A key member of the crypto community says she does not believe Bitcoin has bottomed out in value yet.
Ann-Kristin Iversen is a real estate investor and developer and also聽an investor in Ripple鈥檚 XRP. She聽believes that currency鈥檚 real-world use-cases allow it to better withstand the volatility of changing market speculation.
The value of a Bitcoin has gone from $9,500 to $3,700 in 12 months and peaked at almost $20,000 in January.
The battle over the future of Bitcoin Cash, which split off from BTC聽last year, has hit the market hard in recent weeks:聽the fourth-largest cryptocurrency effectively forked into two different currencies when two software development teams failed to agree on the most appropriate way to update its code.
鈥淚 think Bitcoin is in trouble 鈥� and I don鈥檛 think we have seen the bottom yet,鈥� Iversen said. 鈥淪eeing how the egos of a few men can practically tank the market is frightening!
鈥淚n my opinion, BTC鈥檚 claim to complete decentralisation is a myth鈥� and the [environmental] cost of its POW (proof of work) on the environment and the large mining pools located in China is troublesome.鈥�
In contrast, XRP was worth 24 cents a year ago and was as high as 52 cents this month 鈥� a doubling in value in 12 months 鈥� although it has fallen back to 35 cents at the time of writing.
It reached a peak of almost three and a half dollars in early January before settling back as the crypto bubble deflated.
鈥淴RP is faster and cheaper than other mainstream cryptos 鈥� and it has real-world use-cases. As the current market is showing us, pure speculation is not enough,鈥� Iversen said.
鈥淥ne of the key elements of Ripple鈥檚 success is the fact that they are focused on one main use-case: cross-border payments for financial institutions and banks. That has allowed them to build a product that is a vast improvement on the current system.
鈥淲here other cryptos are shunning banks, these are the customer base for Ripple. RippleNet is now connecting major banks around the world and they are signing up new partners every week.
鈥淲hen it comes to crypto, adoption is what gives value. It will take time 鈥� but due to great timing, they are already way ahead of the others.鈥�
XRP has now officially held its ranking as the world鈥檚 second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization for the longest period since 2016.
鈥� CoinDesk (@coindesk)
Iversen says another area which Ripple鈥檚 tech is a facilitator is micropayments, where people can send very small payments without incurring costly fees, which 鈥渙pens up new markets in other parts of the world鈥�.
She cites examples within the XRP community including the XRPtipbot, created by Wietse Wind; Wandering Ware鈥檚 XRP tree project to make the XRP validator network CO2 neutral; King Blue XRP鈥檚 charity for cancer-fighting children鈥檚 hospital St. Jude and Zerpzilla鈥檚 #NoKidLeftCold campaign.
鈥淚 believe 90 per cent of the cryptos we see today will be gone in a few years, simply because they lack real-world use-cases,鈥� Iversen added.
I wholeheartedly believe that if any crypto can succeed long-term (and with a use case!), it will be .
If XRP can鈥檛 do it, with a BRILLIANT and well-funded company championing it along the way, then no other crypto has a shot either.
鈥� Tiffany Hayden (@haydentiff)
Iversen acknowledges that no one knows for sure where the crypto market is headed.
She believes XRP is an 鈥渆xcellent long-term investment鈥� while taking care to point out that this is not outright financial advice.
鈥淏TC has experienced five major corrections to date, and the recent bear market of 2018 is by no means the largest correction,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o it might bounce back to its former glory and beyond.
鈥淥ne thing I have learnt is that crypto is unpredictable and not to speculate on price. There are too many unknown factors.
鈥淲e can always hope, but I honestly don鈥檛 think anyone knows.鈥�
– While you are living, working & sleeping have peace in the fact that 24/7 there is an amazing company working with hundreds of financial institutions to drive the adoption of . How the other crypto investors stay positive, I do not know…
鈥� Mr. B XRP ?? (@XrpMr)