Published: Jan 3, 2018 10:34 p.m. ET Share
Will Ripple eventually surpass bitcoin in the digital-currency world? Getty Images Ripple is challenging bitcoin for supremacy.
By Mark DeCambre
The virtual currency known as Ripple coins soared to a record on Wednesday, solidifying a rally in the world’s No.
2 digital asset and closing in on bitcoin for dominance of the nascent industry.
Ripple has surged about 150% over the past week, with a single coin valued at $3.50 trading at intrasession record, according to research site CoinMarketcap.com .
That puts San Francisco-based Ripple Labs’s total value at about $135 billion. However, factoring the total supply of Ripple coins, including some 55 million Ripple coins held in escrow by its executives, the total value of Ripple is about $350 billion. That technically exceeds bitcoin’s value, which is at $254 billion at a price of about $15,200, according to the site.
Ethereum stands squarely in third position with a total value of $92 billion, after Ripple rocketed past the formerly No. 2 currency just last week .
The move for Ripple would mean that the so-called flippening , to determine which of the alternative coins supplants bitcoin, may already be under way.
Ripple’s “XRP” coin, as its currency is referred, has surged roughly 55,000% since the end of Dec. 2016.
That means that $100 invested in the company from the end of 2016 to its current level would be worth about $55,000, representing a stunning return, even when compared with bitcoin’s roughly 1,440% surge over the same period. For further comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.40% soared 26% over the same time, while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.64% has returned more than 20%. What is Ripple
Ripple Labs launched its blockchain protocol in 2012 as an initiative to provide a payment processing system for financial entities.
Among a barrage of digital-currency companies offering blockchain, or decentralized, distributed-ledger technologies, Ripple is considered the outfit with the most legitimate business model from a Wall Street perspective.
XRP tokens are used to help facilitate its intra-bank transactions, and boasts a faster processing time than bitcoin—seconds versus minutes.
Read : 7 cryptocurrencies to watch in 2018 if you’re on the hunt for the next bitcoin
So-called blockchains, the record-keep technology behind bitcoin and other cyber units, have garnered wider acceptance in recent years, notably because it promises a decentralized means of doing business and exchanging money, with a community of so-called miners who verify transactions instead of one central entity or bank.
That decentralization has been one of the main appeal of many of those with a more antiestablishment sensibility in the bitcoin universe.
However, Ripple run by CEO Brad Garlinghouse is controversial among digital-currency purists because it caters to the establishment and provides a blockchain that is centralized, meaning a third-party helps to mediate money transfers.
The New York Times once described Ripple as “a cross between Western Union and a currency exchange, without the hefty fees” because it’s not only a currency, but also a system on which any currency, including bitcoin, can be traded. Why has ‘XRP’ been on a tear?
A number of Asian financial institutions have signed on to adopt Ripple’s blockchain technology, bringing the company’s roster of financial clients to over 100 , including American Express , Standard Chartered UniCredit, UBS and others.
There are also unfounded rumors that Ripple coins will eventually be on popular currency exchange Coinbase, which has added to speculative buying. Quote References.
