Bitcoin Is Back Above $6,700 And Ripple Gains 100%

Last week saw significant growth to the cryptocurrency market, with the total market going from $192 Billion to $228 Billion, gaining $36 Billion. Most of the gains were from Bitcoin, which is now back above $6,700 at $6,731. Ripple also made significant gains this week, going from $0.027 to a peak of $0.07. Right now, XRP is at $0.057, which is up by 100% from the previous week. Ethereum went from $197 to $224, but Ripple overtook Ethereum’s second spot at its peak price.

1. PNC recently completed a trial phase of Ripple’s xCurrent and now plans to fully integrate the proof-of-concept protocol throughout their entire banking system. The American company will now be able to execute lightning fast cross-border payments and is one of the top-10 largest banks in the United States. Ripple hopes to convince the bank to adopt xRapid in the near future, and at the moment there are more than 40 clients spread across six different continents that are using Ripple products ().

2. 1. In less than 10 years after Bitcoin was introduced, the value of Bitcoin transactions has now surpassed Visa. Never before, was it possible to send Billions of dollars from one part of the world to another for just a few cents. Visa processes $1.3 trillion per year. However, in 2018, Bitcoin has already crossed $2.4 Trillion, and three more months are remaining. At this rate, Bitcoin would easily double that of Visa. Though it does not show the actual usage of Bitcoin, it is clear that Bitcoin is the cheapest and fastest way to transact ().

3. CME’s Group managing director, Tim McCourt thinks that Bitcoin futures did not cause a bearish trend in the market. He shared this view with B2C2 CEO, Phillip Gillespie during the Consensus Singapore 2018 conference. McCourt says that Bitcoin futures are a part of the market, and the derivative market has been growing mainly in the Asian markets. Further, McCourt said that they launched Bitcoin futures because of high demand from the participants in the market ().