitcoin was approaching $9,000, at the time of writing, having lost more than 50% of its value from its all-time high of $19,497 in mid-December. Ethereum was down to $940 from a $1,396 January high, and Litecoin at $130 (down from a $297 high last month).
Ripple was at $0.996 as of 1:00 pm EST, losing over 12% of its value in the previous 24 hours. The fall coincided with bleak results across the markets.
XRP took the position of second largest cryptocurrency by market cap on December 29th. It reached an all-time high of $3.84 midday on January 4th at a market cap of over $148 billion, before steadily climbing down from its record highs. XRP fell as low as $0.80 on January 17th, but rallied to reach a high of $1.73. Those gains have again been wiped out.
Ripple is the cryptocurrency belonging to the company of the same name, which runs the Ripple protocol that seeks to offer more fluid transactions between major financial institutions across borders. Skepticism does hover over XRP, as its parent company boasts that over 100 financial institutions use the company's services. Some traders might have the false impression that those banks are using XRP, which they are not. Only a very limited number of companies are test-driving it for cross-border payments. That includes Mexican bank, Cuallix, as well as some unnamed partners.
Its time above $1.00 has been brief, only achieving that in December. The last time it managed to hit second worldwide for market cap was back in May when it was worth $0.36. Ripple boasts that XRP has a four-second settlement time, far faster than Ethereum and Bitcoin.
Ripple caught in bearish riptide?
Ripple's losses might not be related to debate about its utility. The crypto markets have suffered throughout January after unprecedented gains in December.
A steady flow of stories about new government regulations have cooled the trading indexes. The latest falls seem connected to a report stating that Bitfinex and Tether received subpoenas from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to testify about their currency. The two intertwined entities claim their tether (USDT) token is pegged to USD and backed by reserves. Many have raised doubt that that is true.
Bitcoin was approaching $9,000, at the time of writing, having lost more than 50% of its value from its all-time high of $19,497 in mid-December. Ethereum was down to $940 from a $1,396 January high, and Litecoin at $130 (down from a $297 high last month).