In recent days, the price of XRP, the Ripple cryptocurrency, has slightly increased, probably due to some positive news that circulated last week. 

The trend of XRP and the latest crypto news on Ripple

Currently the price of XRP is about $0.51.

This is a price level in line with that of October 2023, before the recent bull run started.

However, it is also the price level it had in June of last year, and it turns out to be lower than that of the beginning of 2021. 

Actually, it is even in line with that of October 2018, so much so that it could even be stated that the price of XRP has been moving sideways around the half dollar for almost six years now, although during this period it has not been at all still. 

In 2017, before the great bull run that brought it to its historical highs of $3.8 in January 2018, its price was just under $0.3, so the current price is only 70% higher than it was seven years ago. 

When the first major speculative bubble burst in 2018, the price of XRP first dropped to 0.5$, and then fell below 0.3$. The worst, however, came in the following years, with a decline to 0.15$ in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. 

In the rest of 2020, it managed to approach 0.3$ again, before jumping up to almost 0.7$ by the end of the year. However, at that point the SEC started the lawsuit against Ripple and XRP, and during the great bull run of 2021 the price failed to exceed 2$. 

With the burst of the second bubble in 2022, the price of XRP returned to around $0.3, and since then it has continued to fluctuate between $0.3 and $0.7 with a very brief exception in July 2023 thanks to the favorable ruling in the lawsuit against the SEC. 

Current trend

During 2024 it first dropped from $0.63 to $0.5, then rose to $0.71 but only to fall back to $0.48 in April. In the last month it has fluctuated within a very narrow range, between $0.48 and $0.56.

Starting from May 7th, it had begun a descent that brought it down to $0.49 last week, before rebounding slightly and bringing it back above $0.52 last Friday. 

Yesterday, however, it slightly dropped to 0.50$, before rising back up to 0.51$ today. 

Practically in the last twelve days it has fluctuated between $0.49 and $0.52. 

So even though last week saw a small rebound, it is simply normal movements within the sideways range that has been going on for two months now. 

Furthermore, even extending the analysis a little further back in time, it has been since July of last year that it has not been well above $0.7. However, at least it has been more than a year since it has not fallen below $0.48. 

The crypto news on Ripple (XRP)

Given that it has been twelve months since nothing really interesting has happened to the price of XRP, neither positively nor negatively, recent news has only been able to move it within the sideways trading range. 

Surely last week the good news about inflation in the USA also had positive consequences on the price of XRP. However, they were not able to unlock the crypto market, now relatively flat for some weeks.

One interesting thing has happened. 

Indeed, according to Santiment data, XRP whales (wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP) have increased the total number of XRP held by a whopping 110 million, thus increasing their wealth in this cryptocurrency by about 55 million dollars in just the last two weeks. 

This suggests a period of accumulation. 

Furthermore, on-chain transactions have increased by 108% in the first quarter of 2024, with a total of 251.39 million transactions in three months on the XRP Ledger. 

This is a number not much lower than that of the Ethereum blockchain, which however does not include transactions on layer-2.

What is surprising, however, is the cost of transactions, because on the XRP Ledger the average cost in the first quarter was only $0.000856 per transaction, while on Ethereum it is more than a thousand times higher. 

Quantum computing

In addition, yesterday Ripple published an article regarding the potential issues that cryptocurrencies could face due to quantum computers. 

The article concerns the insights of Professor Massimiliano Sala, a mathematics professor at the University of Trento in Italy, regarding the impact of quantum computing on blockchain. 

According to Sala, quantum computers could easily solve fundamental problems for digital signatures, potentially undermining the mechanisms that protect users’ resources on blockchain platforms. 

However, Sala also highlighted the progress made by the cryptographic community towards the development of “post-quantum” cryptographic schemes designed to resist potential attacks carried out using quantum computers. 

It is therefore a real problem, although not current, and well known, for which some possible solutions are already known. 

However, Sala advises crypto organizations to start transitioning to quantum-resistant technologies now, because although such threats are not imminent, they would be significant enough to justify proactive measures. 

In this regard, Ripple is organizing a national XRPL Hackathon involving over 20 universities and 60 developers from November 21st to 23rd, 2024 in Rome.