Ripple (XRP) has skyrocketed not only over the past 2 weeks, but also the past 24 hours, surging past the $2 mark (and getting close to challenging $3 at one point). The Rippening / Rippling occurred if you look at total supply, but given the fact this supply is mostly locked in escrow, it behaves more like inflation as it is released into the economy slowly.
Much of this surge in Ripple has come from recent news where Ripple announced three large credit card companies from Japan are partnering with them for a pilot program. In addition, two weeks ago they announced a pilot program with a number of Korean & Japanese banks. Despite these partnerships being exploratory, the market prices them in as full-fledged collaborations due to hype. This type of mentality is not unique to Ripple, but it is affecting Ripple drastically right now so it is worth noting.
I see Ripple as overextended now, although I wouldn't be surprised if irrational exuberance carries it two fold from here given how absurd the rise in Verge was recently (illustrating how strong pumps can be). We also saw this with Iota before it eventually cooled off. Everyone buys in thinking that other people know something they don't know.
This is unfortunate because Ripple has a real and interesting use case with an excellent team. It doesn't need hype to do well, yet this is the nature of the field due to the overinflation of Bitcoin. Furthermore, a lot of people associate the value of the Ripple token with the value of the network. While the Ripple token is the most convenient and trustless currency to use within the Ripple network, it is not representative of the network value and should not be priced as such.
If I had the option, I'd much prefer investing in Ripple the company than Ripple the cryptocurrency. Why? Because I see higher value in the network the company is building than the token itself. Given the company is unfortunately private, this is not an option. I will personally stay away from the Ripple token at these levels.
What are your thoughts? Thank you for watching / reading.