Ripple Surges By 67%, Surpasses Ethereum to Become Second Largest Cryptocurrency

Sep 21 2018

In a strong bullish momentum, Ripple surged by 67% over the past 24 hours, resulting in the currency’s price jumping from $0.37 to $0.66. XRP’s market cap went from $14.7 Billion to $26.7 Billion over the period. In the process, Ripple surged past Ethereum - and has now become the second largest cryptocurrency in the markets after Bitcoin.  

As of this writing, Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands at $116 Billion, while Ethereum is at $23.5 Billion. Ripple was the biggest gainer of the day. At it’s highest point of the day, Ripple (XRP) recorded a high of $0.769 and a market cap of $30.7 Billion. It has since been fluctuating but continues to impress the markets. This growth reminds several investors of the massive bull-run that the currency went through in early 2018. Ever since Ripple’s massive 36,000% growth was realized, there has been an active consumer interest in the currency. 

Investors of Ethereum have, for long, been waiting for ‘the flippening’ to happen. For those who do not follow the Ethereum community, this word refers to the flipping of the positions of Ethereum and Bitcoin - i.e. Ethereum (ETH) becoming the largest cryptocurrency, surpassing the market capitalization of Bitcoin. However, that doesn’t seem to be a likely scenario anytime soon - as a reverse-flippening of sorts has happened, as Ethereum has slid down to the third position in the markets while Ripple (XRP) has taken over Ethereum’s spot. 

Interestingly, this is not the first time that Ripple has become the second largest cryptocurrency in the markets. Many would remember that in late-2018, Ripple had surpassed Ethereum - and in the process, became the second ever cryptocurrency (the first being Bitcoin) to cross a market capitalization of $100 Billion. However, Ethereum eventually caught up and entered 2018 as the second largest currency in the markets - a position that it continued to hold till today.

In another trend that was observed earlier in the day, cryptocurrency trading platform Poloniex witnessed a boost of 190% in their trading activity. This led to Poloniex surging past the likes of Bittrex - and officially proclaiming its return to the race. Poloniex used to be a big name back in 2015, but trade volumes had been slowing down since then. Earlier this year, the platform was acquired by Circle

A number of reasons are being speculated behind this unprecedented rise in Ripple’s market cap: ranging from the recent partnerships with the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia as well as the PNC Bank. Moreover, Ripple’s developments of the xRapid system have also led to a number of investors getting attracted towards the XRP cryptocurrency. 

It would be interesting to see where Ripple goes from here. Would the currency continue its bull run in the markets and surge even more? Or is a market correction approaching? Can Ripple, which at its highest price point, had surpassed the $3.8 mark - do an encore of the massive bull run? Stay tuned with us as we bring you the latest updates from the cryptocurrency markets! 

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