A lot of people made a lot of money out of Bitcoin. Most of them invested in the early stages many years ago and sold recently near the top. Industry experts are predicting the next big thing may not be Bitcoin but Ripple. The company has made a lot of news lately with new partnerships and adoption across the financial industry. But could it really be bigger than Bitcoin?
A number to crypto experts were recently interviewed by Forbes during which they predicted that Ripple and its cryptocurrency, XRP, could be the thing to invest in now. One prediction is that larger gains would be possible due to its low price below a dollar. Bitcoin is already trading at around $10,000 so to go up significantly from there it will need a lot of in-flowing cash.
Ripple Already has a Foot in the Door
With Ripple’s faster transaction speeds and lower fees it offers an easier way for financial institutions to embrace the digital currency, and over a hundred of which already have. That is according to Craig Cole from Cryptomaps who also attributes this to XRP’s monumental rise year on year. This time last year Ripple’s cryptocurrency was trading at just $0.006, it has risen over 14,300% to its current levels today. Cole also went on to say;
“Ripple just might be the catalyst in making cryptocurrency more mainstream. The virtual currency is certainly on the rise and has the potential to be the first token to truly disrupt an industry, and if it does, expect XRP to reach Bitcoin-like levels of ubiquity in the near future.”
John-Paul McCaffrey, Associate Director at Long Island University, added that “Although currently there isn’t a platform to exchange fiat currency for Ripple (XRP) this may change sooner than you think,” fueling the rumors that Coinbase may list the altcoin later this year. Another industry expert, Roman Guelfi-Gibbs, Director of Operations at Pinnacle Brilliance, thinks it will take another year before Ripple makes the big-time;
“Ripple certainly has the potential to move up a notch in 2018, but I think it will be more likely in 2019. As the market observes more projects being coded in other algorithms such as XRP, ETH will likely take a backseat to the next big coin/token. It will take some time for the markets to digest this, so I am projecting 2019 to be the likely time for it to take place.”
Global Block Chain Technologies president, Shidan Gouran, said that the dollar volume separating the top three market capacities would need to be closer for XRP to improve. Additionally consumer awareness needs to increase and it needs to be available to the masses on the same level as Bitcoin and Ethereum which can be bought in fiat.
Company CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated in a separate interview with CNBC that the crypto industry needs to work with regulators to go forwards.
“It’s incredibly important that the entire industry recognizes that we have to work with the regulators, we have to work with the system. The blockchain revolution is happening from within the system it’s not going to happen from outside the system.”
He went on to state that “There are some within the bitcoin community that really advocated not just down with banks but down with governments, we have been a contrarian relatively speaking in that regard,”
Naturally being a private and centralized company Ripple will have a different take on the ethos of cryptocurrencies. However, being of that nature has provided it more partnerships and adoptions than any other similar digital currency. As these continue, its role in the future of blockchain technology and mainstreaming cryptocurrencies will no doubt expand.