Ripple’s Milestone: RippleNet Has Now Over 200 Customers

TL; DR

• Ripple Net signs over 200 financial institutions who are leveraging the platform to make cheaper, faster and more transparent cross board payments.
• Ripple saw a 350 percent increase last year in customers sending live payments, proving that XRP may finally be achieving utility despite its public reputation as a centralized currency and possibly a security.

Ripple seems to be starting 2019 off on a good note, with over 200 customers now signed on to the RippleNet payment network. The company announced the 13 new financial institutions that would be joining RippleNet: Euro Exim Bank, SendFriend, JNFX, FTCS, Ahli Bank of Kuwait, Transpaygo, BFC Bahrain, ConnectPay, GMT, WorldCom Finance, Olympia Trust Company, Pontual/USEND, and Rendimento.

Leverage RippleNet for Liquidity

JNFX, SendFriend, Transpaygo, FTCS, and Euro Exim Bank are specifically using Ripple’s digital currency XRP as a source of liquidity for payment transfers made by customers.  With XRP being sent through the RippleNet payment network, financial institutions no longer have to deal with the hassle of pre-funding accounts in the currency of the recipients’ location. The result is a faster, low-cost payment system that can act as a better alternative to traditional banks.

Other institutions, such as CIMB or Olympia Trust Company are leveraging Ripples API and technology to provide faster payments, cheaper and less costly payments.

Achieving Utility as a currency

Despite the 2018 bear market, Ripple saw a 350 percent increase last year in customers sending live payments, showing that the cryptocurrency may finally be achieving the utility it needs to reach mainstream adoption. XRP has continued to be the topic of controversy due to its ongoing lawsuit from an investor who claims it should be a registered security, as well as many in the crypto space claiming it is overly centralized and lacks proper utility.

Despite these issues, Ripple seems to be progressing in its quest to revamp the banking system by creating a shared ledger for financial institutions to make cheaper faster and more transparent cross border payments.

It will be interesting to see whether the increase in adoption of RippleNet will affect the price of XRP in 2019.  Ethereum recently knocked XRP back to 3rd place on the Coinmarketcap list. However, the year is just starting, and there is still plenty of time left for both cryptocurrencies to prove their utility over the coming months.

For more info: Ripple’s last price analysis.