XRP, a cryptocurrency of California-based start-up Ripple, surpassed Ethereum to become the world’s second-most valuable digital coin by market capitalization, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.
Ripple's tie-up with over 90 banks in Japan and South Korea reflects on its growth.
The cryptocurrency’s market cap came in at $59 billion, exceeding the market value of such tech giants as Uber and Didi Chuxing.
For a long time, the cryptocurrency was trading slightly above $0.20. Its biggest criticism was the large circulating supply and a limited practical use, despite all obvious advantages developed by Ripple for the banking industry.
Lately, things started to change, resulting in a rising price of the cryptocurrency.
Ripple decided to close 55 billion tokens on the escrow account, thus boosting investor confidence in the asset.
Ripple is based around a shared, public database, that uses the consensus process of gateways and ‘trustlines’ that allows for payments, exchanges and remittance in a distributed process.
In May 2017, the company announced its plans to restrict the supply of tokens, driving up interest in the second quarter, according to Miguel Vias, Ripple's head of XRP markets.
Representatives of the company said that the move is capable of ensuring monetary stability in the Ripple ecosystem and giving investors confidence that the market will not be flooded with an excessive supply of XRP tokens.
