XRP investors have not had much to rejoice in 2019. For most of the year, the XRP remained in a range of approximately USD 0.30 - 0.50 per cryptocurrency, and far from the maximum of more than USD 3.00 in 2017. Then, earlier this month, XRP broke its support level of USD 0.30, falling to <a href="https://www.longhash.com/news/top-altcoins-are-all-up-so-far-this-year-except-xrp?f=r">new lows in 2019</a>.

It <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/crypto/despite-potus-ramble-bitcoin-price-trades-sideways-altcoins-recover/">trades</a> at USD 0.26 per token today. Now it has been below USD 0.30 for almost ten days in a row. The crossing of that line of USD 0.30 seems significant, given the recent history of XRP. Since cryptocurrency prices took off at the end of 2017, the token price has only fallen below USD 0.30 on some occasions and has generally only remained low for a few days.

This latest drop reflects a trend we have seen throughout the summer of 2019: a growing preference of investors for bitcoin over almost everything else. Since April, the bitcoin domain has been steadily rising, going from approximately 50% to almost 70% today. Moreover, of course, a good part of the money that is flowing into bitcoin is likely to come from other companies such as XRP, as investors move their funds to create Bitcoin-focused portfolios.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate this flow of funds is to examine the XRP-BTC exchange rate. 1 XRP token has an approximate value of 2,627 satoshis, a minimum that has not been seen in XRP since December 2017.

Shortly after Ripple's explosive growth in December 2017, an XRP token was trading for more than 25,000 satoshis. This means that XRP has seen a 90% drop in terms of bitcoin and 95% in terms of the US dollar since it broke historical highs 20 months ago.

Both in terms of bitcoin and the dollar, XRP has dropped significantly this year. This is worrisome since while most other altcoins have declined in terms of bitcoin due to their growing market dominance, many of them have continued their upward trend against the dollar.

Ether, bitcoin cash, EOS, litecoin, bitcoin SV, monero, almost all significant altcoins have gone down in terms of bitcoin but have risen in terms of dollar prices. According to CoinMarketCap, XRP is the only leading altcoin that is below both metrics.

It does have a company outside the leading altcoins, because stellar and TRX are large companies that have also fallen compared to dollars so far this year, for example. However, that will not be an excellent comfort for XRP investors, especially considering that the company has generated some high profile holders this year and that it has not had much to show in regards to the price of the token.

The partnership with MoneyGram, for example, caused the price of XRP to go from around USD 0.40 to almost USD 0.50, but just a week later, it had sunk back to the levels before the association. Moreover, it kept falling.

Often in the cryptocurrency market, the increase in the price of bitcoin is like a rising tide that raises all ships. However, as the bitcoin tide rises and the altcoins follow it, at least in terms of dollars, XRP continues to sink at the market.

XRP sinks while the bitcoin tide drives the market

I am an industrial engineer specializing in blockchain. Enthusiast of cryptocurrencies and writing the latest news regarding the Crypto world.

XRP sinks while the bitcoin tide drives the market

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