Evelyn Campbell 
Even though Ripple and cryptocurrency are talked about in the same breath, it is not entirely true. Ripple is not the official name of the crypto; it is XRP. Ripple is a remittance network, currency exchange, and a real-time gross settlement system created and launched in 2012 by the US-based technology company Ripple Labs. Ripple has an open-source and distributed protocol that supports cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, and commodities.
Ripple Labs also created the digital currency called XRP through which banks and financial institutions can transfer money from and to any corner of the world almost instantly and with negligible transaction fees.
One of the features that sets XRP, or Ripple as it is commonly known, apart from other cryptos like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum, is that it cannot be mined. At the outset, Ripple Labs created 100 billion XRPs, and that is the limit that can be brought into circulation. Ripple Labs owns 60 billion, 6.25 billion is owned directly by investors, and the rest is held in an escrow account by the company. This number will be released into circulation in the future at around 1 billion per month. At the current price of $0.80 per XRP, and $31.52 billion in market cap, Ripple is the third-largest cryptocurrency in the exchanges by market cap.
A Detailed Look at Ripple
Before investing in Ripple, it is essential to understand where you stand simply because Ripple is a broad entity, and the crypto XRP is just one of its components. Unlike Bitcoin, Ripple is more of a payment protocol that facilitates international cross-border payments than crypto for investments and payments.
Ripple has gained a lot in popularity today because it has partly solved the complexities of financial payments. Ripple offers a platform that is fully secured, immediate, and almost free for funds transfers and can be used for all types of currencies, both crypto, and fiat. For this reason, a year after it released XRP in 2013, Ripple Labs was named one of the 50 Smartest New Companies by MIT University.
Because of its inherent benefits, banks started to show an interest in the Ripple payment system around this time. Within five years, almost 100 top banks had adopted Ripple technology. Currently, the advanced Blockchain network RippleNet is used in 6 continents and 40 countries by more than 300 payment providers. Some of the biggest adopters include Santander, American Express, MoneyGram, and VISA, and Western Union might soon follow suit. Financial analysts feel that XRP will soon replace the established SWIFT money transfer system.
Here are some of the positive attributes of Ripple.
- Affordability: XRP is currently trading at $0.26. and you can buy a lot of the coins for a few hundred dollars.
- Suitable for financial institutions: By enabling lightning-fast funds transfers, it ensures a quick flow of capital, a plus point for economic growth. It would work well for small industries and businesses, too, to get quick access to global financial entities.
- High market cap: Ripple is the third-largest cryptocurrency globally, with a market cap of $25.9 billion. It is a sign of strong investor confidence in Ripple as well as less volatility to market fluctuations.
- Not another crypto-only: Ripple Labs is not merely a cryptocurrency but a full-fledged company. Its main product is xCurrent, the fund transfer platform with no links with the XRP. Then there is the crypto XRP. The third product is xRapid that helps investors to trade in XRP through xCurrent.
Given all these factors, should you invest in Ripple?
Is it a Good Idea to Invest in Ripple?
The answer to this question is YES. Though Ripple does have some risk factors like promoters holding the bulk of coins and is not based on the traditional Blockchain technology, it is becoming more popular being backed by the major financial institutions.
Additionally, XRP is ideal for crypto freshers as it has a low entry-level. Investors can also diversify their portfolios at low costs without taking away a lot of money from other investments. In a nutshell, it is a low-risk investment with high rewards and hence an ideal instrument to invest in.
Should you invest in Ripple in 2021?
The answer here is a YES too. With a market cap of $25.9, 2021 will witness a surge as the payment protocol’s adoption and acceptance become more widely accepted and implemented. The price of XRP will rise further as the general rule is that the scarcity of a token leads to an increase in prices.
Seasoned investors, too, are buoyant over Ripple and recommend it as a solid investment option in 2021. Ripple’s price reached an all-time high of around $3.10 in 2018, and it is estimated that it will go beyond the $1000 level in 10 years. That means a huge appreciation of the value of your asset if you invest now in 2021.
Further, Ripple is in talks with more than 100 banks, including the majors like Bank of America and JP Morgan, and once these materialize, the price of XRP can only go North. So yes, 2021 is a good time to invest in Ripple.
Predicting the Price of Ripple in 2021
The start of the year was not so bright as the crypto faced certain issues with the SEC. However, this will soon be resolved, and experts XRP Prediction the price to surge to $0.83 by the end of January 2021. With tie-ups with banks on the anvil this year, XRP is expected to reach an average trading price of $2.94 by December 2021.
Conclusion
Summing up, the future looks bright for Ripple as it is into highly innovative products with well-known experts guiding the company. The price of XRP is sure to increase in the future starting this year.