Ripple's XRP hit a new all-time high above $3.8 today, increased by more than 162% in a week. With a current market cap of $142 billion, XRP supporters start believing it can overthrow Bitcoin from the throne of cryptocurrencies.
Ripple, which is being promoted as a new kind of payment system for banks, is currently the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, after a crazy rally over the last few weeks which catapulted the price way above the $3 mark.
Just two weeks ago, the price of XRP token that powers Ripple's open-source RippleNet network had surpassed the $1 mark for the first time in its history. The cryptocurrency passed $2 just last week. At press time, the token was trading at an average of $3.69 although it had reached an all-time high at $3.84 earlier.
Is Ripple Eyeing The Throne Of Bitcoin ?
Ripple’s price has increased almost 159% in the past week. This has cemented Ripple’s number two position with a market cap of $142 billion, approximately $100 billion lower than Bitcoin.
Moreover, XRP has massively increased its lead over ethereum, which used to be the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Ripple has now a $40 billion lead over ETH. This is a profound development, given the fact that Ripple passed Ethereum less than a week ago on Dec. 29, 2017.
Moreover, XRP saw a whopping 36,018% gain throughout 2017, which gave it the title of biggest gainer of the past year.
Here are the top 10 cryptocurrencies of 2017, according to coinmarketcap data:
The rise of Ripple is attributed to the recent “cryptocurrency mania” on South Korea. Almost half of Ripple trading volumes occurred in the cryptocurrency exchanges in that country, contributing to the altcoin’s sudden rise. The price rally has made Ripple community very optimistic, with some predicting it will soon overthrow Bitcoin in market cap or even reach $1,000 per token, which is apparently very wishful thinking.
Meanwhile, the first few days of 2018 are very positive for the overall cryptocurrency market, as the total market cap is now above $767 billion.
Bitcoin's market cap dominance has fallen to 31% (down from 43% a week ago) while XRP surged to 18% approaching the total share of all other altcoins (except top-10).
What do you think? Will Ripple overthrow Bitcoin from the throne?