Ripple on the Back Foot After Stellar Gains Last Week

The cryptocurrency market started the week on the back foot and Ripple has not been spared. Ranked third by market capitalisation, the coin is trading at $0.82 after sustaining losses of more than 4.5% in the last 24 hours. Ripple is sliding much faster than bitcoin which has only lost 1.85% in the same period.

But Ripple has made some recovery since early morning trading when it shed more than 6% of its value. Market capitalisation now stands at $32.3 billion with 24-hour volumes standing at $562 million according to CoinMarketCap.

The coin impressed last week with prices going as high as $0.92 before the correction set in seeing it fall below the 0.9 support level. A further decline below the 0.8150 support could see it plunge further towards $0.78. The outlook is bearish in the short term.

Legal Challenge

The coin is facing some challenges on the legal front after an investor Ryan Coffey took Ripple Labs to court for apparently selling securities, raising millions in the process. Ripple denies the claims and has long maintained the XRP tokens are not securities.

Lately, it has been making efforts to have it listed on Coinbase. The US-based exchange only lists Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, all generally not considered as securities.

“Whether or not XRP is a security is for the SEC to decide. We continue to believe XRP should not be classified as a security,” a spokesperson for the company told Bloomberg. He further noted that they have not been served with the suit.

Renown investor Warren Buffet has recently slammed the cryptocurrency market once more equating it to taking rat poison. Buffet has always made his disdain for the industry known, after all, it does not produce “anything.”

Partnerships Growing

Nonetheless, Ripple’s technology continues to be tested by dozens of financial institutions. Bank of America has previously said cryptocurrencies represent a threat to their business model, underlining the potential disruption the blockchain technology could bring.

Ripple’s payment technology used with the XRP tokens could cut transaction costs by as much as 60% and cut cross border transaction times to just a few seconds.

Santander is deploying a mobile-based app built using Ripple’s xRapid technology to enable cross border payments in four European countries, the Chief Marketing Officer recently confirmed.

Reports had earlier indicated that the xCurrent platform would be used. As Ripple continues to prove its utility, we are likely to see its value skyrocket in the future.

Ripple has already bagged partnerships with the likes of Western Union, MoneyGram and recently with UniPay, FairFX (UK) and Exchange4Free (UK).

Ripple generally received positive media hype last week that saw it gain more than 6%. According to Nasdaq, an Oman-based BankDhofar will be using RippleNet blockchain network as the banks seeks to cut transfer costs and time.