Everything you want to know about Ripple, the cryptocurrency that rose 36000% in 2017

Ripple has overtaken Ethereum in market capitalization to become the second most valuable cryptocurrency.

The first major cryptocyrrency to be owned by a for-profit enterprise, Ripple saw a huge jump towards the end of 2017. The digital currency costs slightly over $2, making it more affordable than Bitcoin (about $15,000) and Ethereum (about $890). In 2017, Ripple rose about 36,000 percent.

Ripple’s market capitalization is over USD 102 billion, while Ethereum’s market capitalization is over $86 billion.

This massive rise can be attributed to an announcement that a group of Japanese and South Korean banks will use the Ripple’s xcurrent technology to modernize cross-border payments.

Last month, the company said that the Japan Bank Consortium will use their xcurrent technology to settle payments with Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank, two of South Korea’s largest banks.

In India, Ripple is available for trading through Koinex.  It reached a high of INR 201 in the past 24 hours. It also works as a digital payment system. Transactions usually take place within seconds.

San Francisco-based Ripple launched the currency in 2012.  The company was founded by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb. Its current CEO is Brad Garlinghouse.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Garlinghouse said, “2017 has been the year of the digital asset, and XRP has clearly outperformed every other digital asset. The reason for that is that the market has realised that XRP is a highly efficient payments mechanism that is solving real-world problems for real-world customers with real money.”

Unlike other currencies, Ripple is 100 percent pre-mined and can only bought at an exchange. It is said to be a more secure payment system than its rivals.

A Forbes report says the value of cryptocurrencies swelled to more than $600 billion in 2017, creating several crypto-currency millionaires in the process.