Ripple is Now 2nd Most Valuable Cryptocurrency in the World

As year-2017 is close to say good bye, Ripple overtake Ethereum as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

XRP, as Ripple’s token is called, surpassed $1 for the first time Dec. 21 and quintupled its market cap to more than $50 billion between Wednesday and Friday of that week.

Overall, Ripple has risen 28,000% this year to become the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency just after Bitcoin.

After the Friday’s price jump, ripple’s market cap hit $73.6 billion at 11:04 GMT, briefly leaving ethereum $3 billion behind.

While bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies are known for being decentralized, ripple owners are well-known, and the cryptocurrency is centralized.

The ripple cryptocurrency, XPR token, operates under parent company Ripple, a privately funded firm based in San Francisco, California.

Currently, Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap contributing 41.5% of the overall crypto market valuation, followed by Ripple, which contributes 12.4% and Ethereum which is now on the third spot contributes 12.3%.

One of the major reasons attributed to the surge in Ripple’s price over the past one month is the testing of Ripple technology by some Japanese and South Korean banks. This news itself has fueled a lot of buying interest amongst investors and the daily volumes are shooting record highs.

Ripple-powered Instant Payment Services Now Live in India with Axis Bank, Standard Chartered

Three banks (Axis Bank, Standard Chartered, and Rakbank) have announced their decision to adopt Ripple’s blockchain-based payment platform, the RippleNet, as a means of making cross-border transactions.

To meet increasing demand for real-time payment services, Axis Bank (based in India), Standard Chartered (Singapore), and RAKBANK (United Arab Emirates) will now use RippleNet to send live, fast, frictionless cross-border payments.

RippleNet is a blockchain network operated by distributed ledger firm Ripple that provides real-time, business-to-business (B2B) global payments.

For Standard Chartered and Axis Bank, the Ripple-powered corporate payment service will allow each bank to offer their business customers an enhanced payments experience, ultimately enabling their end-customers to manage their cash flow, costs, and float better.

By our estimates, there are between 200-300 large, international corporates with regional treasury hubs in Singapore. These corporates span industries including fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and retail.

Often these corporates manufacture their products in India before shipping them to Singapore for worldwide distribution. In fact, the Singapore-India trade corridor is worth $15 billion.

Gautam Jain, global head of digitisation and client access, transaction Banking at Standard Chartered said: “The successful launch of our commercial cross-border payment service marks a significant milestone in the financial industry’s progress in applying distributed ledger technology for corporates. We are incredibly proud to be leading the way in this area. This affirms our commitment to digitisation and innovation as we continuously look at new way

Axis Bank President of Transaction Banking Himadri Chatterjee said: “While there have been significant innovations in domestic payments, cross-border remittance has seen limited developments. Using APIs and distributed ledger technology, there is an opportunity to radically change the way international payments are handled. We are excited with the potential the technology has to bring innovative services to the market and help us enhance value to our customers.”

Ripple had already begun spreading its business in Indian subcontinent by setting up its office in Mumbai, in September.

Prominent FinTech Startup 'Ripple' Is Now Opening An office in India

A while ago in July, we had informed you how we could soon see Ripple technology setting up its shop in the Indian subcontinent. And now, it is finally happening. According to latest update, the San Francisco-based FinTech payment firm is all set open itself an office India's financial capital, Mumbai.

Bridging the gap between traditional finance and blockchain technology, Ripple has been successful in making a lot of flurry in Asia. The firm has made banks acquainted with the power of blockchain technology and made instant global money transfers a reality.

In an official announcement yesterday, the firm shared its plans of expansion into the South Asian country with a new office coming up soon in Mumbai. The announcement also revealed the person in charge for the firm's operations in the country. Ripple has decided upon former banking executive Navin Gupta to head its operations in India. Navin is a veteran in the field of finance and comes with decades of experience with top-notch banks like Citibank and HSBC.

Ripple is a venture-backed startup with offices currently in San Francisco, New York, London, Luxembourg and Sydney.

The firm's decision to expand to India is a smart one. India is a developing economy that is currently undergoing a major transformation into a digital society. Hence, the market is ripe for Ripple to introduce its services and win them over and establish a good ground for itself.

Gupta further explained his firm's decision to come to India and said, "India is the largest recipient of corporate and retail remittances worldwide, totaling close to $71 billion…Ripple’s instant, cost-effective blockchain-powered payments can be a transformative component of India’s economy, helping bring the many who have limited access to payments services into the fold."

Earlier this year, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse had also shared his thoughts on the status of digital payments in India. He had said, "Given its status as the fastest-growing major economy in the world and the top market for remittances, India is a very important market that is ripe for payments innovation."

The demonetisation surprise sprung upon the citizens by the Indian government last year lead to the starting of a unprecedented digitization of finance in the country as more and more people embraced e-wallets and plastic money to satisfy their thirst for money. In addition to this, under the 'Digital India’ the Modi government has also come up with a ‘Cashless India’ initiative that aims to help citizens of the country understand and adopt digital payments, banking and finance and eventually break up with the trend of carrying physical cash.

