With 2019 over, it’s always insightful to go back and look at past events and news. Even though the price did not reflect that, 2019 was a year filled with positive news, growth of the XRP ecosystem and foundation building from Ripple.

As a thank you towards XRParcade patrons, we will be releasing the report early for them. Patrons will be able to give us feedback and watch as the report is being finalized. If you want to become a patron and support us, click here.

We would also like to thank XRP the Standard Productions (@XRP_Productions on twitter) for always supporting XRParcade and sponsoring this report. XRP the Standard Productions is also a content creator, writing satirical articles on Coil and creating informative videos on YouTube.

Finally, we extend our appreciation to /dev/null productions (@DevNullProd twitter avatar) who was kind enough to offer xrp1ntel’s support with XRPL data and statistics.

Before we begin, we would like to remind you that this report does not constitute financial advice. This is a presentation of a series of events and its purpose is to inform and entertain.

We begin this report by taking a sneak peek at all important developments. Please be patient with the loading time, the amount of information is extremely large. If you want to skip to the end (the analysis part), click here. Clicking on each month will open the events that occurred during that month.

Flashback:

Show January

January 1, 2019: • CoinZeus, an exchange based in Seychelles, launched. XRP listed with BTC and ETH pairs. Later removed ETH pair and added XRP/KRW (South Korean won). January 2, 2019: • Coinmetro exchange lists XRP with EUR pair. January 3, 2019: • Bitrue adds 5 more XRP-based pairs: TRX/XRP, XLM/XRP, NEO/XRP, GAS/XRP, OMG/XRP. January 4, 2019: • Bitrue adds one more XRP-based pair: BEE/XRP. • Hodl Finance, a European digital lending company based in Lithuania, adds XRP to its supported crypto assets (BTC, ETH). January 6, 2019: • Kuwait Finance House starts operating an instant cross-border remittance service using Ripple’s blockchain technology. The zero fees “Instant International Transfer” service is available in Saudi Riyal SAR where customers can make remittance transactions to beneficiaries at Al Rajhi Bank. January 7, 2019: • Good exchange, an exchange based in Singapore, launched. XRP listed with BTC, ETH and USDT pairs. • DX.Exchange goes live. XRP listed from the beginning with BTC, ETH, EUR, JPY and USD pairs. Ceased operating exactly 10 months later… January 8, 2019: • Canadian exchange CCX makes XRP a base currency with BTC and ETH pairs. • 1xBIT adds XRP to its gambling platform. • Ripple announces 13 new customers and surpasses 200 customers worldwide.

New customers:

– Euro Exim Bank (Bank): UK

– SendFriend (Money transfer): US, Philippines

– JNFX (Trading): UK

– FTCS (Payments): Sweden, Scandinavia (Rebranded to Intergiro)

– Ahli Bank of Kuwait ABK (Bank): Kuwait, Egypt, UAE

– Transpaygo (Money transfer): UK, Austria

– BFC (Money transfer): Bahrain

– ConnectPay (Payments): US

– GMT (Payments): Israel

– WorldCom Finance (Money Transfer): Israel

– Olympia Trust Company (Trust): Canada

– Pontual/USEND (Money Transfer): US, Brazil

– Rendimento (Bank): Brazil

JNFX, SendFriend, Transpaygo, FTCS (Intergiro) and Euro Exim Bank will leverage the digital asset XRP to source liquidity on-demand when sending payments on behalf of their customers.

• XRP can now be received by WordPress users through Bitvolo plugins.

• Crypto Exchange Huobi relaunches trading services in Japan. XRP is available in pairs with JPY and BTC. January 9, 2019: • XRP is listed on the GBXDAX (Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange), the world’s first regulated and insured Digital Asset Exchange, owned by an EU Stock Exchange, with USD, EUR, GBP, BTC and ETH pairs. By September, however, GBX delisted many crypto assets, including XRP. • BankCEX exchange adds XRP with BTC, ETH, BANK and USDT pairs. • Emi Yoshikawa, Senior Director of Joint Venture Partnerships at Ripple, sits down with Wayne Doiguchi, Board Director of California Bank of Commerce, to talk about her experience managing joint ventures and blockchain business development throughout Asia. January 10, 2019: • HuobiWallet (a crypto wallet developed by HuobiGlobal) now supports XRP.

• Bittrex opens OTC desk. Allows the purchase of BTC, USDT, XRP, LTC, ETH, and many other crypto assets through OTC trading. January 11, 2019: • Bitrue adds 4 more XRP-based pairs: HOT/XRP, NPXS/XRP, DNT/XRP, PRO/XRP. January 17, 2019: • XRP added on Korean exchange Bitzon with BTC and USDT pairs. • MercuryFX makes its largest payments across RippleNet using XRP. 86,633 pesos (£3,521.67) from the U.K. to Mexico in seconds. UK-based Mustard Foods saved £79.17 and 31 hours on the transaction. 1/1 We've made our largest payments across RippleNet using #XRP – 86,633.00 pesos (£3,521.67) from the U.K. to Mexico in seconds. pic.twitter.com/WsHJuZTiOy — Mercury-fx Ltd (@mercury_fx_ltd) January 17, 2019 • Ripple partners with Chinese Tsinghua University to Launch the Blockchain Technology Research Scholarship Program. January 18, 2019: • Bitrue adds EOS/XRP, XEM/XRP and POLY/XRP trading pairs. January 21, 2019: • Australian exchange BTCExa has announced the addition of SHEEP. SHEEP has now become the 3rd XRP based pair on this exchange, after XLM and ADA. • Koinex replaces BTC, ETH and XRP base markets with TUSD. 23 XRP based markets replaced with TUSD market. On June 27th, Koinex ceased all operations. January 22, 2019: • Brad Garlinghouse speaks at Davos: “The Future of Payments, Oceans and Crypto”. January 23, 2019: • Freewallet, a digital currency wallet with a built-in exchange for web, iOS and Android devices, has announced that it now supports XRP.

• Binance announces the launch of a crypto-to-crypto over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk. January 24, 2019: • Moontrade, a startup OTC Crypto Exchange to buy and sell both BTC and ETH, announces that XRP is now fully available on their platform for OTC trading.

• XRP/TRY added on new Turkish exchange BtcFinans .

• Ripple’s Q4 2018 XRP Markets Report is published. January 25, 2019: • New Ripple partner: SABB is one of the three banks approved by the central bank to test connections with Ripple for instant settlement of crossborder transfers using blockchain technology.

• Austrac registered exchange Infinite goes live. XRP listed with AUD, BTC and ETH pairs. Today, the exchange’s website doesn’t seem to be operational. January 28, 2019: • Bitrue adds VET/XRP trading pair. January 29, 2019: • RIGHTS, a Global Entertainment Platform demo is released – XRP wil be used to purchase digital money. January 30, 2019: • XRP listed on Estonia based exchange Kriptomat and available to be bought with EUR. • BitBill, an open source blockchain wallet founded in 2013, has released BitBill 3.3 for Android. With this latest version, XRP, XLM, BSV and ZEC support has been added. • Brad Garlinghouse panel at the Paris Fintech Forum with Gottfried Leibbrandt, CEO, SWIFT: “Let’s send the money!” January 31, 2019: • BISON, a crypto trading app powered by Börse Stuttgart, Germany’s leading exchange for retail investors, goes live. Initially, BTC, ETH, LTC and XRP can be traded with EUR.

