Cryptocurrency ripple crashes 30% in 24 hours; bitcoin also dropping

Ripple crashed more than 30 percent on Monday. It traded at $2.18, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

The digital currency also lost its spot as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. After the crash, it ranked third.

Other cryptocurrencies also fell on Monday but not the extent of ripple. Bitcoin was off by 15 percent, while ethereum fell 8 percent according to Coinbase. Bitcoin futures also fell 14 percent at the Cboe, trading at $14,400 as of 10: 18 a.m. New York time.

Ripple left counterparts like bitcoin, the largest digital currency by market cap, in the dust last year. In 2017, ripple soared 35,000 percent, while bitcoin rose 1,500 percent.

But contrary to many digital currencies, ripple has been working with large institutions, giving it an aura of legitimacy and practicality. However, cryptocurrency enthusiasts say that centralization is the exact opposite of what the technology of the digital currencies should be about.

"The reason ripple is surging so much is it's a bubble," said Erik Voorhees, CEO of digital asset exchange ShapeShift and a vocal advocate for bitcoin as a way to separate money and the state. "Testing crypto with banks doesn't make sense. The whole idea of crypto is you don't need banks."

Ripple is officially the name of a five-year-old start-up based in San Francisco that is developing a payments network for financial institutions. XRP is the name of the coin participants can use for transactions.

Source - https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/08/cryptocurrency-ripple-crashes-30-percent-in-24-hours-bitcoin-also-dropping.html
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