Ripple XRP Showing Positive Signs Towards $0.34

Ripple XRP has enjoyed considerable support during the last 24 hours, bouncing from $0.315 and breaking the $0.325 mark, before stabilizing at $0.32. In the last week, there has been a 14.6% growth in Ripple price. The price peaked at $0.37 last Friday, but each time that the price has retraced towards $0.32, there has been some significant support, suggesting that consolidation at $0.34 is by no means far away.

On Tuesday, we experienced a somewhat bearish market reaction below XRP’s $0.33 price point against the US dollar. Sellers appeared keen to test the previous support area of $0.3120 and buyers once again emerged heavily to form an upside recovery. Overall, the key battleground this week appears to be between a support level of $0.3350 and a resistance point of $0.3540. This has left the door wide open for more solid gains through $0.3400 and beyond before the end of the week.

Much of the support for the price of Ripple XRP against the US dollar could be attributed fundamentally to comments made this week by Ripple’s new Chief Technical Officer, David Schwartz. Many experts within the crypto industry have long questioned whether RippleNet and XRP are decentralized, but Schwartz has taken the decision to speak publicly and reaffirm that both services are inherently decentralized.

Schwartz recently authored a report titled “The Inherently Decentralized Nature of XRP Ledger” which aimed to clear the air and educate so-called crypto experts on the workings of the XRP Ledger. The report reinforces that it is wholly controlled by the Ripple community via validators situated in all four corners of the globe. Rather than utilizing Proof of Work consensus algorithms to verify payments, the Ripple RTXP protocol relies heavily on its validators. These individuals are, in essence, volunteers as they do not get paid for their services; unlike miners on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchain networks. Schwartz believes that the global nature of Ripple’s validators is at the core of what drives the Ripple network and its decentralization.

Yet despite Ripple’s best efforts to take decentralization as seriously as other cryptocurrencies, there is still a nagging fear that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could yet deem it to be a security token rather than a cryptocurrency, which would result in XRP’s price potentially tanking. A significant drop in Ripple’s price would almost certainly occur in this scenario as it would mean the token ticks all the boxes of the Howey Test and would therefore require strict regulation by the SEC.

In the short-term, Ripple’s xRapid cross-border transaction solution has gone live on three new cryptocurrency exchanges, which could help buoy the XRP price further. US-based Bittrex, Mexico-based Bitso and Philippines-based PhilippinesCoins.ph have all adopted the xRapid technology that allows individuals to send fiat currency payments cross-border, regardless of its origin or destination currency.

Feature image: By AlekseyIvanov | Shutterstock.com