Two days ago, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse held a Q&A on Quora (the popular Internet forum that syndicates the answers to major news outlets). Today, that Ripple news managed to send XRP prices up 9.99% while Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin all dropped.

So what exactly did he say?

Well, there was a lot of good stuff—he talked about what’s driving the long-term Ripple price prediction, for example—but his most relevant answer came in response to a question about SWELL.

For those unfamiliar with SWELL, it is a conference. But not just any conference; it is the first inaugural conference hosted by Ripple. And it will be hosted in the same city, on the same day, as a conference hosted by Ripple’s main competitor in the settlements business, SWIFT.




The question was: “Can we expect any significant announcements during the SWELL event?”

At first, it didn’t seem like Mr. Garlinghouse was willing to respond. He said, “Ha. You think I’m gonna let the cat out of the bag today?” It could have ended there, but…

He added, “Suffice it to say, yes – but Monica has me under strict embargo.”

And there you have it: “Suffice it to say, yes.” Five little words that drove a wedge between XRP and Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.

Investors had been hoping to hear big news at SWELL, and now that they’d heard confirmation from the horse’s mouth, there was no stopping the upside in XRP prices.

But why did Ripple prices react the next day rather than immediately? I can’t say for sure, but it might be that Forbes ran the story a day after Quora, and Forbes is the bigger website.

To put it in perspective, the number of people who’d seen the response jumped 144% from Day 1 to Day 2.

In any case, the Ripple to USD exchange rate is sitting at around $0.224675. The Ripple to Bitcoin rate, meanwhile, jumped roughly 11.72% to near 0.00005346 BTC.

Analyst Take:

I’ve been saying for months that investors should price XRP based on Ripple news, not industry news. Now that we’re starting to see that shift take place, I’m confident that XRP will accelerate to its near-term Ripple price prediction of $0.40.

Also Read: Ripple Price Prediction 2018: Should You Invest Amid Bitcoin Volatility?