We worry about the speculative nature of cryptocurrencies a lot, but it often helps to dig into the long-term fundamentals in order to uncover some sort of hidden alpha here. Ripple, although one of the more controversial communities within the cryptocurrency realm, has experienced a lot of strong advancements in the last few weeks regarding partnerships and investments in its platform.
Federal Bank Shows Interest
The discussion regarding the bear market of the last 15 months has repeatedly pointed out that the “speculators” disappeared (often to invest in other fad industries like medical marijuana) as the true believers stayed on to continue building. This on its own has been helpful for figuring out which protocols are experiencing progress rather than being all hype.
As a remittance platform that is much more efficient than most of the solutions provided by incumbents, Ripple has appeal to banks as a means of gaining an edge over their competitors. Federal Bank has recently announced a partnership with Ripple Inc. for this exact reason.
This Indian bank knows that cross-border solutions have the potential to change a lot within both their industry and their country, which puts them in a strong position when the winds shift.
More Bullish Signals
Ripple has the 3rd largest market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies and many analysts are calling for an upwards market correction in the next few weeks.
Alex Kruger, a well-known crypto analyst, tweeted out the below:
“The crypto bear market has been over for three months now. BTC breaking above $4,200 will mark the end of the bear trend that started in January 2018.”
To be clear, this doesn’t necessarily mean a bull market. It just implies that any moves after that would represent either a new bearish trend, or a potential bull trend. Buyers around the $0.34 range will be “confirmed” at this point, and it becomes a fresh start for Ripple.
As a tertiary boost to the Ripple case, cryptocurrency exchange Bitrue has paired XRP with BNB, which represents greater ease and access for users and traders. This will have a small, if unnoticeable, effect, but these tend to compound.
Long-Term Implications
Mainstream media has been giving Ripple a hard time for a while based on some of the controversy over the last 2 years. The debate on whether Ripple is a security or not, as well as whether they should be holding such large reserves of their own coin, have not helped XRP’s case.
What does help Ripple is the greater attention cryptocurrencies are receiving from institutional investors. Fidelity Investments has notably continued to commit money to the space, as lower asset prices prove to be a good sign rather than a bad one. From their perspective, lower prices create an opportunity as long as the long-term outlook is still positive. Bitcoin and many of the other top protocols have continued to improve in the last few years, and value investors like Fidelity can see the value in this.
A lot of Ripple’s recent troubles have come from JP Morgan announcing their own proprietary coin, as well as Stellar announcing a partnership with 6 major banks. With the 3 bullish signals mentioned above, as well as the potential of a change in the investing climate, it may soon be Ripple’s time again.
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