Ripple's XRP token climbed more than 50% today, becoming the world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization (market cap).
The digital currency rose to as much as $2.20, climbing more than 50% in 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.
The XRP token has been having a blockbuster month, appreciating more than 700% since starting out December with a price of roughly $0.25, additional CoinMarketCap figures show.
[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]
A Great Month For Ripple
The digital currency has enjoyed several brief rallies this month.
One example is the sharp increase XRP experienced roughly mid-December, where it surged more than 90% in 24 hours, reaching roughly $0.87 as investors responded to news that Ripple completed its cryptographic lockup of tokens.
The cryptocurrency enjoyed another short rally approximately one week later, climbing to $1.24 as it benefited from sustained momentum and robust Asian trading.
XRP's price approached $1.50 earlier this week, pushing higher amid news that Tokyo-based SBI Ripple Asia announced a consortium created to explore how distributed ledger technology could be used for payment cards.
Shifting Investor Priorities
More recently, analysts have focused on the shifting sentiment of investors, emphasizing that XRP has been benefiting from these changes.
Originally, many of those who advocated cryptocurrencies favored these digital assets because of their decentralized nature, said Marius Rupsys, a digital currency trader.
These market participants disliked Ripple's centralized nature, opting to trade digital currencies that were decentralized, he stated.
However, the digital currency market's size has swelled this year, climbing from roughly $17.7 billion to more than $600 billion this month, CoinMarketCap figures show.
According to Rupsys, the new investors that are flooding the market are more interested in the return they might generate than the decentralization and immutability that many Libertarians would value.
This has provided significant tailwinds for Ripple, which has in turn risen sharply in price.
Disclosure: I own some Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ether.
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Cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP) shot up by almost 35 percent over the past 24 hours, trading at an average of $2.20 and occupying second place by market cap in the overall crypto market at press time.
The massive spike comes just over a week after the coin broke $1 for the first time last Thursday. The price then dropped again on Dec. 22, but rallied back up 57 percent the same day and has been following a bullish run since blowing past $1.50 today.
With a market cap now of $78 bln- Ripple is worth more than Uber, valued at $68 bln as of December 2017 according to the Wall Street Journal.
The cryptocurrency was trading stably at about $0.20 for the past six months, starting its notable growth on Dec. 12.
The investment profitability of Ripple, created in 2013, this year has surpassed that of Bitcoin.
Ripple, the cryptocurrency designed for banks and global money transfers, is making history this month. XRP, as Ripple’s token is called, surpassed $1 for the first time Dec. 21 and quintupled its market cap to more than $50 billion between Wednesday and Friday of that week.
On Friday, the cryptocurrency swelled 33% to hit a high of $1.90. The value settled to $1.85 as of 2:15 p.m Eastern time.
Overall, Ripple has risen 28,000%—yes, you read that right—this year to become the world’s third most valuable cryptocurrency, according to data from CoinMarketCap, a cryptocurrency price tracker.
Why has Ripple gone from a rather unchanged cryptocurrency to one with a collective market cap of $71.4 billion?
It’s not totally clear. Ripple avoided some of the downward swings afflicting other cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin this past week. However, the price rise could be due to recent partnerships with banks like American Express and new hires from Facebook and elsewhere. Hedge funds are also devoted to it. It could also be attributed to Japan, a nation that has been outwardly friendly toward cryptocurrencies.
Either way, Fortune’s Robert Hackett has a nifty explainer on how you buy Ripple. Not that you should, mind you—cryptocurrencies have proven to be an awfully volatile investment.
