Ripple Surpasses Uber’s Market Valuation amidst Price Surge

Ripple’s price hit an all-time high escalating by 15 percent overnight. Currently, XRP is trading at $1.78, with its market cap scaling to $69 billion. Ripple is now worth more than Uber, the global taxi technology company that has a market cap of $50 billion. Twice this week the digital asset achieved a new high.

The majority of cryptocurrencies suffered a bloodbath this week, although, Ripple was an exception. While cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ether, and litecoin all declined due to South Korea’s intention to shut down anonymous trading at crypto exchanges and tighten regulations.

Why does Ripple price continue to surge?

As The Wall Street Journal reports, Japan’s multinational telecommunications corporation, SoftBank, procured a 20 percent stake in Uber, resulting in a $20 billion drop in its valuation within a 24 hour timeframe. Hence, Uber’s market cap has been dragged down to $50 billion. Ripple’s recent growth, culminating in surpassing Uber’s market valuation, can be credited to Japan’s cryptocurrency-friendly ecosystem.

Ophir Gottlieb, CEO of Capital Market Labs, stated:

“Ripple’s total addressable market is $5 trillion a day in trans-country currency exchange (currently on SWIFT), or over a quadrillion dollars a year. Ripple the technology (not necessary the digital currency) is a much bigger idea than Uber.”

Ripple’s Asian subsidiary and the announcement to associate with Japanese credit card companies to form a new consortium also propelled Ripple’s price to new highs. The principal aim of the consortium is to employ the distributed ledger technology for credit card payments.

Ripple’s tie-up with over 90 banks in Japan and South Korea reflects on its growth. The digital currency has massive potential in the region where major financial institutions have espoused the company’s blockchain technologies. Recently, Japan and South Korean banks piloted the first international fund transfer on Ripple’s blockchain network, which aims to cut costs by 30 percent.

Future of Ripple

On a wider scale, the digital asset has huge prospects if it is able to penetrate the global banking industry. The company boasts its four-second settlement speed which is 60 times faster than Ethereum and 1800 times quicker than Bitcoin.

On December 27, Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse said, “We are going to invest in the ecosystem to both help accelerate the adoption of Ripple’s technology.”

Ripple, which has experienced unstoppable growth during 2017, appreciated by about 23,000 percent since the start of 2017. The digital asset specifically designed for financial institutions such as banks to perform quick and inexpensive global transfers. It is now the third most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization, and close to overtaking Ethereum, with approximately $5 billion separating the two.

Ripple continues to leap, even though the global crypto market is facing correction. “One of the things all have to remember is the value of a token over the long term is really going to be driven by its utility.” Garlinghouse explained. He added, “There’s no question there’s a lot of hype in this system.”

Additionally, American Express, Santander, and FX International Payments plan to deploy their cross-border transactions between the United States and the United Kingdom onto Ripple’s network. For now, over 100 financial institutions use Ripple’s blockchain technology. The growing interest from financial organizations in the blockchain network seems to build a sound future for the company and the cryptocurrency.