After staying flat at around 16 cents for most of the week the price of Ripple (aka XRP) began to surge over 70% up from around 17 cents to nearly 30 cents. Over the last 24 hours it nearly doubled, Fortune reports.
The total market value of Ripple consequently raised to $11 billion placing it for some time on the third place among the most valuable digital currencies after Bitcoin (Bitcoin) and Ethereum (ETH/USD).
Nevertheless, the price soone bounced back down a little and the cryptocurrency returned to the forth place in the Crypto Top-5.
The increase of the Ripple’s price coincided with heavy trading on exchanges in Korea, however experts are uncertain as to what could be the exact explanation for the price surge.
Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse attributed the currency’s value to its usefulness for processing transactions, and its ability to provide liquidity for big banks. However there were other reports saying that XRPs were sold to big banks at a discount to encourage them to use it and to act as market makers.
Ripple relies on blockchain software to create a permanent, indelible transaction record but, unlike many crypto-currencies, it is controlled by a company rather than mined.