The third-largest cryptocurrency on the market, XRP, has seen solid gains over the past 24 hours, bouncing back from recent lows and reclaiming the $0.30 level.
Bounce back
The digital coin struggled throughout much of last week, especially during the cryptocurrency sell-off that followed last Thursday’s revelation that New York prosecutors had alleged that digital currency exchange Bitfinex had used Tether funds to cover an $850-million loss. XRP fell to a near three-month low of $0.287 following the news and spent the next few sessions mostly trading below the $0.30 level, with occasional price jumps sending it briefly above that mark. The tables finally turned this Tuesday, allowing XRP to notch up its first close above $0.30 since April 24. The coin finished the session at $0.309, well above its opening price of $0.294.
Tough month
XRP underperformed the wider digital currency market in April, even though it took part in the cryptocurrency rally that marked the first few days of the month. The coin rose to as high as $0.374 during the market’s resurgence, but while other digital currencies, such as Bitcoin (BTC), managed to retain most of their early gains, XRP’s momentum waned as the month progressed. Yesterday’s close confirmed that XRP had failed to make any meaningful progress last month.
Major partnership
Still, the coin enjoyed some positive news, especially last week, when it was revealed that Saudi British Bank (SABB) was launching its Instant Cross-Border Transfer Service, powered by blockchain payment technology from Ripple, the San Francisco-based start-up that developed XRP and its underlying protocol. The Saudi lender announced the move during a two-day financial conference held in Riyadh.
Having joined Ripple’s blockchain-powered enterprise payment solution RippleNet in January 2018, SABB completed a cross-border payment pilot of Ripple’s technology, involving transfers of Indian Rupee, in December of that year. The bank is now continuing its collaboration with Ripple.
“SABB provides its customers with faster, safer and more transparent cross-border payment services by the launch of “Blockchain” technology through “Ripple”. The Indian Rupee (INR) is a positive start to an upcoming roadmap being the first currency to be activated in SABB. This plan aims to provide customers with a valuable service and link more countries and currencies in the near future,” Majed Najm, deputy managing director corporate and institutional banking at SABB, commented on the development.
In today’s trading, the XRP price stood at $0.304, as of 10:19 BST. The digital coin has gained 1.8% in the past 24 hours, according to data from cryptocurrency tracker Coinmarketcap. The coin’s total market capitalisation currently stands at $12.77 billion.
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