Ripple reached a fresh all-time high at $1.41 on Wednesday, gaining over 28% on the day.
The gain followed news that Tokyo-based financial services company SBI Holdings and its subsidiary SBI Ripple Asia announced the establishment of a "consortium" with some Japanese credit card companies to utilize blockchain technology.
Speaking to CNBC's Squawk Alley, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said:
"We are going to invest in the ecosystem to both help accelerate the adoption of Ripple's technology.”
"One of the things we all have to remember is the value of a token over the long term is really going to be driven by its utility," Garlinghouse said. "There's no question there's a lot of hype in this system."
Wednesday's news of a consortium with Japanese credit card companies follows an announcement earlier this month that several Japanese and South Korean banks are testing Ripple's systems for cross-border payments.
More than 100 financial institutions use Ripple's blockchain network.
Today’s surge makes Ripple the the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization over $50 billion, behind Bitcoin (Bitcoin) and Ethereum (ETH/USD), according to CoinMarketCap.
The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies eased below the $600 billion mark today.