Ripple and its native cryptocurrency XRP have had a rollercoaster year with the bearish dips at the beginning of the year followed by a resurgence in the second quarter. Despite the ups and downs, XRP seems to have made a real impact on the industry according to Ripple SVP of product Asheesh Birla.
Birla, who is quite popular on Twitter, recently posted a thread where he touched on how the third-largest cryptocurrency had displayed strength and resolve over the course of the past few months. The Ripple official also touched on the benefits of the On-Demand Liquidity [ODL] system along with the vision for XRP’s future.
In his series of tweets, Birla claimed that XRP was the major bridge currency that was used on the ODL system. A deeper analysis showed XRP’s actual influence on the ODL market: a fifth of all currency transactions on it were XRP based. This was evidence that the cryptocurrency was still holding onto its utility factor despite the fall in price.
It’s been a wild few weeks in crypto! OCC has greenlighted banks to get involved, #Bitcoin hits $12,000, DeFi is booming, futures products are soaring, and adjusted txn value for stablecoins hit an all-time high. And this is just a fraction of the news… (1/7) pic.twitter.com/XCGr9DaEVg
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) August 17, 2020
The Ripple SVP touched on how the past few weeks also saw several developments in the cryptocurrency industry. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had recently allowed banks to play a part in the crypto world while Bitcoin enjoyed a massive bull run that saw it break the $12,000 resistance. One of Birla’s tweets read:
“What’s one common denominator here? Likely global uncertainty with fiat currencies, and many in the crypto industry focusing on utility, beyond just speculation. Examples like Dodgecoin aside, there’s a new, growing focus on an asset’s use case, its tangibility. We’re seeing a melding of the old world and new. It’s only a matter of time before banks offer custody services, acquire companies with those capabilities, and potentially even offer crypto lending as they see consumer interest in DeFi.”
Asheesh Birla’s predictions may come true sooner than expected as a lot of banks are already toying with the idea of cryptocurrency lending. This may even enable the industry to achieve mainstream status as the link with a traditional bank is seen as a good step towards acceptance. The Ripple SVP was also confident that stablecoins will have a massive impact in the virtual asset space as already shown by Tether. One of Tether’s biggest success was giving people the option to access USD without a bank account and only by holding USDT.cl