Bitcoin rival Ripple COULD take over – CEO says new cryptocurrency is the FUTURE

BITCOIN competitor Ripple is a “new category” in the world of cryptocurrency and fast catching up with its rivals, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the new cryptocurrency is focused on working with banks and other institutions to “dramatically improve” the way money moves globally.

The new cryptocurrency is both a transaction network and crypto token, XRP, created as the go-to cryptocurrency for banks and global money transfers.

Ripple is speeding ahead to become the world's second-biggest cryptocurrency and it announced in January that XRP will be used on the top three money transfer sites.

CEO Brad Garlinghouse told Fox News: “Ripple has really been very proactive in working with financial institutions, working with the banks, with the payment providers.

“We are working with three out of the five largest in the world. We will publicly make those announcements with those customers when they are ready.

“Having thoughtful regulation and working with Government’s we announced we are working for the Bank of England, as an example.

“We announced things we’ve done with the US fed and their faster payments taskforce.

“We are going to keep working with the system because I think the early days of bitcoin are all about down with government and down with banks.
“Government isn’t going away. Banks aren’t going away. Let’s work with the system to dramatically improve the way and reduce the friction for how money moves globally.”

XRP took the digital currency world by storm, soaring from under $0.01 to over $1 a coin in under a year.

Leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin is not controlled by a single administrator and has faced criticism for not working with financial institutions.

JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said in October Bitcoin investors are “stupid” and will pay the price for it one day.

A financial expert, however, has said he expects bitcoin price to double by the end of 2018 with the original cryptocurrency remaining the “king of the hill”.

Tom Lee, co-founder of Funstrat Global Advisors, told CNBC: “There is a lot of concern about bitcoin being off its highs, I think it’s a really healthy consolidation.

“At the same time, I don’t think investors have fled the blockchain.

“The madcaps have almost tripled in the same time that bitcoin consolidated, so I think there is a very healthy rotation taking place.

“The use case of bitcoin hasn’t changed, it’s a store value. I think bitcoin still have bright prospects and it’s going to be at least $20,000 by the middle of this year and probably more than double by the end of the year.”

Jehan Chu, a cryptocurrency trader, predicted bitcoin could reach $50,000 by the end of 2018 as it continues to surge in price.

He said: “I really think in 2018 not only will we see $50,000 price levels for bitcoin, but I think we’re going to be seeing cryptocurrency and blockchain technology from its adolescence.”