InvestorPlace – Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
It’s been greater than three months since I final wrote about Ripple (CCC:XRP-USD) in July. On the time, I puzzled how lengthy it will take the cryptocurrency to hit $3.50, a value prediction made by FXStreet based mostly on the belief it held a key help stage.
Supply: Shutterstock
Effectively, there was one thing to the prediction. Since my article, the worth of XRP-USD has appreciated by 93% and trades for greater than $1. So momentum is certainly on the coin’s aspect heading into 2022.
Nonetheless, the Oct. 6 announcement by MoneyGram Worldwide (NASDAQ:MGI) that it’s partnering with the Stellar Growth Basis, the folks behind Stellar Lumens (CCC:XLM-USD) and the Stellar blockchain community, in addition to Circle, the group behind the USD Coin (CCC:USDC-USD), suggests traders should be not less than a bit of involved concerning the change of allegiances.
Right here’s why.
Ripple Has Come a Lengthy Method
In 2021, in accordance with Coindesk.com, XRP-USD is up 392% by way of Oct. 19. By comparability, Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) has appreciated by simply 119%. After all, I say simply in jest. I’m certain long-time holders of the coin are very proud of their returns year-to-date.
As for XLM-USD, it’s up 192% in 2021, but it surely doesn’t fairly match Ripple’s 12 months with lower than three months to go. Nonetheless, there’s no query Ripple’s come a great distance.
Value predictions are a mug’s recreation at the perfect of occasions, particularly when coping with cryptocurrencies. They’re extremely risky monetary devices. Anybody who says they will predict the near-term route of Ripple or Stellar Lumens or any of the others has an inflated opinion of themselves.
However, as is the norm on this enterprise, readers like to examine value predictions. However, sadly, they are often automobile wrecks. My July article is a superb instance of how one can get issues incorrect.
“In case you’re a speculative investor, I might argue that Ripple’s odds of falling by one other 36% are significantly increased than its odds of rising 75% to $1. I might maintain off on shopping for XRP for a couple of weeks till it and different cryptos regain their footing,” I concluded in my July 21 article.
“As for attending to $3.50, I don’t assume that’s within the playing cards for Ripple in 2021.”
Effectively, not less than I used to be one for 2 on the prediction entrance.
As we head into 2022, I ponder if the MoneyGram announcement foreshadows unhealthy occasions forward for holders of XRP-USD, or am I making a mountain out of a molehill?
It’s a Little of Each
The collaboration between MoneyGram, Stellar and Circle will allow fast and cheap cross-border remittance between U.S. dollars and USDC-USD stablecoins to tens of millions worldwide. That’s a victory for all concerned.
Ripple was MoneyGram’s accomplice for processing cross-border funds utilizing digital property from 2019 till March 2021. It even purchased a 30% curiosity in MGI as a part of its partnership. Nonetheless, as soon as Ripple received embroiled in its battle with the SEC over promoting unregistered securities, the association probably turned too difficult to take care of.
Bloomberg reported on MoneyGram’s new partnership:
“The deal will give Stellar pockets holders entry to bodily places to transform USD Cash to money and vice versa, Stellar Growth’s Chief Govt Officer Denelle Dixon stated in an interview. Meaning it successfully brings the blockchain into the non-digital world. “That is big for the Stellar community, and the wallets which can be a part of the Stellar community,” Bloomberg reported Dixon said in her interview with the writer.
As was the case with Ripple, there may be hypothesis that Stellar Growth could possibly be concerned about taking on MoneyGram, which has a present market capitalization of $642 million.
The Backside Line for Ripple
The absence of Ripple’s partnership with MoneyGram has lengthy since been forgotten. As an alternative, the extra important subject is the continued battle with the SEC. Till that’s resolved and forged apart, there’s no assure that XRP-USD received’t get a kick within the posterior by the securities regulator.
It appears one factor that may maintain XLM-USD out of the regulatory penalty field is the non-profit nature of the Stellar Growth Basis, whereas Ripple Labs is a for-profit group.
It’d end up that the change is nothing greater than a enterprise choice by MoneyGram. After all, that received’t save Ripple ought to it lose its case with the SEC, however not less than it shouldn’t put an added burden on XRP-USD sooner or later.
On the date of publication, Will Ashworth didn’t have (both straight or not directly) any positions within the securities talked about on this article. The opinions expressed on this article are these of the author, topic to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Will Ashworth has written about investments full-time since 2008. Publications the place he’s appeared embody InvestorPlace, The Motley Idiot Canada, Investopedia, Kiplinger, and several other others in each the U.S. and Canada. He notably enjoys creating mannequin portfolios that stand the check of time. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The put up Ripple Watches as Former Partner Switches Allegiances appeared first on InvestorPlace.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the writer and don’t essentially mirror these of Nasdaq, Inc.
