XRP, one of the more well-known digital currencies apart from bitcoin, had a 169% surge in November, outdoing the other digital assets. This happened at the same time that bitcoin was hitting an all-time high and receiving much attention in the news.
XRP, the payments token used for Ripple’s worldwide payments system, has risen by 225% this year, which is greater than bitcoin’s 165% rise. XRP is worth $21.4 billion in market capitalization, a much lower figure than bitcoin’s value of approximately $350 billion.
Some digital-markets analysts suggested last month that the surge in enthusiasm for XRP may be due to an impending airdrop of free ‘spark’ tokens to those who own XRP.
It may be the case that novice cryptocurrency investors are unaware they can purchase portions of a bitcoin, which can be split up to eight decimal places. This could make XRP, which is currently trading at 62.3 cents, seem more affordable than bitcoin at its current price of $19,087 on a price list.
“As the digital asset space has seen renewed interest in the second half of 2020, a new wave of investors are looking for ways to get exposure. Ripple appears to offer exposure in their portfolio, and a quick Google search may result in some users believing XRP is cheap and likely to become a product banks utilize for cross-border settlement.”
– Brian Mosoff, CEO of the publicly traded Canadian investment fund Ether Capital
Stellar, which was co-founded by Ripple’s Jed McCaleb, had the second highest rate of increase in November out of the CoinDesk 20 digital currencies and rose 153%. So far this year it has increased by 313%.
In comparison, the price of bitcoin increased by 40% in November while ether, the digital currency associated with Ethereum, went up by 56%.
Mosoff of Ether Capital has expressed his doubts about the rise in value of XRP.
“Ripple has struggled to gain widespread institutional adoption despite years of effort.”
– Mosoff
