Ripple (XRP), the fourth largest cryptocurrency, hits new all-time high of $1.24, according to the CoinMarketCap. The token’s price remained stable for about half a year, but the last week has brought some upward movement. The meteoric increase let XRP pass the symbolic level of $1.

The end of the year can be characterized by tremendous rise of the alternative cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin – all of these currencies have recently demonstrated exponential growth.

It looks like the cryptocurrency market has created some kind of a loop: the higher the price gets, the more people get interested into cryptocurrencies – the more people get interested in it, the more people buy it – the more people buy cryptocurrencies, the higher the price gets.

The growth of the market is absolutely incredible: total market cap recently broke $600 billion. For sure, that affected XRP. South Korean markets deserve a specific reference, as they certainly played a big role in Ripple’s success.

Bithumb is the leading market for XRP right now with the increase in volume of 25% during the last 24 hours. Just to give grounds for comparison, Bitfinex takes the second place with the increase of 10%. Anyway, it is not only market trend that explains the growth of XRP.

Ripple is a prosperous company that can boast more than 100 customers and more than 75 deploying companies. The rise of XRP has been foreseen by lots of analysts as the company started new projects with Standard Chartered, Axis Bank and American Express. The company has lots of ambitions in the remittances industry.

Dilip Rao, Managing Director APAC and MENA from Ripple, recently gave an interview on the opportunities blockchain provides to expats. He said: “I find it personally exciting to be part of an organization that is helping to facilitate instant, on-demand and low-cost remittances around the world, which can help ease the pain points migrant workers experience regularly when trying to send money home to family and friends.”

One could only agree with the Ripple’s representative statement – this technology pulls ahead its peers. Ripple makes the most of the moment of its popularity and takes time by the forelock to remind about the advantages of its technology.

The company has published some breaking statistics on its official Twitter to state that XRP is the best digital asset for payments. It takes 66 minutes and $28.23 to commit a transaction in Bitcoin, 2 minutes and $0.96 is the result of Ethereum. XRP is an indisputable leader with the speed per transaction of 3 seconds and cost of $0.0004.

XRP is now treated as an extremely attractive asset for short-term investments. Marouane Garcon, founder of private blockchain investment firm Loch Loyal, said: “When something runs like XRP is running, people want in.” Even though the year is about to end, it looks like the crypto sphere may still surprise us with some more breakthroughs.

The post ‘$1 Barrier’: Ripple Price Hits New All-Time of $1.24 appeared first on CoinSpeaker.