If you are dying to get into the cryptocurrency market but have arrived too late to the Bitcoin party there are plenty of alternative cryptocurrencies.
Ripple is known an ‘altcoin’, which means it’s a bitcoin-style virtual currency that is not backed or controlled by any central government. Ripple was launched in 2012 and recently had a 4300% increase in value, meaning many people want in on the action.
A bitcoin is currently worth more than £12,000, Ripple is currently worth £0.4821 and started at less than 1p.
It’s a far more accessible investment for the average person who wants to start trying their luck in the world of cryptocurrency trading. Investors hope that the digital dosh will increase in value as more people buy it, potentially turning a small investment into a huge sum of money.
How to buy Ripple
In order to buy Ripple, you need to actually own bitcoin first. You can purchase bitcoin with your real money on sites like Coinbase or CoinMama. It is as simple as buying an item online. Just put in your credit card details and select the amount of bitcoin you want to purchase (1 bitcoin is worth more than £12000, but you can buy small denominations). Once you have bought bitcoin you can buy Ripple.
The first thing you need to do is obtain a Ripple address, which work similarly to a bitcoin wallet and allows you to store the cryptocurrency. For this, you can use a Ripple wallet like Poloniex. The most popular websites to exchange bitcoin (BTC) for Ripple (XRP) are Changelly & Shapeshift. You can also buy a physical wallet like the Ledger Nano S, which is a hard drive that supports many cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dash.
Ripple is predicted to have a fairly solid future on the cryptocurrency scene. There are 1000 billion XRP tokens existing and Ripple holds 61% of them. If you start buying and trading now, you could end up as rich as the early Bitcoin investors. Or you could end up totally out of pocket, because cryptocurrencies are extremely dicey and volatile, meaning your money could lose its value in moments.