XRP has struggled throughout 2019 after collapsing beneath $0.30 during August 2019 and reaching the current level of $0.2376 as of today (27/09/19). The recent downward pressure has the skeptics believing that XRP is finished and will never recover to the level that it once was trading at. However, the majority of people actually fail to recognize what XRP actually is and do not understand its CRUCIAL role in the entire RippleNET ecosystem.

Although I believe XRP will not reach its previous ATH of around $3.50 during 2020, I do think it can increase by over 180% and close in on the $0.70 level at some point during 2020. However, if the market continues on an intermediate bearish trajectory (through September - October 2019) and drops beneath $0.2350, I will revise my target to $0.60 which would constitute a 155% price increase from today’s value. I understand that these are pretty conservative predictions but I believe the real growth for XRP will come in 2021 onward when more institutions continue to use XRP in the RippleNET suite.

In this article, I’ll firstly cover a range of topics that I believe will influence XRP in reaching my target in 2020 and then analyze XRP on the weekly and daily charts.

Whilst cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum will only surge in 2020 if they face their scalability problem, XRP has nothing even relatively similar to worry about. XRP is already known to be very efficient with a high TPS rate and settlements made in under 5 seconds. In fact, the real reason why I believe XRP could explode in 2020 is due to the fact that their RippleNET ecosystem will continue to grow larger, leading to more of them utilizing XRP within the ecosystem.

So, Why Is XRP Not Dead?

The task that Ripple is trying to achieve is one of tremendous scale and therefore it will take many years to mature. They are trying to build an entirely new ecosystem for banks and financial institutions to move money around the world. The team is attempting to break down walls created by major financial institutions that cause high fees, steep exchange charges and large processing times in today’s financial system.

Ripple Labs have created a decentralized infrastructure, run on distributed ledger technology, to serve the financial industry and cut down on transaction costs and processing times. They are competing directly with a company that has been at the heart of the financial industry for over four decades; SWIFT.

Banks, Financial Institutions and payment processors that join the RippleNET family are able to utilize the infrastructure built by Ripple Labs to reduce the costs associated with moving money and improve their customer experience.

What Is RippleNET?

RippleNET is a decentralized global family of banks, payment processors and financial institutions. Those that joined the RippleNET family are able to use the connected networks of banks to send money around the globe faster. They can select to use the parts of the network that are required to meet the needs of their customers.

RippleNET is also a global payments software suite created and managed by Ripple Labs. It is a set of FinTech programs that members of RippleNET pay Ripple Labs to use.

How Does XRP Play Into All Of This?

RippleNET has been growing at an alarming rate, with over 200+ partners already signed up at the start of 2019. Eventually, every bank and large financial institution would be part of the RippleNET family to take advantage of the improvements in efficiency that it offers.

Contrary to the belief of many, the RippleNET suite of software actually DOES use the XRP cryptocurrency in its operation, and the use case will certainly grow exponentially over time. Ripple is still in its early years as banks and financial institutions are currently in the middle of testing this suite of software to see which parts they will implement into their everyday operations. Some of the results have been quite astonishing, leading to some large corporations putting their stamp of approval down. Following is a description of each RippleNET software component and which institutions are ALREADY using it today.

xCurrent - The Enterprise Solution

xCurrent is Ripple's enterprise solution for cross-border payments. It is an alternative to SWIFT for banks and institutions to make payments between different banks (or payment providers) in different countries.

It is described as a Global Real Time Gross Settlement (GRTS) system, that is able to settle in multiple currencies. All banks have their own GRTS systems but they are only able to settle in the currency of the bank's country. Participating institutions install the xCurrent system behind their firewall and it comes included with the IPL ledger to record trades, a messaging system for communication, a payment validation software and an fx ticker. This set of tools allows banks to conduct decentralized cross-border transactions in real-time.

It comes with a system that allows for corresponding banks to send messages in real-time to confirm payment details and also confirm delivery once settled. Popular companies such as American Express, MoneyGram, Euro Exim Bank, and Western Union have already signed up and are using xCurrent.

The eight-largest bank in the US, PnC, has announced that is started to use xCurrent in August this year. They released the following statement;

“With more than eight million customers and retail branches in 19 states across the U.S., RippleNet enables PNC’s commercial clients to receive payments instantly and revolutionize the way they process cash flow and manage accounts. With xCurrent, PNC can communicate with customers instantly and confirm payments both before and after a transaction.”

One thing important to understand about this deal is the fact that it took a whole year before PnC made the decision to BEGIN to start using xCurrent. In fact, the initial partnership announcement between PnC and RippleNET was made in September 2018. The suite of tools takes a long time to understand and financial institutions, banks, and money processors need to do their due diligence before taking the plunge and making such a huge infrastructure improvement. There are many lines of management that need to be cleared and a string of legal obligations. This is why I believe XRP is a super-long term play that will only continue to grow over the next 5 years as it takes time for institutions to understand the system and take the steps to implement it.

Although XRP is not exclusively used in xCurrent, it is an option that will continue to grow as confidence increases.

xRapid - Used To Source Liquidity

xRapid is a solution that allows institutions to swap in and out of XRP to optimize exchange rate efficiency. It is used as a bridge when institutions move assets through xCurrent to different countries. Without this bridge, the spreads in low liquidity currency markets can get extremely high which results in very expensive trades.

