What a week it was. Bitcoin smashed R2 million (where it is currently hovering) and XRP broke through R57 ($3).
XRP price USD
Source: Google
The R2 million bitcoin mark is a uniquely South African milestone. When it hit R1 million in November 2021 (and then entered a bear market, dropping 70%) the next target was obviously R2 million. Well, that day has arrived.
XRP’s performance has been even more extraordinary. The incoming Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chief Paul Atkins is a crypto enthusiast, and that stands in contrast to the outgoing Gary Gensler who will be remembered for his ham-handed treatment of crypto regulation, and the 100+ cases he launched against various platforms (XRP included). The SEC accused Ripple (XRP’s issuer) of dealing in unregistered securities and fined it $125 million.
That case will likely disappear under the new SEC chief.
XRP’s recent rally was fired by the potential for approval of XRP exchange traded funds, and the 90% lowering of costs to maintain an XRP account in December 2024, which in turn inspired a flurry of new meme coin issues. Meme coins such as ARMY, PHNIX and LIHUA – all nesting on the XRP Ledger – have seen impressive gains in recent weeks, though with some equally impressive retracements.
But the big attraction of XRP is its ability to be used for cross-border payments. It is designed to allow businesses to send funds across borders as a “bridge” currency, similar to the way companies currently use the USD. Only XRP allows this to happen much faster and cheaper than with the USD.
Ripple uses an interledger protocol – similar to the TCP/IP protocol used to allow people to connect with each other on the internet. Ripple allows banks to send funds to each other even though they don’t have a corresponding relationship.
That makes it potentially one of the more exciting use cases for crypto currently out there.