• Swyftx, an Australian cryptocurrency exchange, has officially gone live. XRP can be bought and sold with AUD.

Show February

Show March

Show April

Show May

Show June

June 1, 2019: • Gatehub hack begins. The next few days, tens of millions of XRP will get stolen, worth $10 million at the time. In November, a report mentioned that also its user account info was leaked. June 2, 2019: • Leapfrog, a full stack technology services company that specializes in SaaS products, Web and Mobile Applications, and AI, announces the formation of a strategic partnership with Ripple. Leapfrog is forming a strategic partnership with @Ripple to start an exploration of building a blockchain based fintech connectivity for Nepal and beyond.#Blockchain #fintech pic.twitter.com/NmUBdPZUWX — Leapfrog Technology (@lftechnology) June 2, 2019 June 3, 2019: • Ripple takes an active role in reporting on volume and sales of XRP: “Sales of XRP in Q2 will be substantively lower (as a % of reported volume) than in the previous Q, with our stated target of 20bps, likely dropping to less than 10bp”. June 4, 2019: • EliteX, a digital asset exchange integrated into the Lisk ecosystem, lists XRP with BTC, ETH, USDT and LSK pairs. June 5, 2019: • Ripple opens an office in Switzerland. June 6, 2019: • Vontobel Investment Banking, a globally operating financial expert with Swiss roots, that specializes in wealth management, active asset management and investment solutions, announces the launch of a Ripple (XRP) certificate for investors. June 7, 2019: • David Schwartz, Ripple CTO, speaks at WeAreDevelopers World Congress 2019: “The Future of Digital Currency: Blockchain Beyond the Hype”. June 10, 2019: • Beaxy, an all-In-One Cryptocurrency exchange goes live, includes XRP with a BTC pair. June 11, 2019: • Ripple launches operations in Brazil. • Marjan Delatinne, Global Head of Banking at Ripple, panel discussion at Bloomberg’s The Future of Data: Sooner Than You Think on “Comprehending the Cloud”. June 12, 2019: • Ripple listed as a payment method at GoLance, an online workforce platform that connects employers with freelancers based all over the globe.

• Ripple CTO David Schwartz interview at Future of Fintech. June 13, 2019: • Standing Ovation, a Swiss service provider for events, congresses and shared communication, accepts XRP as a payment method.

• Bitrue adds DIVI/XRP trading. June 14, 2019: • Bitrue adds XTZ/XRP trading.

• Xpring invests in Alkemi, an on-chain liquidity protocol and non-custodial solution for stakeholders to earn incentives on their idle crypto assets while providing the infrastructure required for exchanges to stabilize market prices. Assets Under

Protocol



Alkemi’s on-chain liquidity protocol is a non-custodial solution for stakeholders to earn incentives on their idle crypto assets while providing the infrastructure required for exchanges to stabilize market prices.



Investor Ripple https://t.co/vlbBhhro4B pic.twitter.com/9NwjJzQGBM — ???? ??? (@BankXRP) November 15, 2019 • Sachin Maheshwari, Senior Integration Engineer at Ripple, spoke at India Dapp Festival 2019. June 17, 2019: • OceanEx, an AI powered digital asset trading platform within the VeChainThor Ecosystem, lists XRP with USDT and VET pairs. • Ripple and Moneygram announce strategic partnership. Ripple becomes MoneyGram’s key partner for cross-border payment and foreign exchange settlement using digital assets. • Banesco Panamá and Scotiabank Chile running proofs of concept (POC) with Ripple. Banesco to use Ripplenet for blockchain-based transfers only between banks in the group (covering the Dominican Republic, Panama, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain and Venezuela) initially.

• Coinone Transfer, a blockchain based overseas remittance company, announced that it will collaborate with SBI Ripple Asia to facilitate blockchain based remittance in S.Korea. • Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, speaks on Bloomberg about Ripple’s Moneygram investment. June 18, 2019: • XRP listed on Bgogo exchange with BTC and USDT pairs. • Alex Holmes, Moneygram Chairman and CEO, on KRLD. June 19, 2019: • Hikmet Ersek, Western Union CEO, at Brainstorm Finance 2019 on Libra, Ripple and Moneygram. June 20, 2019: • Brad Garlinghouse at Fortune Brainstorm Finance 2019: “Does Crypto Have a Place in Real World Banking?” June 23, 2019: • Sendfriend, a newly formed Xpring backed money transfer company that is utilizing XRP and xRapid goes live in New Jersey. We’re all excited for our launch, and today is the Day (for New Jersey)! Join thousands of Filipinos and come out to the Philippine American Friendship Committee Parade and check out our booth – We will be here all day! pic.twitter.com/PkcrGChwZ9 — SendFriend (@sendfriendinc) June 23, 2019 • Healthcare technology company, Opu Labs, announced the release of the Opu Marketplace, a blockchain enabled e-commerce service which specializes in skincare and dermatology related solutions. XRP accepted as a payment method. June 24, 2019: • The MENA Fintech Association (MFTA) launches. Ripple is a founding member along with Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center, UAE Exchange, token.io and Temenos. June 25, 2019: • Exchainpay, a cryptocurrency exchange based in India, lists XRP with INR (Indian rupee), BTC, ETH and TUSD pairs. At the time of writing, Exchainpay website is not operational. June 26, 2019: • 300M-user meme site Imgur raises $20M from Coil to pay creators. • Falcon, a private bank with headquarters in Zurich and offices in Dubai, London and Luxembourg, announced the introduction of trading and custody for XRP and XLM. Proud to introduce trading and custody for XRP and Stellar Lumens.

Discover our full range of blockchain solutions: https://t.co/u6gdkKUFCC@falconpb #blockchain #XRP #XLM #Crypto #agileprivatebanking pic.twitter.com/SjLLSQ4Jox — Falcon Private Bank (@falconpb) June 27, 2019 June 27, 2019: • Bitrue exchange gets hacked, 9.3 million XRP, worth $4.01 million at the time, and 2.5 million cardano (ADA), worth $231,800, accessed and transferred off its platform. All funds were insured and returned to the users.

Show July

July 1, 2019: • XRP United, an XRP friendly exchange, ceased all operations. July 2, 2019: • Bexplus, an exchange based in Hong Kong announced the addition of XRP and EOS on its trading platform with a USDT pair. July 4, 2019: • Allbit, a blockchain commercial service, announces the addition of XRP on its platform with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) pairs. July 5, 2019: • Stefan Thomas, Coil founder and CEO, on Paypod: “Using Fintech to Revolutionize the Web with Stefan Thomas of Coil”. July 9, 2019: • Velocity announces the launch of ShortHop, a digital asset platform, XRP included. July 10, 2019: • DMM Bitcoin, a Japanese exchange, lists XRP. DMM Bitcoinは、本日（7/10）の週次メンテナンス後の18時00分より、リップル(現物)の取扱いを開始することをお知らせいたします。

▼詳しくは、当社お知らせページをご覧ください。https://t.co/KhmracVkgr pic.twitter.com/3xtQFNqlW5 — DMM Bitcoin（DMMビットコイン） (@DMM_Bitcoin) July 10, 2019 • Near, an American startup that develops a public, proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain focused on usability and scalability, completes a finding round that raises $12.1M. Besides Ripple’s Xpring investors include Accomplice, Electric Capital, Pantera Capital, MetaStable, Amplify Partners, Scalar Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Ideo, a_capital and others.

