Ripple Market Cap Surpasses $100 Billion as XRP Hedge Fund Goes Live
The ripple price rose 15 percent on Wednesday, enabling XRP to become the second cryptocurrency to achieve a $100 billion market cap.
Ripple Price Surge Raises XRP Market Cap to $100 Billion
The ripple price defied expectations throughout 2017, rising nearly 30,000 percent to post the most significant rally of any top-tier cryptocurrency. Investors appear determined to carry that rally forward into 2018.
On Wednesday, the ripple price rose to a new all-time high of $2.57 on cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex, while the global average briefly cracked $2.80 due to prices exceeding $3 on Bithumb and other South Korean exchanges, which account for nearly 50 percent of all XRP trading volume. At present, the global average ripple price is $2.74, which translates into a $106 billion market cap and represents a single-day gain of 15 percent.
XRP Price Chart
XRP Hedge Fund Goes Live
Today’s movement appears linked to the revelation that Arrington XRP Capital, a $100 million cryptoasset hedge fund launched by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, is now live.
https://twitter.com/arrington/status/948413597268373505
Though not the first cryptoasset hedge fund nor the largest, the fund is the first to be denominated in XRP, and Arrington has stated that investors will buy shares of the fund and receive distributions in XRP. The firm will also, insofar as is possible, “eat [its] own dog food” by paying out fees and salaries in XRP form as well.
Ripple Co-Founder Chris Larsen Among the World’s Wealthiest
Ripple’s surge has been nothing short of meteoric — its price has increased nearly 1,000 percent in the past month — and it has made top Ripple executives fabulously wealthy.
Ripple co-founder and former CEO Chris Larsen holds 5.19 billion XRP as well as a 17 percent stake in the company, according to a recent Forbes report . Given that Ripple is currently holding 55 billion XRP in escrow, Larsen is now worth at least $39.8 billion — and that’s not accounting for the value of the company itself apart from its XRP holdings.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and the Forbes Rich List , this makes Larsen the 21st-wealthiest person in the world and the 11th-wealthiest in the US.
Write to Josiah Wilmoth at josiah.wilmoth(at)CCN.com.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
