Ripple (XRP) Overtakes Ethereum As Bitcoin’s $15 billion Bloodbath Continues

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Bitcoin’s recent rout has been put down to investor nervousness ahead of a fork of the bitcoin cash cryptocurrency, itself created by a fork of bitcoin last year.

Bitcoin today fell below $5,400—setting a fresh yearly low, according to CoinDesk’s price tracker.

Ripple has somewhat outperformed the wider cryptocurrency market over the last 24 hours, dropping by around 10% compared to many other major cryptocurrencies 15%, due to its association with the established financial industry.

Earlier this week the chief executive of Ripple, which created the XRP token, Brad Garlinghouse told Bloomberg, Ripple is "solving a cross-border payments problem" and that the value of any digital asset will be "based on its ability to solve problems."

Garlinghouse was talking up his company’s technology during the Singapore Fintech Festival, boasting, "XRP is 1,000 times faster and cheaper than bitcoin."

XRP is however down some 80% from its peak as most major cryptocurrencies readjust after last year’s huge bull run. The ripple price surged to more than $3 last year, up from just $0.006 it began the year at.

Meanwhile, bitcoin and cryptocurrency investors hope that the latest sell-off, which dragged bitcoin and many other major coins, to their lowest levels seen this year, will be short lived.

"The sudden drop in the value of bitcoin will have caught many investors off guard–even though history teaches us that this is likely to be temporary, with prices rebounding again fairly quickly," said Nigel Green, chief executive of financial advisory group deVere.

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Bitcoin, ripple (XRP), and ethereum continued to fall today following yesterday’s bloodbath, with bitcoin down almost 3% on the last 12 hours, adding to the 12% rout yesterday that wiped more than $15 billion from bitcoin’s market capitalization in a matter of minutes.

Ripple, the common name for the XRP digital token, meanwhile overtook ethereum as the world’s second largest cryptocurrency—something it has done a number of times over recent months as ethereum and ripple duke it out for dominance.

Bitcoin, despite its falls, remains the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap by a considerable distance—boasting a total market value of $95.6 billion, compared to ripple and ethereum’s around $18 billion.

Bitcoin’s recent rout has been put down to investor nervousness ahead of a fork of the bitcoin cash cryptocurrency, itself created by a fork of bitcoin last year.

Bitcoin today fell below $5,400—setting a fresh yearly low, according to CoinDesk’s price tracker.

Ripple has somewhat outperformed the wider cryptocurrency market over the last 24 hours, dropping by around 10% compared to many other major cryptocurrencies 15%, due to its association with the established financial industry.

Earlier this week the chief executive of Ripple, which created the XRP token, Brad Garlinghouse told Bloomberg, Ripple is “solving a cross-border payments problem” and that the value of any digital asset will be “based on its ability to solve problems.”

Garlinghouse was talking up his company’s technology during the Singapore Fintech Festival, boasting, “XRP is 1,000 times faster and cheaper than bitcoin.”

XRP is however down some 80% from its peak as most major cryptocurrencies readjust after last year’s huge bull run. The ripple price surged to more than $3 last year, up from just $0.006 it began the year at.

Meanwhile, bitcoin and cryptocurrency investors hope that the latest sell-off, which dragged bitcoin and many other major coins, to their lowest levels seen this year, will be short lived.

“The sudden drop in the value of bitcoin will have caught many investors off guard–even though history teaches us that this is likely to be temporary, with prices rebounding again fairly quickly,” said Nigel Green, chief executive of financial advisory group deVere.