Summary
- Ripple has made major inroads in the banking sectors of India and the Middle East.
- Entry into NFT and large-scale holdings of XRP may provide strong momentum for further growth.
XRP was down by 9.1% at the time of writing, as it attempted to fight off the recent losses that have seen it trade below $1. In the past week, XRP has slid significantly, losing approximately 13% of its value. However, Ripple has made moves that may favor XRP’s price growth.
The promising venture in banking
One of Ripple’s strongest lines of business is its growing partnership with banks in facilitating faster transactions among the financial institutions. This week, the company announced that it was teaming up with Bank Dhofar to enhance mobile money transfer services across India’s borders. Bank Dhofar is Oman’s second-largest bank, benefiting not only buyers and its Indian venture but also from RippleNet’s capabilities. Specifically, the platform will enable faster and cheaper transactions across Bank Dhofar’s regional network.
In a similar move, Ripple also secured a contract to facilitate transactions between UAE’s Lulu International Exchange and Egypt’s National Bank. Ripple’s cross-border payments niche is expected to give it a strong foothold in global financial transactions in the coming months.
Ripple’s prioritization of the Middle East and Asia is seen as strategic, being in a region with a large population and home to some of the leading economies. For example, Indian diaspora workers remit about $76 billion back home annually, making India the largest remittance market. Egypt isn’t left far behind, with its $24 billion in diaspora remittance placing her among the top five remittance destinations globally. The wider Asia has two other nations in the top five, namely the Philippines and China.
NFTs and the potential rise in institutional investments
In another development, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has revealed that the company intends to go public once its case against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is concluded. XRP’s prices rose by 14% following the news, showing the level of optimism about the asset’s prospects.
Ripple has also expressed its intention to flex its muscle in the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) segment. It hopes to command the market by enabling the churning of NFTs at significantly lower fees. High gas fees have been a major hindrance to the growth of NFTs and Ripple intends to benefit from the rising popularity of NFTs by enabling transactions through the XRP ledger. The company is optimistic that the platform will benefit not only buyers but also sellers.
Data from Whale Alert, a crypto data analytics firm, shows that the number of “whale” wallets has been on a steady rise, depicting possible growth in institutional interest in the asset. The whale wallets are wallets with 10 million XRP or more. In the first three months of 2021, the number of such wallets rose to 319 from 308. Two of the notable whale wallets moved nearly $200 million worth of XRP in the last week.
In addition, according to a recent report by Ripple, medium-sized wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP tokens rose to 1,196 from 1,125 in the first quarter of 2021. This underlines the great strides made by Ripple despite the SEC lawsuit. There is, therefore, a great possibility of a significant spike in XRP prices once the case is concluded.
Technical outlook
XRP/USD can find support at $0.85. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 48, making it likely that the pair will stay on the ascending trajectory.
XRP price is likely to find the first resistance at $0.90, but with the bulls possibly staying in charge, the crypto asset should rise to find the second resistance level at $0.93. Beyond that point, it may retest the $1 mark.
