Ripple began its stellar rise last week after an increase in prices among rivals, and rocketed from $0.27 on December 12 to $0.80 in just three days.
And rumours that Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, would begin trading XRP served as a major catalyst.
By comparison, bitcoin has seen a 1,514 per cent appreciation in value during 2017, trading at $963 in January and currently worth $15,550.
However, bitcoin has received a great deal of negative press in recent days, and seen its value plummet from more than $19,500 on December 17 as a result.