• Vanessa Pestritto, Director of Strategic Growth for Xpring at Ripple, speaks at AWS Loft: “Harnessing the Power of Payments on the Blockchain”. July 12, 2019: • Exonium, an exchange that operates on an Estonian Cryptocurrency Exchange License, lists XRP, TRX and EOS with a USDT pair. July 15, 2019: • Stark Payments, a company providing e-payment gateway solutions, based in the United Kingdom, adds XRP to its platform. Integrators and merchants utilizing Stark’s platform can now accept XRP. We’re super pumped to have successfully tested #XRP in our #blockchain platform! Now, system integrators and merchants around the World can accept XRP for their business https://t.co/AeYUQcMq3c #ecommercenews #payments pic.twitter.com/t5eXaKDa63 — Stark Payments Ltd (@StarkPayments) July 15, 2019 July 16, 2019: • Business Insider speaks with Ripple’s Global Head of Government Relations Michelle Bond about regulatory clarity for emerging technologies and innovation. July 17, 2019: • Boubyan, a Kuwaiti bank that was established in 2004 to practice all banking, financial and commercial activities in compliance with the provisions of the Noble Islamic Sharia, partners with Ripple to “provide higher levels of technical services related to remittances to ensure greater speed and security and data integrity of the bank. July 18, 2019: • Brad Garlinghouse on CNBC. • Sagar Sarbhai, Head of Government & Regulatory Affairs, Asia Pacific at Ripple, at Bangkok FinTech Fair 2019. July 19, 2019: • Sentbe, one of the largest money transfer fintech companies in South Korea, signs a contract with MoneyGram, making Sentbe the first MoneyGram virtual agents in South Korea. Also updates website to show that they are partnered with Ripple. July 24, 2019: • Ripple publishes its Q2 2019 XRP Markets Report. July 25, 2019: • IndoEx, an exchange registered in the United Kingdom, announces the addition of XRP to its platform with BTC, ETH, USDT and USDC pairs.

• Chilean money transfer company CurrencyBird announces that it joined Ripplenet. CurrencyBird es la primera empresa de transferencias de Chile que se une a la

creciente red mundial Ripple Net.https://t.co/uSo71Oznhw pic.twitter.com/khfT3r90Vt — Currencybird (@currency_bird) July 25, 2019 July 29, 2019: • Ripple writes an Open Letter to Congress: “Please do not paint us with a broad brush.”

• Ripple expands its University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) to Japan, bringing on new partners including Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo. July 30, 2019: • Monica Long, SVP Marketing at Ripple, on Bloomberg regarding the U.S. Senate Cryptocurrency Hearing.

Show August

August 2, 2019: • MoneyGram announces its second quarter results: “Live with xRapid, settling currencies in seconds”. • Blockchain Technology Working Group formed by the Government Operations Agency in California. Liz Chien (VP of Global Tax and Chief Tax Counsel at Ripple) is one of the members. August 5, 2019: • DOBI, a cryptocurrency exchange with offices in Hong Kong, announced the addition of XRP on its platform. DOBI users can trade XRP with BTC and USDT pairs. August 6, 2019: • Ripple’s Xpring invests in Equilibrium Connect, a company focused on building open source developer tools for the Interledger ecosystem and working on the core protocol. Today we at Equilibrium Labs are excited to announce that @Ripple Xpring has invested in Equilibrium Connect.



The new company will be focused on developing the Interledger Protocol.



Read on to understand why @Interledger and what we're doing with it. https://t.co/hLin6lqj08 — Teemu Paivinen (@teempai) August 6, 2019 August 8, 2019: • Blockdaemon, a blockchain deployment facilitator, now supports XRP nodes. • Ripple’s Global Head of Government Relations Michelle Bond conversation with VP of Marketing Monica Long on: “Digital Currency Regulation Around the World”. August 9, 2019: • Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple Labs, gives an interview at Yahoo! Finance:

– Active discussions on “multiple” potential investments and acquisitions are currently underway.

– MoneyGram’s xRapid volume will start to ramp in Q4 but really we’ll start to see more consequential volumes in Q1.

– By the end of 2020 there will be over $1bn of xRapid volume. August 10, 2019: • Ripple joins “Allin”, an organization focused on bringing San Fransiscans together to support solutions to homelessness. Homelessness is on the rise in SF. We can secure more homes and services when #WeAreALLIN. Ripple is, and you can be too! Join @sf_allin here: https://t.co/D1urWZCRjN pic.twitter.com/K8u29vqSVs — Ripple (@Ripple) August 9, 2019 August 13, 2019: • Simex, a multifunctional online international digital asset management, investment, and trading platform, makes XRP trading available against BTC, ETH and USDT.

• Hackers exploit the partial payment feature to steal 44 bitcoins and 111,000 XRP, worth $570,00 from Beaxy exchange. August 15, 2019: • Xpring invests 1 billion XRP in Coil, a platform dedicated to reimagining monetization on the web for creators and their fans. Excited to announce a 1 Billion XRP grant from #Xpring @Ripple! This accelerates our efforts to level the playing field for creators by providing a better way to support content across the web. #WebMonetization @Interledger https://t.co/lVUx5hKkAY pic.twitter.com/eznjlmgPZA — Coil (@Coil) August 15, 2019 August 19, 2019: • Stu Alderoty, General Counsel at Ripple, fireside chat at Technology Policy Institute: “Law & Regulation of Cryptocurrency”. August 20, 2019: • Marjan Delatinne webinar at The British Blockchain Association. • Ken Weber, Head of Social Impact, Ripple, shares his thoughts on how academia can address the blockchain skills gap. August 22, 2019: • Headquartered in Canada, AMCzet is a global international exchange and international crypto exchange for trading in certified cryptocurrency through rigorous listing and screening. On August 22, AMCzet listed XRP on its trading platform. August 27, 2019: • Luiz Antonio Sacco, Managing Director, Brazil & South America at Ripple, interview on CriptoNoticias (in Portuguese). August 28, 2019: • Luiz Antonio Sacco at Forum Blockmaster (in Portuguese). August 29, 2019: • Malaysian Speza exchange goes live, lists XRP with BTC and ETH pairs.

• Ryan Gaylor, Director Corporate Payments at Ripple, speaks at FiNext Conference.

