Ripple News Update

Ripple prices made significant gains yesterday, just hours after the U.S. Senate hearings on cryptocurrencies. Investors reacted positively to regulators’ testimony, in part because they appeared to understand the technology quite well.

Prices rose more than 21% against the U.S. dollar, bringing the XRP to USD exchange rate to $0.768369.

Ripple (XRP) Price Chart

However, the hearings weren’t 100% positive.




On one hand, we know exactly what is ailing cryptocurrencies: regulatory uncertainty.

Investors are tired of unexpected shocks—like the recent crackdown of anonymous trading in South Korea or the earlier ban in China—so they are dumping their crypto holdings.

We know this because prices shot through the roof when regulators provided some clarity. The moment the fog started to lift, prices started to rise. There’s an obvious connection there.

Going forward, we can reasonably assume that clarity might help the market recover. But there’s an underbelly to this discovery. Namely, that XRP is back in sync with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the rest of the crypto market. Its price is not moving independently.

Some of you might not care at the moment, given how far the market has fallen. “I don’t care as long the price goes up,” is a common refrain I hear. Fight that urge, dear reader, because XRP will hit a very low ceiling if it doesn’t decouple from other cryptocurrencies.

Ripple prices need to become a hedge against Bitcoin—a bet on nerdy enterprise applications rather than grand currency ambitions. The two goals are miles apart. And as such, XRP prices should rise whenever Bitcoin falters.

But that’s not what happened yesterday. All of the top cryptos rose in unison: Bitcoin rose 23%, Ethereum jumped 29.7%, and Bitcoin Cash advanced 18%. It was like watching synchronized swimming.

Analyst Take

We remain cautiously optimistic on our $10.00 Ripple price prediction for 2018. If volatility spirals out of control, we may have to extend the timeline on our forecast, but we haven’t reached that point just yet.