Perhaps it is still premature to consider the first quarter of 2023 as the beginning of the crypto spring. But the market began to actively recover and many cryptocurrencies are confidently updating multi-month highs. Not the last place among the champions is occupied by Ripple. Some experts believe that this is just the beginning, the coin will continue to grow and now is the best time to buy.
And yet, when making any investment decision, first do your own market research, taking into account your own financial capabilities and risk tolerance. Do not neglect this even if you are sure that changing Bitcoin to Monero now is really a very good idea.
What is Ripple
Ripple is an international payment system and digital currency based on blockchain technology. It provides financial institutions, digital exchanges and companies with the technical base to make instant payments worldwide without restrictions using their XRP digital asset. Ripple’s distributed financial platform processes up to 1,500 transactions per second and is among the most scalable payment systems on the market.
The Ripple network has a number of advantages over other payment systems: transaction processing speed is only 4 seconds, transaction fees are low, and network availability covers more than 40 countries.
Legal action against Ripple Labs
In December 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicted Ripple Labs for alleged violations of US securities laws in connection with the sale of XRP. The SEC accuses Ripple of illegally selling over $1.3 billion in unregistered securities. The SEC claims that XRP is a security, not a cryptocurrency, and requires Ripple to register XRP tokens as a security before selling it to investors. Ripple claims that XRP is a cryptocurrency that is not subject to securities laws. Litigation in this case is ongoing.
Price analysis
Our analysis of XRP shows that the price of this cryptocurrency usually reflects broader trends in the cryptocurrency markets. In mid-April 2021, during a rise in the price of cryptocurrencies in general, XRP peaked at $1.96. This is the highest price level since January 2018, when the cryptocurrency market experienced the previous rise and the coin was worth $3.84. However, the price of XRP then fell in the May sell-off and reached its low of $0.5179 on July 20, 2021.
The price of XRP then followed the overall market trend and reached $1.41 by September 6, but then dropped to $0.8383 within a month. During the market rally in November, the price of XRP briefly broke above the $1 level, climbing to $1.28. However, the coin closed 2021 at $0.8312.
The fall in the price of the XRP cryptocurrency continued throughout 2022, falling steadily and in August it reached an annual low below $0.3. According to the crypto aggregator CoinGecko, over the past year, the price of this cryptocurrency has fallen by 32.4%. This price volatility was caused by several factors. First of all, it is provoked by the fall in the price of Bitcoin, which sets trends for the entire market.
Since the beginning of 2023, the price has increased by more than 20%. In the short term, the price of XRP will likely continue to rise as investors continue to trust this cryptocurrency. At the moment, the asset is trading in a narrow range between $0.48 and $0.53. A break of resistance will open the possibility of growth to $0.67 per coin, and in the longer term to $0.8.
Where to buy Ripple
The coin is traded on most major cryptocurrency exchanges. Binance, KuCoin and Kraken are the leaders in terms of trading volumes for this asset. It is available for purchase with fiat money, stablecoins and some other cryptocurrencies. However, the choice of Crypto/Crypto pairs is relatively small, and in order to perform an LTC to XRP exchange on a centralized platform, you will have to perform two consecutive swaps. However, you can go the other way and use the services of LetsExchange, where you can directly exchange Litecoin for more than 200 coins and tokens.