Show September

Show October

Show November

Show December

December 2, 2019: • BitFlyer, one of Japan’s leading cryptocurency exchanges announces the addition of XRP. アルトコイン販売所で新たにリップル（XRP）の取扱いを開始しました！

XRP は日本国内でビットコインに次ぐ取引量を誇る通貨で（※）、当社では約 2 年ぶりとなる新規通貨の取扱いとなります。ウェブとスマホアプリ（iOS/Android）のアルトコイン販売所で売買いただけます。#リップル #XRP #仮想通貨 pic.twitter.com/adQG3N0mnV — bitFlyer（ビットフライヤー） (@bitFlyer) December 1, 2019 • Binance, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges adds Russian Ruble (RUB) trading pairs on its platform. XRP/RUB also included. December 4, 2019: • KogoPAY, a mobile payment platform that enables users to send money to friends and family, pay bills, accept payments using QR codes, announces that it will connect using the Ripple system. • David Schwartz at the Berkeley Blockchain Accelarator: “ILP and the XRP Ledger”. • Luiz Antonio Sacco interview on Blockmaster TV (in Portuguese). December 9, 2019: • 3S Money Club, a digital B2B merchant banking platform that provides banking services by invitation only for a community of selected cross-border businesses, announces it joined Ripplenet via its Managing Director and CEO, Ivan Zhizneskiy. December 11, 2019: • Emi Yoshikawa, Senior Director, Joint Venture Partnership, Global Operations at Ripple, participates in a panel discussion at the Blockchain Women conference. • Emi Yoshikawa was also interviewed by Fintech Silicon Valley. December 14, 2019: • SALT adds XRP as a collateral option for Crypto backed loans. SALT is a company offering membership-based borrowing allowing borrowers to leverage their cryptocurrencies to secure cash loans, while simultaneously providing an opportunity for financial institutions and accredited investors indirect involvement in this new asset class, linking cryptocurrency with traditional lending. We've added #XRP as our latest collateral type for a #cryptobackedloan. Check out our website to see how you can utilize XRP with SALT: https://t.co/PaJhZHYwhO — SALT (@SALTLending) December 13, 2019 December 19, 2019: • Nicolas Steiger, FlashFX CEO, interviewed on Nugget’s News. Speaks about Ripple, ODL and XRP. • Chris Larsen interviewed on The Billion Dollar Secret. December 20, 2019: • Ripple raises $200 million in a Series C funding, valuating the company at $10 billion. The Series C was led by Tetragon with participation from SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures. We are thrilled to announce our $200M Series C—an investment that marks a record year of company growth. The round was led by Tetragon along with SBI Holdings and @route66ventures. https://t.co/5mkbPWzug6 — Ripple (@Ripple) December 20, 2019 • Luiz Antonio Sacco (Ripple Managing Director, Brazil & South America) interview at Reuters: Ripple’s blockchain platform plans to expand partnerships with banks in Brazil in the international people remittance market by 2020 as demand for instant and cheap solutions in this sector grows rapidly. December 23, 2019: • Jorge Lesmes (Global Head of the Blockchain Banking practice, everis) confirms that everis has done several projects with Ripple and that he considers it one of the most important companies in Blockchain/DLT. December 21, 2019: • Bitrue, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Singapore that uses XRP as a base currency, announces the addition of 27 more XRP based pairs over the course of the next few weeks. As soon as all the pairs will be added, Bitrue will offer a total of 81 XRP pairs (78 of which XRP based). A small little gift for the #XRPCommunity this Christmas, we have 27 new $XRP pairs coming soon, with 14 of them arriving on December 25th. In total this brings us up to 77 XRP pairs ? All the coins and listing schedules here – https://t.co/fBTvRlUmHU #XRPTheStandard pic.twitter.com/WABXDPiuoG — Bitrue (@BitrueOfficial) December 23, 2019 • DSX, a UK exchange operating since 2014, finally lists XRP with USD, EUR and BTC pairs. We’ve got some great news to share with you – we’ve added #XRP to DSX! We support #XRPUSD, #XRPEUR and #XRPBTC pairings now. Enjoy trading! pic.twitter.com/8ENP9LVXqP — DSX Exchange (@DSX_uk) December 23, 2019 • Fintek.pl interviews Marjan Delatinne, Global Head of Banking at Ripple. Marjan talks about Ripple, XRP, SWIFT, Blockchain, One Pay FX, JPM Coin and more. December 24, 2019: • XRP gets listed on LongBit exchange with USDT and BTC pairs. December 25, 2019: • Binance adds Turkish lira (TRY) trading pairs on its platform, XRP/TRY included. • BitTok, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Singapore, announces the addition of XRP and EOS on its trading platform. December 26, 2019: • Brad Garlinghouse and Ripple Executives Talk XRP, Blockchain and Crypto in 2020. December 29, 2019: • General Bytes, a Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency ATM manufacturer, adds support for XRP, on more than 3000 sold to date. This means that even machines that already exist are now compatible with XRP.

Analysis

XRP price

Let’s start by talking about the elephant in the room. The price of XRP has dropped by almost 50% in 2019 in USD value and almost 75% in BTC value. The percentage of its market dominance dropped from 10.88% to 4.33%.

XRP price

It’s useful to take a step back and look at this from a longterm point of view (using logarithmic scaling to make the price movement more visible).

This chart reminds us that things can change rapidly, either upwards or downwards. XRP has shown in the past that it can move drastically and the past 2 years we have been witnessing a correction from that amazing bull run. The fact that the whole market is in bear “mode” right now, doesn’t help either.

Finally, as far as volatility is concerned, XRP has had one of its most stable years. The highest intraday volatility in 2019 was 28.75% on May 14th.

Exchanges

Exchanges that listed XRP in 2019: 82

Coinzeus, Coinmetro, Good Exchange, Huobi, BankCEX, Bitzon, Moontrade, BtcFinans, Kriptomat, Bison, Swyftx, BitcoinTrade, Nobitex, Catex, Coinbase, TradeSatoshi, Stronghold, Coinhako, Bitrota, CredoEx, RB Global, QB, Zipmex, FinanceX, Ovex, Coinberry, VALR, Rain, Bitbuy, OMGFIN, Tokenize, Coinvest Plus, EO.Trade, Velic, Ice3x, OOOBTC, eToroX, Bytepower Exchange (BPX), Birake, MXC, Blue Helix (BHEX), Bitkeep exchange, Colodax, CatalX , TaoTao, Bitexbook, EliteX, Beaxy, OceanEx, Bgogo, Bexplus, Allbit, DMM Bitcoin, Exonium, IndoEx, DOBI, Simex, AMCzet, Speza, Sparrow, Vindax, Bitocto, PDAX, Global Crypto Offering Exchange (GCOX), Decoin, Newton, Xago, Binance DEX, Binance Singapore, Binance US, QuantaEx, Zg.com, TradeStation Crypto, BitFlyer, DSX, Longbit, BitTok.

Exchainpay (listed XRP but exchange not operational)

Codex (listed XRP but now XRP is not offered)

CoinPulse (used to list XRP but exchange closed)

Koinex (used XRP as a base pair but now ceased operations)

GBX (listed XRP but later de-listed it)

DX.Exchange (listed XRP but currently not operational)

Infinite (listed XRP but exchange not operational)

XRP United (ceased operations)

Even though its hard to keep track of exchanges listing or de-listing digital assets, we have tracked 82 exchanges that listed XRP in 2019. Two of them de-listed it later on, while 3 others are not operational right now.

