Ripple’s XRP is currently trading at the $0.24 levels, down from the last few week’s highs of almost $0.35. XRP is the third-largest crypto asset by market cap today with a value of over $10 billion. What’s fascinating here is that there is such a humongous difference between the asset prices of the first two cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin ($9,100 levels) and Ethereum ($235 levels).
There are even several crypto assets that boast a much higher price than XRP and they’re not even in the top 20 cryptocurrencies. What gives here? What’s the big deal about XRP?
The best way to arrive at an objective answer is to examine its current use cases. All across the globe, there’s talk of how XRP is being used to power financial transactions. In fact, just a few days ago, Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse stated in a CNN interview that XRP owned over 7% of liquidity driven into Mexico in a single week.
“Last week we did $54 million of XRP flows into Mexico; that’s seven and a half percent of all flow from the U.S. Dollar to the Mexican peso.” He said.
Microsoft, CGI, BitGo and Bitso are XRP Validators
Ripple Labs has partnered with several high net-worth companies in the past in a bid to further the reach and use case for XRP. According to the latest Ripple stats, Microsoft Corporation and CGI Inc. are the leading companies working with the Ripple blockchain and processing transactions on the network (RippleNet).
Just recently, U.S.-based enterprise BitGo and Mexico-based crypto exchange Bitso also joined RippleNet. These latest additions represent the company’s approach towards facilitating a robust node system. There are also reports that the Bank of America may soon join RippleNet as well.
MoneyGram Expands its Partnershit with Ripple
According to its latest regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), popular remittances company MoneyGram has gained over $11 million from its partnership with Ripple Labs. You may recall that in June 2019, Ripple staked $50 million in MoneyGram in a bid to expand the use case for XRP, and it would seem the partnership is paying off even more.
In a press release covering its FY 2019 Financial Results, MoneyGram stated it had received a total of $11.3 million from Ripple to be divided over two quarters.
“MoneyGram continued to expand its strategic partnership with Ripple as the first money transfer company to scale the use of blockchain capabilities.” The report read.
While the SEC filing does not specify what the funds are to be used for, it’s important to note that MoneyGram’s agreement with Ripple has previously revolved around using XRP to facilitate more efficient cross-border payments. However, they did hint at using Ripple’s investment to improve their overall operations.
“The Company expects that this partnership, at scale, will reduce our working capital needs and generate additional earnings and cash flows.“
XRP to Become the Next Go-To Crypto for Online Shopping?
A year ago, one of the leading payment gateway for blockchain payments, CoinGate launched XRP payment processing service for online merchants.
Based on the company’s internal metrics, it would seem they made the right call as XRP quickly rose to become the 4th most used cryptocurrency on the platform in terms of payment count. As of December, the platform had recorded a 174% rise in payment count! Even though this might not sound like much to more seasoned payments platforms like PayPal and Stripe, XRP’s potential is undeniable.
These are just some of the more recent use cases and advancements for XRP. Whether it is a profitable investment venture is, of course, subject to a number of factors, but these facts are worth considering nonetheless.
