Ripple aims to overtake SWIFT as banks’ network of choice

Summary:

• Monetary Authority of Singapore developes blockchain settlement system
• International Monetary Fund criticizes Marshall Islands’ crypto plans
• Ripple (RIPPLE on xStation5) goes up around 3.5%

Investors launched Tuesday’s trading on the cryptocurrency market in mixed moods as major cryptocurrencies have not drawn a joint direction so far today. Ripple and BitcoinCash can be found among outperformers in the early afternoon. The capitalization of the whole market stands a notch below the $212 billion handle whereas the capitalization of Bitcoin, the most famous digital currency, sits around the $110 billion mark.

BITCOIN saw some declines earlier today, but the scale was insignificant. The cryptocurrency is trading in the vicinity of the $6400 handle at press time. What’s more, BITCOIN is moving close to its 8 and 33-period moving averages (yellow and purple lines) on the H4 chart. Source: xStation5

Let’s start with news from Singapore where the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS, Singapore’s central bank) and Singapore Exchange (SGX) have successfully developed a rapid settlement system for tokenized assets across various blockchain platforms. As Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information announced on Sunday, the capabilities of the new Delivery versus Payment (DvP) system, which is powered by smart contracts, “will help simplify post-trade processes and further shorten settlement cycles”. The prototypes of the platform were developed with technology partners Anquan, Deloitte and Nasdaq. An adoption of the blockchain-based solutions to the financial markets are pleasing development as the fact that information entered into the blockchain network cannot be changed may greatly limit fraud cases.

ETHEREUM, the second largest cryptocurrency, have experienced some losses since yesterday. The digital currency slumped nearly 1.5% over the past 24 hours. Source: xStation5

Secondly, International Monetary Fund (IMF) criticized the Marshall Islands’ plans to launch sovereign national digital currency. IMF draws attention to some potential threats in connection to the implementation of this idea, such as money laundering, financial integrity, and macroeconomic risks. What’s more, IMF warns the implementation of state cryptocurrency could provoke cuts of external financial aids from major economies such as the United States on which the country is widely dependent. The IMF’s opinion stands in contrary to the to local officials’ view. “As a country, we reserve the right to issue a currency in whatever form it is, whether in digital or fiat form”, David Paul, the Minister-in-Assistance to the President & Environment Minister of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, remarked some months ago.

RIPPLE reached one of the best results among major cryptocurrencies over the past 24 hours as the virtual currency jumped up over 3.5%. Source: xStation5

Last but not least, it is worth to mention that Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple Labs CEO, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in Singapore that Ripple is aiming to overtake the Swift network, a system widely used by banks and others. “The technologies that banks use today that Swift developed decades ago really hasn’t evolved or kept up with the market”, remarked Garlinghouse, as reported Bloomberg. Let us recall that now there are over 100 banks and payments providers using the RippleNet network, as reported on Ripple Labs website.