In fact, 81 out of the top 100 exchanges by adjusted volume on CMC, offer XRP trading, with at least 15 of them adding XRP in 2019.

At the time of writing there are 1130 markets listed on XRParcade. XRP is listed on 388 exchanges. It is also paired with 47 fiat currencies with a total of 349 fiat markets. The most popular fiat currencies paired with XRP are the USD (on 78 exchanges) and the EUR (on 54 exchanges).

In 2019 we have seen some important listings for XRP. Besides Coinbase listing XRP, many other exchanges that have been operational for many years added XRP like DSX, ice3x, TradeSatoshi, QB, bitFlyer, Simex and others.

Unfortunately, quite a few hacks and exploits occured in 2019: Gatehub, Bitrue, Beaxy and BitoPro all fell victim to nefarious activity. We urge exchanges that have listed or planning to list XRP to take a look at this page in order to avoid falling victim to someone exploiting the partial payment feature. Moreover, quite a few holders fell victim to the arbitrage bot ponzi that operated on Telegram and the fake giveaways that have flooded Twitter, YouTube and Medium the past year.

We have also noticed that some exchanges close as easy as they open. Its always best to look into an exchange thoroughly before using it, and keeping your digital assets off exchanges.

As far as ODL (On-Demand Liquidity) is concerned, Ripple hasn’t officially announced any new ODL exchanges. However, it was revealed that Australian exchange BTC Markets is fascilitating ODL payments for Australian dollars (AUD). Other known ODL exchanges include Bittrex, Bitstamp, Bitso and coins.ph. It is expected for Bitso to grow along with Ripple and expand in other countries in Latin America. Beetech (Brazil) and Interbank (Peru) need someone to fascilitate their payments. Bitrue is another exchange that is expected to add fiat pairs and become an ODL exchange, with Binance also being another ODL potential suitor.

Companies accepting XRP

XRP is being utilized by many companies. In 2019 the following companies also started using, supporting or accepting XRP:

– Hodl Finance (crypto backed loans)

– 1xBIT (gambling)

– HuobiWallet (wallet)

– Freewallet (wallet)

– RIGHTS (Global Entertainment Platform)

– BitBill (wallet)

– Coingate (payment gateway)

– Blockscart (P2P marketplace – website not operational)

– Digycode (prepaid cryptocurrency recharge service)

– Liechtenstein’s postal service

– MyCryptoCard (crypto card)

– MyCryptoWallet (wallet)

– Instimatch global (digital network)

– Trader’sWay (forex)

– Cinnamon (video streaming)

– Trippki (hotel bookings)

– Aave (bill payments, today XRP not supported)

– BookMauritiusHotels (travel platform)

– Antalya Homes (real estate)

– Trezor (wallet)

– Grand Capital LTD (forex)

– Trust wallet (wallet)

– MoneyMessage (add on)

– PayGlobal (e-money agent)

– Digitec-Galaxus (online marketplaces)

– Bitfi (wallet)

– XAGO (Money Transfer Operator)

– Tegiwa (imports)

– UQUID (top-ups, bill payments)

– BelcoBTM (ATMs)

– XRPayments (payments)

– Salamantex (payments)

– NOWPayments (payments)

– Bidali (payment gateway and gift service)

– FXCM (forex)

– imove (payments)

– GoLance (online workforce platform)

– Standing Ovation (service provider)

– Opu Marketplace (e-commerce)

– Falcon Bank (custody and trading)

– ShortHop (digital asset platform)

– Stark Payments (e-payments)

– Blockdaemon (blockchain deployment facilitator)

– Bitpay (payments)

– BRD Wallet (wallet)

– Anchorage (custody)

– Chainanalysis (blockchain analysis)

– Xago (gateway)

– SafePal (wallet)

– xSongs (marketplace)

– NetCents (payments)

– Coinbase card (crypto card)

– Nexus’ Quantoz (transaction processing)

– KogoPAY (payments)

– Salt (crypto backed loans)

– General Bytes (ATMs)

We can see that the most popular choice here is payments. This is no surprise if we take into account both the speed and the cost of XRP transactions. XRP has also been integrated in a variety of wallets in 2019. Lastly, XRP is now supported on quite a few ATM providers (General Bytes, BelcoBTM and coinme – who is also Xpring funded). You can view our XRP ecosystem here. Make sure to scroll down to the table to view all companies. Cryptwerk also keeps an extensive list of companies that accept XRP and has noticed a significant increase in 2019.

XRP Ledger

The XRP network reached the milestone of 1000 nodes on December 5th 2018. The amount of nodes has remained stable all through 2019 and is currently at 993.

The network has continued its decentralization through 2019. Non Ripple validators increased from 19 out of 26 (73%) in January, to 27 out of 34 (79.4%) at the time of writing.

New non-Ripple validators were:

– aloha.xrpscan.com

– crcm-xrp.blockdaemon.com

– isrdc.in

– peerisland.com

– ripple.kenan-flagler.unc.edu

– ripplevalidator.uwaterloo.ca

– www.bitrue.com

– xrp.coinfield.com

Even though 10 countries are running UNL validators, 68% of them are operating from the US.

XRP Intelligence

/dev/null productions (@DevNullProd twitter avatar) was kind enough to offer xrp1ntel’s support. xrp1ntel is an XRP network monitor and analyzer. The core application offers a scalable mechanism through which to follow the XRP Ledger and track: Accounts, Transactions, Payments, Offers/Markets, Network Status & More.

According to the data from xrp1ntel, ledgers closed per month varied from 660,000 to 738,000, with March being the highest month. The XRPL closed its 50th millionth ledger in September.

Transaction count spiked towards the end of the year, possibly due to the spam the XRPL experienced during that time.

According to analyst Thomas Silkjaer during the spam period, an individual or a group spent tens of thousands of XRP to activate thousands of accounts, slowly burning away all the account reserves by sending non-XRP payment transactions.

As expected, the fees paid (in drops) were significantly higher in November and December, due to the spamming of the XRPL.

Accounts created varied from 14,000 accounts in September to more than 80,000 accounts in May and June.

For more in-depth analysis follow @DevNullProd.

XRP supply

The XRP circulating supply increased from 41.1 billion on January 6th 2019 to 43.3 billion on December 22nd. That is a 2.2 billion increase at an average rate of 6 million per day.

The rate of increase however was not stable all through 2019 and has shown significant decrease in the second half of 2019.

The total XRP supply was reduced from 99,991,719,383 XRP on January 6th to 99,991,136,657 XRP on December 22nd. This means that approximately 582,726‬ XRP were burnt in 2019. The rate of reduction was stable all through 2019 with a couple of exemptions, one of them being the “attack” on the XRP ledger towards the end of the year.

In previous years, the reduction of the total XRP supply was higher.

2017: 3,705,290‬ XRP

2018: 1,188,352‬ XRP

2019: 582,726 XRP

XRP volume

The XRP daily volume on CMC didn’t have many spikes in 2019, even though a volume of 9.4 billion XRP was recorded on November 25.

