In a week where most cryptocurrencies have been flat, traders have been waiting for some action. This morning’s Asian session saw declines across the board, possibly in response to further regulations by the South Korean government. One altcoin remained green though while all others were in the red.

The news keeps getting better for Ripple, yesterday a Japanese credit card consortium announced it will utilize XRP blockchain technology. The partnership of Ripple, Tokyo-based financier SBI Holdings, and its subsidiary SBI Ripple Asia kept the digital currency afloat while all others have been sinking. Initially the collective will be composed of three major credit card providers including JCB, Sumitomo Mitsui Card, and Credit Saison.

According to a translation of the press release on Wednesday the new credit card consortium has already developed a payments app powered by Ripple’s blockchain technology that enables real-time payments using a phone number or QR code. The SBI Ripple press release went on to state;

“We actively promote partnerships with companies with advanced technology in Japan and overseas to realize more efficient work of participating companies, realize a highly convenient payment environment through improvement of user experience, etc., a society based on a cashless society We will try to reduce costs and improve productivity.”

XRP has been bolstered in recent weeks by news that over 60 banks in Japan and South Korea would be using the Ripple blockchain to test inter-bank transfers in efforts to reduce costs and transaction times.

Today it has outpaced Bitcoin Cash on the crypto market capacity charts by taking over third place with a market cap at the time of writing of $52.5 billion. BCH has fallen to fourth with $46 billion as the big selloff continues. Bitcoin could not break resistance at $16,900 and has fallen back to just under $15,000 where it currently trades. Even today’s hard fork and long awaited SegWit2x implementation has not been enough to boost Bitcoin back to previous highs.

Ripple is the clear winner in the crypto race at the moment, having gained over 60% in the past week alone from $0.90 to a record high of $1.46 a few hours ago. It is currently trading at $1.31 which is still around 420% up on the $0.26 it was priced at a month ago. Ripple is often seen as a lot more stable and well established than other cryptocurrencies. If endorsements from big banks and credit card companies continue to flow there is only one direction for Ripple to go.