Investing.com – Ripple (XRP) raced to record highs on Wednesday as the cryptocurrency eyed an historic move above $3 amid speculation Coinbase is planning to add Ripple to its platform.
Ripple XRP rose 30.81% to $2.85 following speculation that cryptocurrency exchange coinbase is working on a plan to launch support for Ripple.
Ripple simplifies the way financial institutions like banks process their customers’ payments around the world through its platform RippleNet. As many as 100 banks are believed to be on the platform, reinforcing investor beliefs that the platform represents significant value to its stakeholders.
The native currency of Ripple is XRP aka Ripple – and there’s a finite amount of XRP in existence.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, pared gains despite reports that Founders Fund, run by Peter Thiel, has invested a massive stake in bitcoin of at least $15 million.
On the Bitfinex exchange, bitcoin fell to $14,811, down $269, or 1.82%, after hitting an all-time high of $19,891 in December.
Sentiment on the popular digital currency has soured recently as investors appear to have turned attention to other alternatives. Bitcoin’s market cap was roughly $252.11 billion, about 36% of the total value of all cryptocurrencies, well below its market share of 70% at the start of the 2017.
Bitcoin cash fell 2.97% to $2532.8, after surging above $4000 to a record high of $4,100 in December. Bitcoin Cash was created in August following a split in Bitcoin’s blockchain – the digital ledger which records every bitcoin transaction – in an event know as a ‘hard fork’.
Litecoin, meanwhile, fell 3.63%to $244.09. Ethereum, the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap, rose 7.72% to $921.90, a new all-high of 929.99 was set earlier in the session.