The Stage is Set for Stellar XLM vs XRP

The digital asset of XRP, did something spectacular on the 18th of September when it shocked the crypto-markets by rising in value by 21%. In a time period that was less than 5 hours, XRP spiked from levels of $0.273 to those of $0.332 and has continued rising. The digital asset is currently valued at $0.36.

xRapid Factor

The reason for the sharp increment in value of XRP was news that the Ripple company was going to launch xRapid in the next month or so. This was after the firm’s head of Regulatory relations for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, Sagar Sarabhai, made the following comments during a CNBC interview on the 17th of September:

“I am very confident that in the next one month or so you will see some good news coming in where we launch the product live in production.”

Stellar’s Cross-Border Payments

The news of Ripple launching xRapid has come 2 weeks after the Stellar project and IBM, announced that they were entering the industry of cross-border payments through their new service known as IBM Blockchain World-Wire. The new payment settlement service has been quoted as being ‘near instant’ meaning that it will probably rival the transactions time seen in the xRapid pilot tests of 2 – 3 minutes earlier on in the year.

Stellar Acquiring Chain

Also, less than a week ago, the Stellar Development Fund, acquired a blockchain startup known as Chain. The latter firm has the backing of VISA, Nasdaq and Citi Ventures. With the new acquisition, comes a new entity known as Interstellar that is a result of dissolving the Chain brand as well as that of Stellar known as Lightyear.  Jed McCaleb, the founder of both Ripple and Stellar, will take over as the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of Interstellar.

XLM vs XRP

It is with the above developments that the next few months will be very exciting for both blockchain projects. Both the Stellar organization and the Ripple company are expanding through acquisitions and international operations. Both have efficient cross border payment solutions.

In the crypto markets, XRP is ranked third on coinmarketcap.com and due to market capitalization. Looking at Stellar (XLM), it is in the number 5 position and is currently valued at $0.20 which is around 12 cents less than XRP. This makes XLM a cheaper option for anyone looking for a bargain in the markets.

But Which Will Rise Faster in the Markets

Being cheap does not necessarily mean it will give a greater rate of return per dollar. XRP might end up doing double-digit gains once xRapid is live next month due to the fact that this service uses XRP in its back-end operations. In the case of IBM’s cross-border payment solution, we do not yet know if it uses XLM to source instant liquidity. We can only speculate on this fact. There is also the entrance of LG into the remittance industry that might ‘eat’ into the market share of both Stellar and Ripple.

Therefore, it is safe to conclude that in the short term, XRP might be a better option due to the certainty that xRapid will go live in the next month or so. From a profit-oriented trader’s point of view, one can use some of the gains from XRP gaining value, to reinvest in some XLM once the xRapid hype dies down.

Which of the two blockchain projects do you think will triumph in cross-border payments and remittances? Will XLM eclipse XRP in the markets? Please let us know what you think in the comment section below.

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.

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