Ripple (XRP), which is currently the 2nd largest cryptocurrency by market cap as of writing time was founded in 2012 by an American technology company with its original name Opencoin. It was later changed in 2015 to Ripple Labs.

The Ripple protocol was created to disrupt the current and outdated system of transferring money such as SWIFT or Western Union by introducing a faster but safer solution.

The company is currently offering services to banks and have signed over 100 partnerships with banks all aimed at making the banking process smoother. Would you like to invest in and buy Ripple?

In this section, we will discuss the reasons why you should buy Ripple, how to buy Ripple and finally what predictions there are for Ripple. Before we move further, I will like to also clarify the difference between Ripple and XRP. Ripple is the company behind the token XRP.

XRP is, therefore, the cryptocurrency even though many use them interchangeably. For ease of understanding, we will sometimes also refer to XRP as Ripple.

Why buy Ripple?

Partnerships:

XRP is one of the only cryptocurrencies that is busy signing major partnerships. The company Ripple has signed over 100 partnerships with some of the biggest Banks in the world.

It was also reported that the company has gotten into a partnership with Money Gram, the global remittance company. All these partnerships make Ripple one of those cryptocurrencies with very high chances of surviving in the future as real-world usage is a key requirement for the long-term success of a cryptocurrency.

Price:

Given the low cost to own XRP, it is one of the most attractive coins to purchase and hold. Bitcoin, for example, is overpriced for an average investor while Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin are equally not cheap to invest in. With as little as $0.50, you can buy Ripple (XRP) coin.

Return on investment:

Ripple is one of the coins with very great potential for a good return in investment. Last year, Ripple was one of the best-performed coins throughout the year. The coin grew by more than 36,000% while Bitcoin came out 14th on the list of best performers with a growth of a little over 1,000%.

Even though the coin has ever since dropped in price, this only goes to show how much growth the coin can attain.

Technology:

Ripple being a third generation blockchain can process transactions within 4 seconds. To get a clear picture of how much of a revelation this is, take a look at the now outdated SWIFT system which takes 2 to 3 days to confirm a transaction, Ripple does this within 4 seconds. It can also process 1500 transactions per second. This is far more than the 15 transactions Ethereum can process and around 7 from Bitcoin.

How to invest in and buy Ripple

Like any other cryptocurrency, investors and traders can buy Ripple via one of the many cryptocurrency exchanges. Below, we will look at some of the popular exchanges where cryptocurrencies can be bought from.

Buy Ripple on Binance

Binance is one of the cryptocurrencies where investors can buy Ripple and other cryptocurrencies. It is currently one of the largest cryptocurrencies in terms of trade volume and is popular for its multi-language support.

If you are interested in investing or trading in Ripple, then Binance could be an option as it supports over 90 coins including the most popular such as BTC, ETH, NEO, DASH etc. Buying Ripple or any other cryptocurrency will require payment in cryptocurrencies.

Buy Ripple on Coinmama

Ripple can also be bought from Coinmama. The advantage of using coinmama is its support of different payment methods such as Fiat such as USD and EUR, credit cards, debit cards or bank transfer. The coin also supports a handful of cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, ETC, BCH, LTC, ADA, and QTUM.

Buy Ripple on Huobi

Huobi is another cryptocurrency exchange where Ripple can be bought from. The exchange accepts deposits in cryptocurrencies as Fiat deposits are not possible. It also supports over 80 cryptocurrencies among which are top cryptos such as BTC and ETH with over 190 cryptocurrency pairs.

Buy Ripple on Bittrex

Another cryptocurrency exchange where Ripple can be bought from is Bittrex. The exchange supports over 115 cryptocurrencies and deposits can be made both with USD and cryptocurrencies. The exchange also supports over 190 cryptocurrency pairs with 3 USD pairings.

Other exchanges where you can buy Ripple include;

Uphold, Cointree, Bitit, HiveEx.com, Coinswitch, CoinJar, SatochiTango, Exmo, YoBit.net, KuCoin, Changelly, Shapeshift, CoinBene and many others not listed above.

Exchanges offering XRP/BTC pairs;

Binance

Poloniex

OKEx

Huobi

Bittrex

Bitfinex

Upbit

Kraken

CoinEgg

HitBTC

Bitstamp

Exmo

Cex.io

Exchanges offering XRP/ETH pairs;

Binance

OKEx

Bittrex

Upbit

Gatehub

HitBTC

Mr. Exchange.

Ripple price prediction

Though some may dislike Ripple with the argument that the coin is centralized, many remain very bullish about the future of the coin. According to Roman Guelfi, one of the most respected figures within the space, the next run for Ripple will be taking place in 2019.

“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 XRO, 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”

However, setting a precise price tag on Ripple-XRP is not very easy as the token’s price is heavily dependent on news and partnerships the company signs with institutional entities. Many have predicted Ripple to hit $10 in the nearest future which is achievable given the fact that the coin at its all-time high was trading at over $3.50.

Nevertheless, before you buy Ripple or any other asset, doing more research is always advisable.