The ripple price has risen by 30% since the beginning of October, bolstered by the growth of RippleNet — the startup’s enterprise network — as well as anticipation for the company’s upcoming “Swell” conference next week.
The price of XRP — the native currency of the Ripple Consensus Ledger (RCL) — has climbed significantly since the beginning of October. The ripple price entered the month at $0.198 and held there until October 4, when Korean traders initiated a rally. By October 8, the ripple price had climbed more than 20%, and it spiked as high as $0.279 the next day. Ripple then pulled back to $0.240 as traders began to take profits, but it quickly resumed the rally. At present, XRP is trading at a global average of $0.261, which represents a month-to-date increase of 32% and gives the cryptocurrency a market cap of $10.1 billion.
Two major factors have fueled the ripple price’s current rally. First, there is a widespread belief among XRP investors that Ripple will make a major announcement at “Swell”, a FinTech conference they are hosting next week in Toronto. Consequently, traders are buying into XRP ahead of time with the expectation that the price will rise following the conference. This may or not be the case. Remember that investors let their imaginations get ahead of them leading up to the original announcement of the conference, and the ripple price took a steep downward turn when the conference details did not meet their expectations.
Conference hype aside, Ripple continues to expand its presence into the banking sector and has made Asia a particular focus of its recent efforts. In September, Ripple opened offices in India — the world’s largest remittance receiver– and Singapore, one of Asia’s leading financial hubs. Earlier this week, Ripple announced that RippleNet — the startup’s enterprise blockchain network — had added its 100th member. The continued growth of Ripple’s infrastructure bodes well for the long-term prospects of the XRP price.
Nevertheless, there is one factor of which investors should remain aware. Demand for XRP has been heavily concentrated on South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges. Korean exchanges Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit account for a combined total of nearly 70% of all XRP trading volume.
Many investors may view this as a positive signal that Ripple’s targeted penetration of the Asian economy will be successful. Others, however, may find it concerning that so much of XRP’s volume is concentrated within a single fiat currency trading pair.