Total XRP volume on CoinMarketCap:

2017: 104 billion

2018: 298 billion

2019: 473 billion

Of course, these numbers by CMC can not be trusted since a lot of this volume is fake, an issue addressed by Ripple.

The total XRP volume for 2019 on CryptoCompare was approximately 154 billion, less than a third of the volume reported on CMC.

Ripple escrow

Ripple has released 12 escrows in 2019, all of which were 1 billion XRP each. Of that 12 billion XRP, Ripple returned into escrow 9.4 billion, thus reducing the amount of XRP in escrow by 2.6 billion, from 52.5 billion in December 2018 to 49.9 billion in December 2019. For more detailed information you can visit our escrow page.

Month Escrow returned Escrow not returned Total Jan-19 800,000,000 200,000,000 1,000,000,000 Feb-19 800,000,000 200,000,000 1,000,000,000 Mar-19 700,000,000 300,000,000 1,000,000,000 Apr-19 700,000,000 300,000,000 1,000,000,000 May-19 700,000,000 300,000,000 1,000,000,000 Jun-19 700,000,000 300,000,000 1,000,000,000 Jul-19 700,000,000 300,000,000 1,000,000,000 Aug-19 800,000,000 200,000,000 1,000,000,000 Sep-19 800,000,000 200,000,000 1,000,000,000 Oct-19 800,000,000 200,000,000 1,000,000,000 Nov-19 900,000,000 100,000,000 1,000,000,000 Dec-19 1,000,000,000 0 1,000,000,000 TOTAL 9,400,000,000 2,600,000,000 12,000,000,000

Ripple Sales

Ripple has sold a total of $487 million worth of XRP in 2019 (without taking into account the fourth quarter), compared to $535 million in 2018. In Q1 and Q2 the amount of sales was higher than the average 2018 quarterly sales ($133 million). Q2 was double the usual amount sold. This could be due to the particularly high XRP volume reported on CMC or an effort to fund additional investments like the one in MoneyGram.

Ripple stated in its Q2 Markets Report that it would be using CryptoCompare as a benchmark. Moreover, according to the report regarding Institutional OTC sales:

“Ripple decided to pull back from providing XRP over-the-counter at scale toward the end of Q2, in light of the OTC desks’ ability to source institutional demand for XRP in the open markets. Going forward, Ripple plans to focus institutional sales on markets where the on-exchange liquidity for XRP is insufficient to meet institutional demand.”

Moreover as far as programmatic sales are concerned:

“Because of misreported trading volumes, Ripple has changed its sales strategy (10 basis points of CCTT) and benchmark for Q3, and will continue to closely monitor the situation.”

Ripple did conduct less than 10 basis points of programmatic sales in Q3. In fact, part way through Q3, Ripple decided to pause programmatic sales altogether, and:

“Focus our over-the-counter (OTC) sales on a few strategic partners, who are building XRP utility and liquidity in regions that are strategically important to our growing global business, including EMEA and Asia.”

For Q4, Ripple committed to continue to monitor volume developments closely and intended to maintain a similar approach to Q3. CryptoCompare volume was approximately $31 billion in Q4 2019. It is expected that Ripple will sell less than $31 million programmatically.

New Ripplenet members

Euro Exim Bank (Bank): United Kingdom

SendFriend (Money transfer): United States, Philippines

JNFX (Trading): United Kingdom

FTCS (Payments): Sweden, Scandinavia (Rebranded to Intergiro)

Ahli Bank of Kuwait ABK (Bank): Kuwait, Egypt, United Arab Emirates

Transpaygo (Money transfer): United Kingdom, Austria

BFC (Money transfer): Bahrain

ConnectPay (Payments): United States

GMT (Payments): Israel

WorldCom Finance (Money Transfer): Israel

Olympia Trust Company (Trust): Canada

Pontual/USEND (Money Transfer): United States, Brazil

Rendimento (Bank): Brazil

SABB (Bank): Saudi Arabia

Unimoni (Money Transfer): United Arab Emirates

Federal Bank Ltd (Bank): India

EQIBANK (Bank): Dominica

Ria (Money Transfer): United States

Banesco Panama (Bank): Panama

Interbank (Bank): Peru

Frente Corretora de Câmbio (exchange broker): Brazil

Leapfrog (technology services): United States

GoLance (online workforce platform): United States

Boubyan (Bank): Kuwait

Sentbe (Money Transfer): South Korea

CurrencyBird (Money Transfer): Chile

Faysal Bank (Bank): Pakistan

Vitesse (Financial Services): United Kingdom

National Bank of Fujairah (NBF) (Bank): United Arab Emirates

TP Bank (Bank): Vietnam

3S Money Club (B2B merchant banking platform): United Kingdom

Banco de Crédito e Inversiones (Bank): Chile

Liri Holdings (Fintech company): Hong Kong

Tempus (Financial services): United States

bKash (Money Transfer): Bangladesh

QNB (Bank): Qatar

Finastra (Financial Services): United Kingdom

HDFC (Bank): India

38 new Ripple customers have been revealed in 2019, out of the 100+ that Ripple has signed in that year. In 2019, Ripple has extended its reach in countries like Bangladesh, Qatar, Chile, Vietnam, Peru, Panama, Israel and Pakistan. You can view our Ripple ecosystem here.

Currently, 38 of the top 100 banks by total assets tested or worked with Ripple.

Ripplenet Integrators

These companies have announced that they will be supporting other financial institutions to join Ripplenet.

Ripple expansion

Ripple opened an office in Switzerland

Ripple launched operations in Brazil.

Ripple expanded its Global Regulatory team in Washington D.C. and opening a dedicated GR office there.

Ripple raised $200 Million in a new funding round.

Ripple expanded with offices in Switzerland and Brazil while it also launced a regulatory team in Washington DC. At the same time, it expanded its European Operations to Iceland by acquiring Icelandic crypto trading firm Algrim to work on ODL. After successfully acquiring $200 million through its Series C funding, it is expected that Ripple will further expand in other key countries and perform additional acquisitions.

It is also worth noting that Ripple recently surpassed 400 employees worldwide, with Craft reporting 534 employees in December 2019. At the time of writing, Ripple is looking to fill another 50 positions. Some notable employees did leave Ripple in 2019: Cory Johnson (Chief Market Strategist), Dilip Rao (Global Head, Infrastructure Innovation), Evan Schwartz (Senior Software Engineer, Co-Inventor of the Interledger Protocol), Ross D’Arcy (Sales Director, EMEA), Wellington (Welly) Sculley (Business Development Director) and others.

Ripple for Good

In September 2018, Ripple formed Ripple for Good, a corporate social impact program that would support mission-driven organizations and initiatives with the potential to expand financial inclusion worldwide. The program would also focus on STEM, FinTech education and financial literacy as key drivers of a new and increasingly inclusive global digital economy. Ripple for Good already supports UBRI (University Blockchain Research Initiative) and announced various donations in the past (Donors Choose, The Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund). This year the following donations were publicised:

– $1 million grant to Tipping Point.

– RippleForGood extended support to thorn.org through “The Audacious Project”.

