Ripple’s XRP rallies on PNC deal

Move over, Dogecoin—XRP is now rallying, too.

Ripple’s token jumped 13 percent Wednesday when it was announced that the company’s xCurrent technology will be used by PNC Treasury Management to process international payments. Pittsburgh-based PNC is the sixth largest bank in the United States, with assets of over $380 billion as of the end of June. Reuters called the deal “a possible precursor to the use of blockchain in mainstream finance.”

Gains for XRP have been a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy crypto market. In the past three days, the token has gained roughly 37 percent, compared to nearly flat—albeit volatile—returns in bitcoin during that same time period. Thus, a large portion of this week’s XRP rally occurred before Ripple and PNC’s announcement.

However, XRP prices are 89 percent off of their all-time highs of $3.315 at the start of the year.

CEO Brad Garlinghouse took to Twitter to brag about the company’s latest partnership:

Momentum is building! https://t.co/qhZve83uek

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) September 19, 2018

One beneficiary to the deal has been the XRP Tip Bot, “a bot that allows reddit, Twitter and Discord users to send Ripple XRP to each other through reddit comments / tweets.” The site saw a six-fold gain in visitors over the past week.

XRP is controversial for some crypto enthusiasts who don’t take kindly to its “pre-mined” 100 billion tokens in existence; they argue the system isn’t really decentralized. However, the company’s CTO, David Schwartz, argues Ripple is more decentralized than Bitcoin, which has the bulk of its mining taking place in China.

Thus those who despise rules and champion crypto seem upset with Ripple for…breaking the rules? Yet Ripple appears to have Bitcoin beat in a very important part of what defines a currency: a medium of transaction, particularly with financial institutions. While Bitcoin HODLers have long touted the coin’s antiestablishment origins, they relish every acceptance of crypto by Wall Street when it occurs. Yet that acceptance has been quietly coming in the form of XRP.