The entire xRapid solution allows institutions and money processors to minimize their liquidity costs as well as improve their customers' experience.

XRP is the preferred method of transfer in this bridge as it is highly efficient, scalable and reliable. Transactions are settled in under 5 seconds which is faster than most blockchains in the world. To understand xRapid in a little more detail, check out this post.

A number of institutions are already actively using xRapid, meaning they are using the XRP cryptocurrency in the process! Cuallix, a US and Mexico based financial service, has been using xRapid for a while now. So has MercuryFX, a money remittance business, who are actively using XRP to send payments to and from Mexico. Here is a good list of companies already using xRapid.

xVia - A Standardized Payment Network

xVia is a standardized payment interface that plugs directly into the RippleNET. It is designed for institutions and payment providers who want to send payments across various networks through a standardized API. It uses a very simple API that requires no software to install and enables users to send payments around the globe with complete transparency.

xVia users can now send payments to and from emerging markets in an efficient manner which allows them to grow their business faster and customize their service to address the customers' needs.

xVia is Ripple’s latest software and it is already picking up steam pretty quickly. Companies such as FairFX, MoneyMatch, and UniPay have already announced that they have started to use xVia.

Development Activity Reaches Yearly Highs

Data from Santiment shows a funny correlation between XRP's price and its development activity. Whenever XRP's price goes up (green line) there is development activity going massively down. This can be seen pretty clearly at the beginning of 2019, early May and also the last 2 weeks.

Fun stuff, isn't it?

The development activity was pretty high this month (September 2019) and this is a very promising sign for XRP as it shows the dedication of the XRP team about improving their cryptocurrency. We can expect some interesting things to come out this year!

Ripple Have The Foundation, Let’s See If They Can Continue To Grow

Ripple is in a completely different position to the other top cryptocurrency projects as they have their entire infrastructure already laid out and ready to use. This is the complete opposite to Bitcoin and Ethereum who are at a point now where they REALLY need to address their scalability issue if they would like prices to rise higher.

Ripple is in a fortunate position. They just need to keep growing the RippleNET partnership list as quickly as they have been and more institutions will start to integrate their suite into their everyday use. It will take a long while for these large institutions to convert, but over time this will continue to create a strong demand for XRP as more people use it in the product suite provided by Ripple.

XRP 2020 Price Analysis

XRP/USD - LONG TERM - DAILY CHART

We can see that the September price decline has created a fresh 2019 low for XRP, as of September 27, 2019. This is one of the main reasons why I have chosen such a conservative price prediction for 2021 - as the market still has a long way to recover in the short term.

Following is a long term overview of the major resistance levels on the climb up toward my $0.60 - $0.70 target in 2020.

If the bulls can hold above $0.23 and start to climb higher, the first milestone to reach is located at $0.30. This level of resistance is now further bolstered by the 100-days EMA, adding to the expected resistance in this area. Above $0.30, higher resistance can be found at $0.3350 (200-days EMA) and $0.40 (bearish .236 Fibonacci Retracement).

Above $0.40, resistance can be expected at $0.45, $0.50, and $0.51 which is provided by the long term bearish .382 Fibonacci Retracement level. This long term bearish Fibonacci Retracement is measured from the high of $0.9571 witnessed on April 24, 2019, to the current trading support at $0.2357.

Resistance following $0.51 is expected at $0.55 and $0.5847. If they can clear $0.59, the bulls will be free to make an attempt at my first XRP target of $0.60. The resistance at this level is located at $0.5961, which is provided by the long term bearish .5 Fibonacci Retracement level. Above this, the next level of resistance lies at my second target of $0.70, however, the bulls will first need to break above the resistance at $0.68, provided by the long term bearish .618 Fib Retracement.

XRP/USD - SHORT TERM - DAILY CHART



What Has Been Going On?

The recent price slump has now caused XRP to create a fresh 2019 low at the $0.2357 level. The market has found support here, provided by the downside 1.414 Fib Extension (drawn in blue), however, XRP does look like it wants to head even further lower.

Where Can We Go From Here?

If the sellers continue to penetrate beneath the support at $0.2357, the next level of support is then to be expected at the downside 1.618 Fibonacci Extension level (drawn in blue), priced at $0.2231. If the sellers continue to then drop then market beneath $0.22, further support is expected at the downside 1.272 and 1.414 Fibonacci Extension levels (drawn in purple) priced at $0.2121 and $0.19970, respectively.

Conclusion

The growth of XRP in 2020 is dependent on completely different circumstances than its competition. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum face a large scalability problem in 2020, whereas XRP already has an infrastructure that allows for scalability. The growth of XRP in 2020 will be dependent on Ripple Labs being able to increase the partnership numbers of the RippleNET family. As this continues to grow, there will be greater demand for XRP over the longer term.

XRP will probably not reach its previous ATH in 2020 but this does not mean it can not increase in price. If XRP can continue to increase the number of institutions using xCurrent and xRapid, we can expect XRP to increase by at least 155% to reach the initial target of $0.60 at some point in 2020.