Ripple has long been the black sheep of the crypto world for its lack of decentralization, the purpose of this post is not to debate the merits of XRP but rather the impact of recent news on the price.
A month ago Ripple had hit all time highs on the rumor that it would be added to Coinbase. Coinbase has since poured water on the rumors but has said it will be adding new coins in 2018. I think they will be adding Ripple in the coming weeks, if not for any other reason then it makes good business sense. Coinbase has long enjoyed a monopoly over the casual crypto investor, and has made great sums of money off of their fees. With Robinhood's crypto announcement this could all change, they already have 3 million users and the allure of fee free trading is sure to attract many others to use Robinhood instead of Coinbase. Coinbase has long been stingy with adding new coins but I think the threat of loosing a serious chunk of their market share is enough to push them over the edge.
Robinhood has already announced that it plans to support 16 coins, initially only BTC and ETH but this will quickly expand to include:
•Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
•Bitcoin Gold (BTG)
•Dash (DASH)
•Dogecoin (DOGE)
•Ethereum Classic (ETC)
•Lisk (LSK)
•Litecoin (LTC)
•Monero (XMR)
•NEO (NEO)
•OmiseGO (OMG)
•Qtum (QTUM)
•Ripple (XRP)
•Stellar (XLM)
•Zcash (ZEC)
With all of this being said Ripple climbed to almost $3 on the RUMOR that it would added to Coinbase, I am predicting it will be between $4-6 potentially higher if it can cross Bitcoin and become the highest market cap crypto, that will surly cause the main steam media to fuel the buzz. Even if you don't believe in Ripple's long term viability, there is still potential gains in the short term
As of writing XRP is trading at $1.17
Obviously this is not professional investment advice, and if you haven't already all of the recent hacks should make you go out and buy and hardware wallet, or at the very least not keep very many of your coins in the exchanges!
Robinhood Crypto FAQ
https://support.robinhood.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000088623-Crypto-Availability
Uphold to implement XRP after investment from one of Coinbase's early investors
https://globalcoinreport.com/uphold-to-implement-ripple-xrp-and-insure-deposits-following-57-7-million-investment/
As of yesterday more than 1 million people have signed up for early access to Robinhood's new crypto trading service.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/29/more-than-1-million-people-sign-up-for-early-access-to-robinhoods-new-crypto-trading-service.html
BitOasis - That operates in UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, And Saudi Arabia has just announced that it will be adding XRP
https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/911517/Ripple-XRP-BitOasis-Dubai-Jordanian-entrepreneur-Ola-Doudin-Emirates-NBD!