The cryptocurrency market is on the rise today, as Bitcoin (available on Coinbase) (BTC) increased $1,000 in price this morning. It remains unknown why this occurred as there isn’t any major news that would give investors the green light to buy. Ripple (available on Binance) (XRP), Cardano (ADA), and DASH are also seeing major gains on the market, as all but one coin within the top 100 is currently in the green.
Lately, banks have been cracking down hard on their customers purchasing cryptocurrencies with credit cards and one, in particular, has even gone as far as banning Interac E-Transfers. It remains unclear if they will all shift to ban Interac E-Transfers, but I could easily see people transferring to crypto-friendly banks like Wells Fargo if this were to occur.
Most coins continue to climb on the market and if this keeps up we should see the total market cap breaking over $300 billion, by the end of the day.
Ripple (available on Binance) (XRP)
Just yesterday, it was announced that Ripple (available on Binance), the San Francisco based blockchain-based payment network, invested $25 million USD worth of its own XRP cryptocurrency into Blockchain Capital Parallel IV LP venture fund.
Ripple (available on Binance)’s $25 million investment in @blockchaincap‘s new fund is the first and not the last contribution to ventures that further develop the #blockchain and $XRP ecosystems. https://t.co/9QHHu8tiGl
— Ripple (available on Binance) (@Ripple (available on Binance)) April 11, 2018
The fund is managed by Blockchain Capital which is the oldest VC firm that is specifically dedicated to blockchain tech. This new investment by Ripple (available on Binance) will provide funding to examine new use cases for the XRP ledger and Interledger protocol. The team also wants to assist supporting blockchain-based start-up companies and focus on the development of the Blockchain.
Co-Founder of Blockchain Capital, Bart Stephens, was quoted in the official press release saying:
“As pioneers in the blockchain sector, we have been on the frontlines and in the trenches with our portfolio companies, like Ripple (available on Binance), building a new crypto ecosystem. There are entire verticals — such as healthcare or identity management — that could benefit from blockchain or distributed ledger technology.”
Rumors are still circulating about the potential Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and XRP partnership, could this be the reason XRP has shot up so much? It might just be that because BTC is up investors feel more confident in the rest of the aLTCoins and have decided to invest more in the market.
Also, this morning Ripple (available on Binance)’s Chief Marketing Strategist, Cory Johnson, told CNBC in an interview that “we absolutely are not a security.” Johnson claims that XRP “doesn’t meet the standards of what a security is based on the history of the court law.”
At press time, XRP is trading at $0.566 a coin, up 13.80%, in 24 hours.
The founder of BKCM LLC Investment firm, Brian Kelly, told CNBC that Cardano’s breakout is near. Kelly feels that the project is Ethereum (available on Coinbase)’s top competitor and offers a greater risk-reward for investors.
Kelly said:
”As digital coins bottom out, the underlying blockchain technology offers surprising risk rewards, last year was all about froth. And the promise of Hey, this guy’s building the new Facebook; I think this year is going to be about building the Cisco’s.”
Ethereum (available on Coinbase)’s competitors are slowly creeping up, as Ethereum (available on Coinbase) developers struggle to come up with a solution for scalability. Most of these up-and-coming third generation projects have scalability down and all other features are ballparks away from what the Ethereum (available on Coinbase) ecosystem currently offers.
ADA is currently trading at $0.196 a coin, up 20.62%, in 24 hours. It is currently leading the top 20 cryptocurrencies for most percentages gains in the last 24 hours. It remains unclear if the CNBC interview pushed investors to add ADA to their portfolio. Cardano has only begun, ADA is a long hold.