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The Ripple price had been on a tear this week, rising 89% from August 21-23. The surge was accompanied by a dramatic increase in trading volume, primarily on South Korean exchanges. However, the Ripple price began to sink on Thursday after a much-anticipated announcement did not live up to investor expectations.
Ripple Announcement Doesn’t Live Up to Hype
Ripple’s early week rally was partially spurred on by a series of cryptic tweets posted on the official Ripple Twitter page.
On Monday, Ripple began a counting down to what appeared to be an ordinary conference announcement. However, rumors had been swirling for some time that Ripple is going to make a major move into the Asian economy, perhaps through a partnership with a major corporation or bank.
In this context, people began to read more into the tweets than was really there, anticipating that Ripple was going to make a major announcement that would confirm the thus-far unsubstantiated rumors.
The Ripple price soared.
But then the announcement came. As perhaps should have been expected, Ripple really was just making a conference announcement.
“Swell: The Future Is Here,” as the conference is titled, will take place from October 16-18 in Toronto. One of the keynote speakers will be Ben Bernanke, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, which helps explain the reference to “banking & blockchain” coming together.
Based on the comments in the Daily Ripple/XRP discussion thread on Reddit , this was not the announcement community members were hoping for.
Ripple Price Sinks 21% in 5 Hours
The Ripple price had gradually risen in the hours leading up to the announcement of Swell, but it took a steep downward turn afterward. At 14:00 UTC, the Ripple price was $0.289. Within an hour, it had dropped to $0.262, and it has continued to fall from there.
At present, the Ripple price is $0.229, a 21% decrease from its pre-announcement-level. This gives Ripple a market cap of $8.8 billion, which is about $1.4 billion less than 3rd-ranked bitcoin cash.
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