Why is Ripple Surging
If you’ve been following the digital currency markets closely this week, one digital currency should have had all of your attention: Ripple.
Ripple (XRP) experienced a 44% surge on August 22nd. Investors rushed to the web for answers, specifically:
1.) Why is Ripple surging?
2.) Is Ripple finally recovering?
3.) What is Ripple?
If that third question is the one you need answered, I encourage you to check out our free resource page detailing Ripple.
Over the course of this article, I am going to focus on answering the first two questions. Things may get a tad technical.
Let’s start by looking at Ripple’s trading volume over the last couple of months.
Ripple’s Two Month Slump
Ripple fell alongside the rest of the digital currency market in July. During the slump, daily trading volume ranged between $50 million to $100 million.
Sadly for Ripple, it didn’t pull itself out of the slump as quickly as other digital currencies. As Ethereum climbed and Bitcoin boomed in the wake of Bitcoin Cash, Ripple was largely dormant.
That is until August 22nd.
As I already noted, Ripple surged over 44% yesterday with trading volume surpassing $1 billion. Just look at the chart below:
To put that trading volume in perspective, even at its $0.40 highs, Ripple’s trading volume never surpassed $600 million.
So let’s look at the reasons….
Trading in Korea
Though uncertain about the exact catalyst, we do know that a vast majority of Ripple trading took place on Korean exchanges in the last 24 hours.
In fact, when Ripple passed $1 billion in trading volume, 70% of that action took place on Bithumb (45%), CoinOne (16.22%) and Korbit (12.21%).
This isn’t the first time we have seen trading from Korea drive a digital currency — Similar events have taken place for both Bitcoin and Ethereum.
South Korea is becoming a more notable player in the digital currency world, accounting for 14% of all Bitcoin transactions.
But what prompted this massive trading surge?
There is a rumor that major South Korean bank Kakao Bank could be preparing to adopt Ripple technology. Though this rumor was being circulated on message boards and Twitter, it has not been verified by either the Ripple team or Kakao Bank.
On a more secure note, Ripple’s team did not dispute rumors that the blockchain company is targeting China.
And gaining Chinese customers would be a huge win for a digital currency targeting the fin-tech community.
Ripple May Expand into China
In August, word started circulating that major Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba was using Ripple technology. This rumor was put to rest by the Ripple team on a public forum.
But even though the team denied working directly with Alibaba, they did not dispute intentions to expand into the Chinese market.
Moving into China would be a strategic move for the blockchain company, considering Ripple can aid the fin-tech world.
As China continues to expand into other global markets, the need for means of exchange without astronomical transaction fees proves more pressing.
Ripple can alleviate these growing pains and help China conduct business in a variety of global markets.
Ripple has the ability to do this because a unique technology known as the Interledger Protocol. You can read about this technology in our free Ripple guide.
Considering what a major win it would be for Ripple to move into Chinese markets, this speculation could be driving prices.
That said, nothing has been confirmed yet.
All we know is that Ripple seems to be breaking away from the two-month slump. This could be the start of a rebirth for the digital currency.
At the time of typing, the token just passed Bitcoin Cash, claiming the third position on the Coin Market Cap Charts.