University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI)

Ripple’s UBRI (University Blockchain Research Initiative) embraced 14 new members in 2019, reaching a total of 31 universities. The initiative started in June 2018 in an effort to work with top universities around the world to support and accelerate academic research, technical development and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments. These are the 14 new members that joined UBRI in 2019:

Carnegie Mellon University

Cornell University

Duke University

Georgetown University

University of Kansas

University of Michigan

Morgan State University

National University of Singapore

Northeastern University

University of Sao Paulo

Institute for Fintech Research, Tsinghua University

Kyoto University

University of Tokyo

Oxford Foundry (University of Oxford entrepreneurship centre)

Besides almost doubling its members, UBRI organised UBRI Connect, the first-ever annual convening of the initiative. In case you missed it, you can find more information on UBRI connect in your flashback on October 3rd.

Xpring / Coil

Xpring was launched back in May 2018. It was an initiative by Ripple to invest in, incubate, acquire and provide grants to companies and projects run by proven entrepreneurs that will use XRP. In 2019 we witnessed a lot of activity from Xpring, funding a total of 20 projects while Coil also grew its ecosystem by 4 members (Cinnamon, Puma browser, Imgur and OutVoice). Ripple invested in MoneyGram, Bitso and acquired Algrim. On a negative note, Omni (one of the first projects backed by Ripple) ceased its operations.

February 5: Xpring invests in Raised in Space, a music/tech investment group focused on raising the value of music.

February 5: Xpring invests in Dharma Labs, a protocol for generic tokenized debt agreements.

February 13: XRPL Labs receives funding from Xpring.

February 21: Cinnamon announces video-streaming platform with exclusive content for Coil members.

February 28: Xpring and Coil invest in Kava Labs, a company that provides Interledger solutions for blockchains, wallets, and exchanges.

March 12: Forte, a company dedicated in accelerating the adoption of blockchain technology in the game industry, partners with Xpring and Ripple.

April 5: Puma browser partners with Coil.

April 10: Xpring invests in Robot Ventures, a (pre-)seed investor in fintech / crypto companies with big ambitions and contrarian worldviews.

April 17: Xpring invests in Bolt Labs, a company focused on anonymous payment channels, instant, cheap and private payments for everyday purchases.

May 13: Xpring invests in Agoric, a blockchain startup working to develop a blockchain-agnostic programming language specifically for smart contracts.

June 14: Xpring invests in Alkemi, an on-chain liquidity protocol, a non-custodial solution for stakeholders to earn incentives on their idle crypto assets while providing the infrastructure required for exchanges to stabilize market prices.

June 17: Ripple invests in MoneyGram.

June 26: Imgur raises $20M from Coil to pay creators.

July 10: Near, an American startup that develops a public, proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain focused on usability and scalability, completes a finding round that raises $12.1M. Xpring is an investor.

August 6: Ripple’s Xpring invests in Equilibrium Connect, a company focused on building open source developer tools for the Interledger ecosystem and working on the core protocol.

August 15: Xpring invests 1 billion XRP in Coil.

September 12: Xpring invests in Coinme, a global leader in cryptocurrency ATMs and blockchain financial services.

September 27: Xpring announces the acquisition of Logos, a startup developing a turnkey payments solution focused on speed and scalability.

September 30: Ripple expands European Operations to Iceland by acquiring Icelandic crypto trading firm Algrim to work on the ongoing development of Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL).

October 2: Xpring launches developer platform and introduces 4 new participants to the XRP ecosystem: Bitpay, BRD Wallet, Anchorage, Chainanalysis.

October 2: Xpring invests in Vega Protocol, an open, blockchain-backed public network for fully automated end-to-end trading and execution of financial products.

October 11: BRD wallet, a simple and secure onramp to bitcoin, ethereum, and other digital currencies, announced a strategic collaboration with Ripple’s developer company Xpring.

October 14: Ripple invests in Mexican exchange Bitso.

October 16: Xpring invests in Towo Labs, a Swedish startup aimed at simplifying crypto self-custody.

October 30: Xpring announces its investment in Keyless, the first biometric authentication and identity management platform to leverage secure multi-party computation.

November 1: Xpring acquires Strata Labs, a startup focused on building infrastructure and real utility at the intersection of fintech and cryptocurrencies.

November 5: Xpring invests in Flare Networks, a new blockchain network based on the Flare Consensus Protocol – the first Turing Complete Federated Byzantine Agreement protocol, enabling smart contract capability for the XRP ledger.

November 22: Coil partners with OutVoice, a freelance payment solution.

November 25: Ripple completes investment in MoneyGram.

December: Ripple backed Omni shuts down.

All three Ripple investments had something to do with ODL, while Coil seems more focused on strengthening its core goal, web monetization. On the other hand, Xpring seems to have more flexibility to invest in various use cases and make XRP and crypto more easily accessible and help with the adoption of crypto assets.

Associations

Ripple is part of many associations across the globe: BAFT, The LHofT, Silicon Valley Tax Directors Group, Blockchain for Europe and others. In 2019, Ripple joined the following organizations:

International Association for Blockchain Trusted Applications (INATBA) incorporated. Ripple is a founding member.

Ripple becomes a founding member of MENA Fintech Association (MFTA) along with Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center, UAE Exchange, token.io and Temenos.

Ripple’s Liz Chien (VP of Global Tax and Chief Tax Counsel) becomes one of the members of the Blockchain Technology Working Group formed by the Government Operations Agency in California.

Ripple joins “Allin”, an organization focused on bringing San Fransiscans together to support solutions to homelessness.

Ripple joined the Blockchain Association—an association that provides a unified voice committed to building deep partnerships between technology leaders and policymakers.

ODL (On-Demand Liquidity)

With ODL (On-Demand Liquidity), Ripplenet members use XRP to bridge two currencies in seconds, ensuring payments are quickly sent and received in local currency on either side of a transaction.

The known countries that ODL is being used at the moment are: Mexico (MXN), The Philippines (PHP), United States (USD), United Kingdom (GBP), Europe (EUR) and Australia (AUS). Brazil (BRL) is expected to go live shortly with Peru (PEN) also being a strong contender, since Interbank Peru announced that it would be using ODL. FlashFX also mentioned that the Japanese (JPY) corridor would be opening soon. We have also seen glimpses of potential ODL volume coming from Russia (RUB), which is interesting.

The following companies have either started using ODL or have announced that they would begin shortly:

Beetech

Bittrex (ODL exchange)

Bitso (ODL exchange)

Bitstamp (ODL exchange)

BTC Markets (ODL exchange)

Catalyst Corporate Credit Union

Coins.ph (ODL exchange)

Cuallix

Euro Exim Bank

FlashFX

GoLance

i-Remit (unconfirmed)

IDT

Interbank Peru

Intergiro (formerly FTCS)

Instarem (Nium)

JNFX

MercuryFX

MoneyGram

SADAD (unconfirmed)

Sendfriend

TransferGo

TransPayGo

Viamericas

ODL statistics

The XRP community, as always, finds ways to stay informed on any important aspect of XRP. ODL is certainly important since it is one of the first instances where a cryptocurrency shows actual utility.

