Finance: Ripple’s XRP overtakes bitcoin cash as 3rd largest cryptocurrency

The cryptocurrency, which aims to speed up international bank transfers, has seen astronomical gains this week.

• Many cryptocurrencies, even ones smaller than bitcoin, have seen big gains in recent weeks.
• XRP, founded by Ripple, has overtaken bitcoin cash as the third-largest digital currency by market cap.
• Check out the live price of Ripple's XRP here.

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Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency has seen a tremendous gain of 202% since December 9, propelling it to a market cap of $29.77 billion and making it the third-largest digital currency. It trails just bitcoin and Ethereum, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

Founded in 2012 by what was then known as Ripple Labs, XRP aims to use blockchain technology to speed up cross-border money transfers and bank settlements. Currently, most of those transactions are facilitated on Swift, a much older network that can often take days to send money internationally, with high fees.

Here's how the rankings now stand, according to coinmarketcap.com:

"I think a lot of this is simply the market better understanding the realities of digital assets performance (speed, throughput etc)," Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse told Business Insider on Wednesday. "There is - appropriately - a lot of excitement about the potential - but XRP is very uniquely positioned to actually be able to deliver on the promise."

XRP is up 2,362% so far this year. You can track the price of XRP in real-time here>>

The cryptocurrency, which aims to speed up international bank transfers, has seen astronomical gains this week. Read Full Story