With the crypto industry becoming “fast and the furious”, it’s important for coin, if it wants to stay on top, to be regularly “tuned”. Innovations and connections that a certain coin has with other major companies is also crucial.

One of the many that seeks its place on a higher ground is Ripple’s XRP that is constantly working on becoming substitute to the existing conventional international payment system.

Even though XRP has many successful partnerships including global banks, insurance companies, and Financial Institutions, the truth is – it still needs growing.

If we look at the long term, there will always be a certain problems (as is XRP’s Central bank regulation) but in a short or medium-term it still seems bullish.

VISA Goes Live With Blockchain after partnering Western Union on Currency Remittance. A Problem for Ripple & XRP?

However, two major events that could affect Ripple and XRP’s position on a global crypto scale. First, Visa is going live with blockchain. What actually happened is that Visa was looking at cross-border, business-to-business (B2B) transactions, where banks transfer money on behalf of corporate customers, for a longer time now.

The company they said they are entering a $125 trillion market with the help of distributed ledger technology—software where transactions must be confirmed by multiple computers on a network to be considered final—to make these payments faster, cheaper and more transparent.

This came few days after VISA and Western Union announce partnership on currency remittance.

Through the partnership, Western Union will utilize Visa’s payment platform, Visa Direct, to ensure seamless remitting services across the world.

The implementation of Visa Direct will make Western Union offer customers instantaneous and transparent service.

While Western Union is known to have the largest money transfer retail network, observes are of the opinion that the deal will birth a formidable competitor for Ripple blockchain technology in the remittance industry.

eToro Analyst Mati Greenspan Think that Could Make Some Problems for Ripple

After the update was made public, senior analyst Mati Greenspan at eToro posited that despite the remarkable connection Ripple blockchain technology has been able to seal over the years, it might be witnessing some challenges owing to the latest moves from Visa.

This can't be good for Ripple.https://t.co/K7AJ6Fn1SH — Mati Greenspan (@MatiGreenspan) June 12, 2019

He said the advantages that Visa is stressing are transparency and speed. Those two, thinks Greenspan, could just as easily be achieved easier with a centralized system.

It will certainly be interesting how this is going to work. Remind you, SWIFT did their own blockchain trial and concluded that it really doesn’t work without a token. Some analyst answered Greenspan saying that this Visa example really is “blockchain-as-window-dressing”.

However, he reminds us, we should be aware of the fact that Visa still has a larger network and larger brand recognition.

On the second hand – Ripple has been recognized by the world bank and its president Christine Lagarde who, during the recent speech given at the G20 Summit in Japan in which she discussed the Bali Fintech agenda that is the World Bank and the IMF, said that her audience is well aware that Ripple works in conjunction with the Bali Fintech Agenda.

Another analyst and software developer Matt Hamilton said that this could be viewed as a competition, but that there are some significant differences. He says that if Visa is using hyperledger, then they won’t have an actual public traded token (or any token). “So they are not able to settle real-time (hence article saying 1-2 days settlement). Plus is a closed network.”

This, according to him. cannot be compared to the XRP Ledger which is open. Anyone can use it and it can be used to settle a payment instantly.

Litecoin (LTC)’s Price Pump also a Danger

Second “danger” that could remove XRP from its ‘bronze’ spot can be the FOMO that is pumping price of LTC waiting for its halving.

Today, LTC/BTC just hit a major resistance after going parabolic. We’re over 55 days away from the halving and we can’t pump straight from now until then. We’ll see some sideways action here and there too.

Most analysts are being pretty bullish saying that in contrast to LTC, BTC has been consolidating for an entire month. According to CryptoDog, either bull or bear is going to give soon, and the move will likely be explosive. In the past more often than not explosive BTC volatility would in the immediate shut down ALT pairs.

The truth is, the buzz around the Litecoin halving is already a self-fulfilling event and the increasing inflows of retail money is setting up Litecoin for a possible final and explosive run.

However, it is not a HODL situation for Litecoin, neither it doesn’t seem as a threat to XRP. Even if Litecoin would reach 0.025 BTC level, it would mean it is at levels reached only a handful of times before. And in each of those occasions, Litecoin then went on to decline by between 70% to 92% versus BTC.

If we look at the XRP price that was, at the time of writing, rising to $0,39 it doesn’t seem real that it will stay this way, and only if it would – the LTC could (short-term) flip XRP. However, that will probably not happen so we can agree that, long term, XRP is still better investment.