忘了比特币吧，一种新的加密货币正冉冉升起

瑞波币（XRP）的价值在三天时间里直线上升。瑞波币由瑞波公司发行，旨在为银行和全球资金转账提供服务。12月10日，这家公司的市值仅略高于90亿美元。到了12月13日上午，这个数字已飙升至181亿美元，增长了一倍多。

瑞波币的单价远低于其他加密货币，这对投机者来说更有吸引力。加密货币信息网站CoinMarketCap的数据显示，12月13日近午时分，瑞波币的价格为0.47美元，比前一天收盘价上涨66%。

瑞波币价格蹿升使莱特币在加密货币价值榜上的排名滑落至第五位。但瑞波币和莱特币的价格依然都远低于比特币和以太坊。

什么是瑞波币？

虽然直到2012年才发行，但与比特币相比，瑞波币的历史实际更长。据Bitcoin Magazine介绍，瑞波公司的前身创立于2004年。但这家公司一直没成什么气候，直到建立了专业管理团队，成员包括网贷平台E-Loan联合创始人克里斯·拉尔森和比特币交易所MtGox创始人杰德·麦凯莱布。

银行和其他金融机构已经在使用瑞波币。它们认为瑞波公司的系统在价格上比比特币等其他数字货币更优惠，也更安全。瑞波公司的现金流为正，持有大量瑞波币，定期向市场投放。

但对银行来说，瑞波币的真正吸引力在于其流动性。

Ripple Labs首席执行官布拉德·加林豪斯今年早些时候对《财富》杂志表示：“如今银行的流动性需求来自那些同业账户，它们的资金流动属于实打实的十万亿级别。我们坚信这是个低效模式。你可以用数字资产来提供流动性，而瑞波币在这个问题上有着独一无二的优势。比特币完成一次交易需要四个小时。瑞波币则只要3.6秒。”

瑞波币为何大幅上涨？

瑞波币行情似乎是比特币引起极大关注后的连带效应。认为加密货币可能即将见顶的投资者开始寻找其他长期回报率或许更高的投资对象。只是瑞波公司近几个月也实现了几个里程碑。

截至10月份，瑞本公司已将其区块链技术授权给了100多家银行。上个月，美国运通成为被授权的一员。同时，迈克尔·阿灵顿的1亿美元加密货币对冲基金将用瑞波币来衡量其价值。

2017年瑞波币涨了多少？

年初以来，瑞波币的价值已上涨70多倍，市值涨幅接近77倍。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

Ripple, which was designed for banks and global money transfers, has seen the value of its XRP digital currency skyrocket in the past three days. On Dec. 10, the company had a market capitalization of just over $9 billion. As of Wednesday morning, that market cap had more than doubled to $18.1 billion.

Prices for an individual Ripple XRP are considerably more affordable than its alternatives, making it even more attractive to cryptocurrency speculators. As of late Wednesday morning, a single XRP cost just 47 cents, a 66% jump from yesterday’s close, according to CoinMarketCap.

This surge has pushed Litecoin down to the fifth most valuable cryptocurrency. Both Ripple and Litecoin are still far below Bitcoin and Ethereum, however.

What is Ripple?

While it wasn’t released until 2012, Ripple is actually older than Bitcoin. The original version of the company was created in 2004, according to Bitcoin Magazine. It never really went anywhere, though, until it put a professional management team in place, which included E-Loan co-founder Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb, founder of MtGox.

Ripple’s cryptocurrency has been adopted by banks and other financial institutions. Those companies believe Ripple’s system offers both better prices and is more secure than other digital currencies, including Bitcoin. It allows users to send, receive, and hold any currency in a decentralized way via the Ripple network. The company is cash-flow positive and holds a vast store of XRP, which it periodically releases into the market.

But the real appeal of Ripple’s XRP for banks is its liquidity.

“The liquidity needs of banks today is managed with literally ten trillion of float that sits in these nostro and vostro accounts. We believe very strong this is an inefficient model. You can use digital assets to fund liquidity, and Ripple is uniquely positioned to capitalize on that. Bitcoin takes four hours to settle a transaction. XRP takes 3.6 seconds,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse told Fortune earlier this year.

Why is Ripple surging?

Ripple’s rise seems to be a (pardon the pun) ripple effect from the surge of interest in Bitcoin. Investors who believe cryptocurrency may be reaching a peak are looking for others that could provide a greater return in the long term. The company has hit some notable milestones in recent months, though.

As of October, Ripple had licensed its blockchain technology to over 100 banks. Last month, American Express came on board. And Michael Arrington’s $100 million cryptocurrency hedge fund will be valued in Ripple’s XRP.

How much has Ripple grown in 2017?

Year to date, Ripple’s XRP has seen its value jump more than 7,000% and its market cap increase by nearly 7,700%.