For the uninitiated, Ripple is a distributed financial technology that enables banks to send real-time international payments across networks. It has become a major hit in a short period of time because it helps banks meet growing demands for faster, low-cost, on-demand global payment services for any payment size and results in new revenue opportunities, lower processing costs, and better overall customer experiences. Two Indian private banks – Axis Bank and Yes Bank– have already been implementing Ripple's solutions for a while now.

[Image: Altcoin Today]

Prominent FinTech Startup 'Ripple' Is Now Opening An office in India

A while ago in July, we had informed you how we could soon see Ripple technology setting up its shop in the Indian subcontinent. And now, it is finally happening. According to latest update, the San Francisco-based FinTech payment firm is all set open itself an office India's financial capital, Mumbai.

Bridging the gap between traditional finance and blockchain technology, Ripple has been successful in making a lot of flurry in Asia. The firm has made banks acquainted with the power of blockchain technology and made instant global money transfers a reality.

In an official announcement yesterday, the firm shared its plans of expansion into the South Asian country with a new office coming up soon in Mumbai. The announcement also revealed the person in charge for the firm's operations in the country. Ripple has decided upon former banking executive Navin Gupta to head its operations in India. Navin is a veteran in the field of finance and comes with decades of experience with top-notch banks like Citibank and HSBC.

Ripple is a venture-backed startup with offices currently in San Francisco, New York, London, Luxembourg and Sydney.

The firm's decision to expand to India is a smart one. India is a developing economy that is currently undergoing a major transformation into a digital society. Hence, the market is ripe for Ripple to introduce its services and win them over and establish a good ground for itself.

Gupta further explained his firm's decision to come to India and said, "India is the largest recipient of corporate and retail remittances worldwide, totaling close to $71 billion…Ripple’s instant, cost-effective blockchain-powered payments can be a transformative component of India’s economy, helping bring the many who have limited access to payments services into the fold."

Earlier this year, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse had also shared his thoughts on the status of digital payments in India. He had said, "Given its status as the fastest-growing major economy in the world and the top market for remittances, India is a very important market that is ripe for payments innovation."

The demonetisation surprise sprung upon the citizens by the Indian government last year lead to the starting of a unprecedented digitization of finance in the country as more and more people embraced e-wallets and plastic money to satisfy their thirst for money. In addition to this, under the 'Digital India’ the Modi government has also come up with a ‘Cashless India’ initiative that aims to help citizens of the country understand and adopt digital payments, banking and finance and eventually break up with the trend of carrying physical cash.

For the uninitiated, Ripple is a distributed financial technology that enables banks to send real-time international payments across networks. It has become a major hit in a short period of time because it helps banks meet growing demands for faster, low-cost, on-demand global payment services for any payment size and results in new revenue opportunities, lower processing costs, and better overall customer experiences. Two Indian private banks – Axis Bank and Yes Bank– have already been implementing Ripple's solutions for a while now.

[Image: Altcoin Today]

Makers of India's UPI App Is Bringing Ripple Technology To India

Embracing change is difficult, but it is what we have to do in order to move forward. One such change that the world is currently warming up to is Ripple technology. Bridging the gap between traditional finance and blockchain technology, Ripple has been successful in making a lot of flurry in Asia. And now, the technology is all set to take over the Indian subcontinent.

According to latest developments, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a Mumbai-based startup closely guided and promoted by the RBI and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) as an umbrella organisation for all retail payments across India and credited for making the UPI app, is the one that is most likely to bring Ripple to India.

For the uninitiated, Ripple is a distributed financial technology that enables banks to send real-time international payments across networks. It has become a major hit in a short period of time because it helps banks meet growing demands for faster, low-cost, on-demand global payment services for any payment size and results in new revenue opportunities, lower processing costs, and better overall customer experiences.

Ripple’s solution is built around an open, neutral protocol (Interledger Protocol or ILP) to power payments across different ledgers and networks globally. It offers a cryptographically secure end-to-end payment flow with transaction immutability and information redundancy. Architected to fit within a bank’s existing infrastructure, Ripple is designed to comply with risk, privacy and compliance requirements.

Post demonetisation, digital payments in India has seen a massive surge. However, even now, these solutions are laced with archaic technology and solutions which can't accommodate the growing demand. This is where something that has blockchain technology at its heart can come to help.

In addition to NPCI, several Indian banks are also said to be involved in talks with Ripple for bringing their technology to Indian land. The main aim is to make global account–to-account transfers safer and faster than ever. What makes Ripple all the most interesting is the fact it works without being a part of a payment network.

Any institution interested in Ripple can hook into its technology and take advantage of its real-time global transfers. It is quite obvious why the technology has gained the interest of Indian banks.

Ripple is a venture-backed startup with offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Luxembourg and Sydney.

One will have to wait and watch to find out if Ripple garners the same success in India as it has been able to achieve in Asia.