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Weekend Ripple Developments

Hey! We drafted this on Sunday morning, then went about our business, then…well there was even MORE growth in the Ripple price. See below for our take on what this means, and check out Coinmarketcap.com for the latest price news.

While you may have been otherwise occupied this weekend, the altcoin markets were hard at work driving the price of Ripple (XRP) to heights that they haven’t seen in quite some time. First, some tweets to summarize the weekend Ripple developments.

But wait, there’s more…

(Thanks to Smith and Crown for the chart.)

Now there are 3

Only three cryptocurrencies now own a market cap of $1B (USD) or higher: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple.

Why now – especially when Ripple not once but TWICE had a market cap of more than $1B?

(See below chart from CoinMarketCap.com.)

We’ll make a couple bets as to why that happened now, and what that means for your wallet.

Number 1: It’s becoming the back office that makes transactions possible. A good chunk of the Ripple community sees this as a missed opportunity for Ripple.

Number 2: The big banks are getting involved – and the news is somewhat buried. See this writeup from Cryptocoinsnews.com about MUFG (they’re huge) getting on board.

Next step? Who knows…

We’re pretty certain that what Ripple has earned over the past few days could be summed up in one word: legitimacy.

Since the beginning of time, money has needed to have perceived value in order to be legitimate. You could trade rocks for food back in the middle ages, but, at some point, the provider of food is going to want to see a rock that looks like it has some value. Shiny rock, or well-polished rock, or rock that sparkles like diamond or is made of something like silver or gold.

The fact that Ripple has (1) crossed into the 10-digit territory and (2) is being used by big banks adds a shiny, well-polished sparkle to its value proposition. And that means good things.

5 Things to Watch During the Tournament

To celebrate the launch of this site, we’ve decided to combine Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, altcoins, and the whole blockchain thing with something we know you love, too: basketball.

You’ll be multi-tasking and so will we. So here are 5 things to watch during the tournament.

Bitcoin

1. When will people stop talking about the Bitcoin ETF?

Here’s an answer to that question: not for a long time. Especially when you have the Twin Towers, er Winkelvoss brothers, front-and-center in the question about the ETF.

For a primer on the ETF we’re talking about, and what happened with the SEC, here’s a great piece from the New York Times.

Our gut tells us that discussion won’t stop until there actually is an ETF.

Maybe a better question: what shape or form will an eventual Bitcoin ETF take? For instance, will it just be Bitcoin, or will in include some of the other cryptocurrencies – especially ones with the support of the banking community, like Ethereum?

2. What’s going on – really – with Dash?

We took a screenshot on the morning of March 15; this is while watching everyone on the Poloniex “trollbox” tell us to “beware the ides of March.” Dash was thisclose to hitting $100 (USD) when we took the screener, and it ended up surpassing that level, getting into the fever territory of 101 or so, and staying right around the double/triple-digit line most of the a.m.

Dash 100 a coin
Dash was fire.

Was it more of a psychological barrier, that $100-per-coin level, than anything? (This would make sense – think about how the bulk of trades are placed on the various platforms, and realize that the US Dollar is often not in the equation at all.) Can the volume continue apace, or is it more likely to fall back lower in the top five?

And what about the fundamentals? Are there really any fundamentals for a coin that, a few months ago, could be had for roughly one-EIGHTH of its current price?

Also of note: each time Poloniex chatter said “short squeeze coming” or “watch out for the bear trap,” up the price seemed to go.

3. Speaking of Dash…when will it, or any other altcoins, get added to Coinbase?

If you go by the “buy the rumor, sell the news” theory, then maybe that’s why a lot of folks bought Dash and ran the price up. Of course, you could ask that about a whole host of other coins, too: why do we hear rumors that Coinbase will add more but, as of this writing, they’re still stuck on just two. (Bitcoin and Ethereum. And hey, here’s a great time to say “join Coinbase, buy some Bitcoin using this link, and maybe we both get a benefit?”) (THAT’S AN AFFILIATE LINK. Just so we’re painfully obvious.)

Coinbase is great in that it’s a wallet and integrates with your traditional bank accounts. But it’s still limited. So we’re waiting for more.

4. About that Ethereum you mentioned…

That doesn’t sound like a question, more like a comment. Did you mean to ask about the fact that it crossed over a threshold of its own, the $2B (US) market cap one? (CNBC talks about it on their site.)

Or are you asking why it’s not getting the love in this article – because, after all, it TOO rose to new heights today?

These are good questions – thanks for asking – and yeah, it does seem like Ethereum is on a roll, and it is ignored a little bit. Really, it shouldn’t be: when you talk about market cap, it still exceeds that of Dash by a 4-to-1 margin. So you might want to watch its price while you’re chowing on wings.

5. What sleeper altcoins should I be looking at?

Right, because during the tournament, everyone wants that sleeper pick – but not everyone wants the same sleeper pick, because then everyone bets on it and it doesn’t become a sleeper.

We’ll let you do your own research, but here are a couple places to look:

First of all, in addition to Coindesk, we recommend Coin Telegraph for news on Bitcoin, altcoins, and the world of the blockchain.

Or, if you want to get in really early on ICOs – “Initial Coin Offerings” – visit the Smith and Crown site and do some further investigating.

If you liked this, stay tuned for more content. Or if you’re feeling really crazy, send us some Bitcoin. Our address follows:

1G8Ayc15sqoyGzN4DFUeheRkgFeS9t6oSW