Should You Buy Ripple (XRP) While It’s Below $0.60?

Cryptocurrency XRP, more commonly known as Ripple (XRP -0.24%)recently scored a big courtroom victory. That legal albatross no longer hangs over Ripple’s shoulder, freeing up the underlying Ripple Labs to run their businesses and seek partnerships, even on US soil.

But the cryptocurrency didn’t skyrocket on the news. That is, Ripple saw a 26% immediate price gain, but that only offset a drop earlier that week. Other than that blip, its price chart is basically a carbon copy of the Bitcoinhis (CRYPTO: BTC) during the last month.

The functional currency of the RippleNet international payment system once peaked at $3.84 per coin, but now remains just below the $0.60 mark. Where will Ripple go from here – and is it a good cryptocurrency to own at these modest prices?

Factors that determine the value of cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies gain value in a few different ways.

• Some rise or fall based on media hype, memes going viral on social media platforms, and other forms of pure speculation. Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) is the best example of this, alongside meme coins such as Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) or Dogwife (CRYPTO: WIF).
• Others were built on a robust technology platform designed to create value over time due to limited supply and growing demand. Bitcoin is the flagship of this idea, with a coded life limit of 21 million coins. So far, 19.7 million of them have already been created, leaving room for only 6% inflation — ever. Any increase in user demand may increase its price under these circumstances.
• And then we have coins that have uses other than simply storing monetary value in a secure digital ledger. With functions such as smart contracts, financial management tools or ownership records for real-world assets, these cryptocurrencies are meant to provide new tools, products and services. Widespread use of the resulting stuff will then increase the value of the underlying cryptocurrency.

Some coins fall within the boundaries between these categories, of course. Shiba Inu is both an innovative experiment in decentralized projects and a silly meme coin. Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) combines high-speed execution of smart contracts with a lifetime supply cap of 45 million coins.

And then there is Ripple. There will never be more than 100 billion XRP coins in the market, and they were all created before Ripple Labs made the coin available to the public. About 44% of this supply is held in an escrow account. Ripple Labs can control its price to some extent by holding or distributing coins from this account.

But for the most part, Ripple Labs runs a successful payment service that offers low-fee, hassle-free cross-border money transfers. The Ripple coin should gain value as people around the world lean towards this elegant solution to the real problem of slow and expensive international money transfers.

The growing success of RippleNet

RippleNet is already a successful business.

The crypto-based network has partnered with local banks in dozens of countries and is not a list of mom-and-pop outfits. The list of partners includes the Spanish giant Banco Santander (NYSE: SAN)British megabank Standard Chartered (OTC: SCBF.F)and some of the largest US banks. I’m talking about Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM)both have partnered with Ripple in the past and may do so again.

Local banks help Ripple convert cash to crypto on one side of every RippleNet transaction, then back to another fiat currency on the other side. It also provides liquid assets to support the payment system, which also adds stability to its financial platform.

RippleNet transaction volume increases in 2024 alongside a growing network of ledger management systems. At the same time, 80% of Japanese banks are adopting a Ripple-based system for overseas money transfers.

In short, Ripple Labs runs a thriving financial service with a bright future. The price of Ripple coins should benefit from this expanded activity.

Ripple’s future growth prospects

I can’t promise skyrocketing returns in 2024 or 2025; Ripple has had negative returns over the past 52 weeks, while Bitcoin’s price has doubled. And that’s during a highly publicized period of courtroom success that should have boosted that chart. There’s just no telling what Ripple — or any cryptocurrency, really — will do in the short term.

But it should almost certainly increase over the long term. The legal tussle is over, worth $125 million slap on the wrist of the RippleNet billionaire. The payment system is thriving. I’m told Ripple Labs may even go public eventually.

So yes, I’m pretty sure Ripple prices below $0.60 will be remembered as a money making opportunity. It is one of my favorite cryptocurrencies and I highly recommend picking up some cheap digital coins.