April’s action on crypto markets has been great for some and not so impressive for others. Bitcoin, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash have made good progress but Ripple’s XRP has largely been left out as it has lulled around the same level for weeks. Today XRP finally woke up and started moving upwards.
The move started yesterday when XRP jumped from $0.322 to $0.334 and continued to march upwards to reach a daily high of $0.344 about an hour ago. The 6.8 percent gain has pushed market capitalization back over $14 billion for the first time in a week. Daily volume is also back up over a billion as XRP closes the gap on Ethereum in second spot.
That market cap gap is now just below $4 billion as Ethereum has made around 3 percent on the day to reach $172. XRP holders have had little to celebrate recently as it only managed a high of $0.37 while Bitcoin and Ethereum surged 30 percent, Litecoin 60 percent, and Bitcoin Cash almost doubled. XRP was one of the worst performing altcoins in March and hasn’t really done that much this year in comparison to its brethren.
From a technical standpoint XRP is approaching the end of a large pennant formation so a breakout could be on the cards;
Other analysts looking at a more short term picture have targeted $0.48 as the top end of any sustained rally with the first level of resistance at $0.38, just above its high in the recent run;
Fundamentally there have been a number of developments that should have been positive for Ripple and it’s token. Coinbase, which now supports XRP, has recently announced expansion into eleven more countries which include Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile, India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Zealand.
Reports are also emerging that American Express will be using Ripple’s xCurrent platform to facilitate cross border payments. Although this does not directly have any effect on XRP, it does all come under the same corporate umbrella, what is good for Ripple is good for its token. These reports have been floating around for some time though.
The firm has also expanded its xRapid platform into Mexico and the Philippines this week. Bitso in Mexico and Coins.ph in the Philippines have enabled xRapid transactions between the two countries as RippleNet continues to grow.
Weiss has also suggested that XRP may be integrated into Skype via the Tipbot that already runs on Gmail, Reddit and Twitter;
It is all good gravy for XRP at the moment which has finally started to move upwards again.