Tenitoshi and CinnappleFun have created the Liquidity Index. It monitors liquidity for Bitso XRP/MXN and Coins.ph XRP/PHP. These are screenshots from January 4th:



Bitso XRP/MXN

Coins.ph XRP/PHP

At the same time 3 XRP community members, Mourad TOUMI, Labo-a-crypto-3.0 and XrPeace created Utility-scan, a page (you can view the code here) that listens for potential ODL transactions (more info on how it works by Moncho). Utility-scan has been “listening” for potential ODL transactions from various exchanges and so far it has picked up ODL transactions from the following exchanges: Bitso (MXN), BTC Markets (AUD), coins.ph (PHP), Bitstamp (USD) and even Binance (RUB) on a few occasions. EUR and GBP transactions have not yet been spotted. The most popular corridors so far have been USD-MXN, USD-PHP, with AUD-PHP and AUD-USD also showing signs of increase.

Finally, H_M_X has also created a page to monitor the ODL flow.

All tools tell the same story. The ODL volume has shown significant signs of increase the past few months, especially from USD to MXN and USD to PHP. With new corridors opening up, more companies utilizing ODL and more exchanges partnering with Ripple, we can only expect the volume to increase in 2020.

It would be extremely useful if Ripple could provide live statistics and data of ODL volume across corridors. This could prevent missinformation from being spread and a powerful marketing tool for its products.

Regulation

Thailand declared 4 cryptocurrencies eligible for investment in ICOs and base trading pairs, XRP is one of them.

XRP deemed Shariah compliant from the Shariyah Review Bureau.

The Luxembourg Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LPEA) classifies XRP a payment token, like Bitcoin.

The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) classified XRP as an exchange token because of its role in facilitating cross border transactions. There three types of tokens according to the FCA: exchange, utility and security.

In the end of July, Ripple wrote an open letter to Congress, asking for:

“Regulation that does not disadvantage U.S. companies using these technologies to innovate responsibly, and classifies digital currencies in a way that recognizes their fundamental differences—not painting them with a broad brush.”

Ripple also strengthened its team with Michelle Bond, Stu Alderoty, Ron Hammond, Susan Friedman and others.

Ripple’s Global Head of Government Relations Michelle Bond had a conversation with VP of Marketing Monica Long on Digital Currency Regulation Around the World back in August.

As mentioned in the video, Ripple is engaging with 50 governments worldwide. Michelle also briefly mentioned some of the crypto friendly countries/regions: the United Kingdon, the Asia Pacific region (especially Singapore and Thailand), Switzerland, Abu Dhabi. She also stated that Ripple is advocating for a principle based framework as opposed to something prescriptive that would become outdated quickly and limit innovation.

Ripple also expanded its Global Regulatory team in Washington D.C. and opened a dedicated GR office there in October. The team is led by Michelle Bond. Moreover, Craig Phillips, former Counselor to the Secretary at the U.S. Treasury Department, joined Ripple’s Board of Directors to provide depth to Ripple’s policy leadership bench.

Ripple is going at great lengths to get the job done. Will it succeed in 2020? Time will tell!

Ripple Lawsuits

It is well known that Ripple has been facing a series of lawsuits since May 2018. It all started when Ryan Coffey claimed XRP was an illegally sold security and filled a lawsuit against Ripple. The lawsuit was dropped a few months later but other lawsuits occurred in the meantime.

Three seperate lawsuits (Zakinov, Oconer and Greenwald) were all related into one back in October 2018. After that, the class action was moved to Federal court from the San Mateo Superior Court a few weeks later. By June 2019, a new lead plaintiff was named in the class action lawsuit: Bradley Sostack. The plaintiffs then filled an amendent complaint and Ripple then filled a motion to dismiss the case, stating that the plaintiff failed to bring a case within three years of the initial offering, meaning the statute of repose expired. Both parties are due in court on January 15, 2020 at 9 AM Pacific Time. If the court grants the motion to dismiss in Ripple’s favor, the lawsuit would be likely be appealed. If the court denies the motion to dismiss, the case will move into the discovery phase, dates would be set, and both sides would start to get ready for trial. A great thread to follow any developments around any Ripple lawsuit is this one on XRPchat, by brjXRP17.

Our top 5 developments for Ripple/XRP in 2019

Ripple investment in MoneyGram and MoneyGram using ODL Ripple $200M Series C Funding Ripple announces 300 customers Launch of Xpring dev platform Brad Garlinghouse speaking at the Swiss National Bank conference on “Past, Present and Future of the International Monetary System

Conclusions

2019 was a very exciting year, mainly because it was the year we began having glimpses of utility. There is no need for 5002 crypto assets (listed on CMC at the time of writing) and only those with real utility are going to make it.

It was fascinating to watch the ODL volume slowly pick up its pace and the community was eager for more. There were 2 banks (Euro Exim Bank and Interbank Peru) saying they are using or are going to start using XRP for cross border transactions. However, with regulation hindering innovation, money transfer companies are the first to take the plunge into XRP’s liquidity. Slowly but gradually, more countries are bringing regulatory clarity to crypto assets and some are sharing their insights with other nations.

Love it or hate it, Ripple is proving to be a strong ally of the crypto space. With a strong team, an office in Washington D.C. and a part of various influential groups, having Ripple on XRP’s side is a very strong advantage. At the same time, Ripple is investing its resources in the growth of the ecosystem, improving the technology, exploring better custody solutions and new usecases.

Ripple is expected to further expand in 2020, especially after its new funding round. New offices in strategic countries are to be expected, along with a few more acquisitions and investments. While most of the industry is being hit hard from the 2 year long bear market, Ripple is growing aggresively, investing and expanding. In fact, this bear market is providing a unique growth opportunity to Ripple and perhaps even acting as a wake-up call to other companies, that they have higher chances of success if they are working with Ripple.

Similarly to 2018, in 2019 we have seen many exchanges list XRP. Some of them were relatively old but most of them were new. There were cases where exchanges ceased operations shortly after they launched. If there are more exchanges than the market needs, some of them are bound to cease operations. Especially after this 2 year bear market and the constant hacks. The story of Bitso and the effect it had on its business, is bound to attract more exchanges to the ODL business. Whether Ripple will announce new ODL exchanges is unknown. However, as suggested earlier in the report, it would be useful if Ripple could provide ODL live statistics. Both the community and potential customers would benefit from such an approach.

The tedious lawsuit that has given so much fuel for FUDsters to throw into the fire, is slowly coming to an end. An important date to look out for is January 15th but things could drag on for quite longer. Time is on Ripple’s side and the team has been obviously taking their time with all cases.

The past few years, some important “walls” were brought down. In 2018 the Ripple – R3 conflict came to an end, as both sides reached a settlement, with R3 even adding XRP to its software, the Corda Settler. 2019 was the year that the Coinbase wall finally broke down, with Coinbase even suggesting XRP is better suited for international money transfers. It will be interesting to see which walls will fall in 2020 and what effect that will have. The industry is slowly maturing and key players are beginning to understand that maximalism benefits noone. New synergies would benefit the whole industry and bring adoption one step closer.