Most cryptocurrencies prefer to stay away from currencies that associate major financial institutions, as they believe this undermines the whole point of the cryptocurrency movement. However, it’s probably a good bet from an investment point of view. Ripple is unashamedly mainstream, pro-financial institutions and happily centralised.
It looks increasingly likely that cryptocurrencies are only going to find acceptance in the mainstream from apps and services and even more likely Ripple will be at the heart. In many cases, the users may not be aware that cryptocurrencies or the blockchain are involved in the transaction at all.
We discuss 2 strong rumours that will de-risk and cement Ripple as a solid investment for the future.
$500 Chinese tech firm is poised to invest in Ripple
Tencent, the Chinese tech giant that held and holds stakes in household name companies such Snapchat, Tesla, Spotify and owns popular message app Wechat is ready to invest in Ripple technology.
We have already covered the amount of banks Ripple have signed but more is in the pipeline. Europe and US, has been the epicentre of where Ripple has used interviews and fintech conferences to organically market its capabilities. However, in addition, news from Hong Kong, according to multiple sources that attended the meeting, claims senior management of Tencent and its board of directors approved an offer for Ripple technologies.
At the moment the price of Ripple (XRP) is $0.65. The exact rumor is the possibility that Tencent can invest money on Ripple (XRP), buying a huge stake and get the exclusivity across Asia.
Tencent will offer 2 billion dollars that will convert to XRP in the next 12 months. The first billion in early days of July. The initial plan of Tencent is to integrate Ripple technologies on its Wechat and compete against Alibaba and Amazon on mobile payments. Moreover, xVia, Ripple’s product for payments, now limited to corporates, payment providers and banks is the tool that Tencent would use on its products opening the technology for the mass market.
In January, Tencent Holdings Ltd. sold $5 billion bonds, the company’s biggest U.S. dollar offering and the first time it’s issued debt since 2015. Tencent is ready to present the offer in the next coming weeks.
Amazon and Ripple partnership
There is nothing more significant to spike a boom of 10-20% in the cryptocurrency market than a rumor. The previous one about Coinbase listing is always around mainly because its inevitable but one perfectly fitted to Ripple’s technology is with Amazon to complement its millions of online payments.
It’s circulating that the online retail giant is considering a partnership with Ripple. Ripple has been a somewhat of an outsider in the market due to a belief among some investors that it is the currency favoured by banks and other financial institutions. An Amazon partnership would expose the currency to hundreds of millions of customers and would almost certainly increase demand for XRP subject to them using the tokens.
Amazon may be considering accepting Ripple as a means of payment due to its low transaction fees and the high inventory of coins. It can process 1500 transactions a second and make it practically free. Moreover, Ripple transaction fees are charged at a fixed rate which is good for a large corporate to not only have low/zero cost but predict the cost. Simply put – if the value of Ripple increases, the dollar cost of the transaction falls. If Ripple were to experience the kind of growth that would occur after an Amazon partnership is announced, then the transaction fees would become as good as zero value and be extremely attractive a no-brainer for Amazon.
Understandably, no official reports from Amazon itself or Ripple at this stage have been released. Instead, it looks like a number of analysts have concluded that a move like this would make sense for Amazon. Analyst reports like this are common and handy for Ripple’s business development team, if they hadn’t thought of it already… Whilst Amazon has registered a few cryptocurrency related domain names, there are few signs that the company is developing the type of infrastructure that a move like this would require. It’s a natural fit but maybe not immediately but certainly something which makes Ripple a very credible long-term investment.
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