Ripple Is a Best Friend to Banks

It would be foolish to think that our banking systems will disappear overnight.

This belief is popular in the Bitcoin crowd, with many devoted Bitcoin believers asserting that the world’s first digital currency has the power to rebuild our financial system within mere years.

The reality is different. There's no doubt that digital currency is here to stay. But we're more likely to see it incorporated into our everyday financial lives through the large players in the financial world: big banks.


This is good news for Ripple and is a strong case for investing in it. Ripple has already been adopted by dozens of banks, including:

  • MUFG
  • BBVA
  • SEB
  • Akbank
  • Axis Bank
  • Yes Bank
  • SBI Remit
  • Cambridge Global Payments
  • Star One Credit Union
  • eZforex

This makes Ripple the first digital currency to be adopted by mainstream financial institutions. And it’s only picking up momentum.

So, why do the banks want Ripple? It goes back to the financial tools that Ripple Labs, the company behind RTXP, provides.

Let’s be honest: Major financial institutions don't adopt technology for the ease of their customers. Instead, they do it to make money — that's the nature of the beast.

Currently, if a bank uses Ripple, it saves $3.76 per payment. That's a cumulative saving of $564,000 a year.

But the greed of financial institutions pays off for customers who'll be able to exchange money across borders and with individuals who use different banks.

We'll likely see the value of the Ripple company (or the value of XRP) increasing while more of these tools are adopted by mainstream banking customers.

This will simplify our financial system. You'll be able to send money to anyone, regardless of what bank they have, through the same simple channels.

However, there are a few things to keep in mind about this topic, which we address at the bottom of this report. Before we get to concerns, let's comment on Ripple’s investors and the team...

The Investors and the Team

We touched briefly on Ripple’s talented development team in the introduction. Now, it's time to expand on what that extensive talent network means for the digital currency in the long term.

It’s no secret that success in the corporate world depends on one thing: clout. For any technology to advance, it has to establish its value for both investors and corporations. Many digital currencies fail to do this because their leaderships don't know the right people or methods.

For Ripple, becoming established was as easy as pie. With two well-connected founders who used their complex networks, Ripple quickly attracted venture capital and major investors.

In 2015, Ripple raked in $55 million in venture capital in just one funding round. And this money is continuing to pour in with more big investors backing the company weekly.

One particular investor is worth taking note of. It's a tech giant that hasn’t shown a lot of interest in the bulk of digital currencies: Google.

Google was one of Ripple’s early backers. Both the mega-giant and its peer Apple prefer the blockchain method of payment to existing credit cards.

In Ripple, Google saw an opportunity to simplify and secure payments. It knows a good investment when it sees one.

And so do the other venture capitalists that are pouring money into Ripple. The names backing Ripple — Andreessen Horowitz, FF Angel IV, and Lightspeed Venture — have stood behind dozens of lucrative startups, including Airbnb, Asana, BuzzFeed, Coinbase, Facebook, Twitter, and Snap...