Ripple Hype Grows As Coinbase Announces Custody Support & Talk of XRP Overtaking Bitcoin Arises

Coinbase, the U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange with some of the largest daily trading volume in the market, has announced the listing of XRP on their custodial platform.

This announcement was well- anticipated, as back in August Coinbase had officially announced that they were exploring the addition of new assets to their custodial service, one of which was XRP.

As posted on their blog, Sam McIngvale, Product Lead at Coinbase Custody stated:

Coinbase Custody is exploring the addition of many existing and forthcoming crypto assets for storage only, and will be working to add them as quickly and safely as possible. At this time, we have not yet considered these assets for trading. We are making this announcement internally at Coinbase and to the public at the same time to remain transparent with our customers about support for future assets.

The purpose of Coinbase Custody is to provide a safe and secure digital asset storage solution for high net worth individuals and institutions. Just because a digital asset is supported by Coinbase Custody, doesn’t mean it is available for trading on Coinbase Pro and Coinbase.

At the time of writing, digital assets supported by Coinbase Custody include Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum(ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum Classic (ETC), 0x (ZRX), Basic Attention Token (BAT), OmiseGo (OMG) and XRP.

XRP Hype Heats Up

There has been a lot of excitement surrounding XRP in the past week, particularly in the last few days as the cryptocurrency market has taken a hit.

While most major coins have dropped significantly, XRP is holding up strong in comparison. So much so that XRP has surpassed Ethereum (ETH), and has since maintained its position as second in terms of market capitalization.

As XRP is doing well, their “cult like” community has taken their newfound excitement to social media, generating a great deal of hype.

As Mati Greenspan of eToro put it:

Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the CEO of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, also acknowledged the hype surrounding the XRP community in a tweet, stating:

Despite Zhao’s tweet, the XRP shilling didn’t stop there. The excitement surrounding XRP is so strong now that many XRP advocates are calling for a BTC “flippening” (that is, the market cap of XRP surpassing BTC).

A prominent cryptocurrency influencer with nearly 90k followers shares the sentiment:

These tweets and many others show just how determined and excited the XRP community is about the cryptocurrency’s future and how it could surpass Bitcoin (BTC).

However, Not Everyone is Bullish on XRP

While there are many people bullish on XRP overtaking Bitcoin, the contrary is true as well. A number of prominent crypto analysts and influencers touted XRP’s bullish excitement as a joke.

For instance, Moon Overlord, a cryptocurrency trader and influencer with over 35k followers had this to say:

Another popular crypto influencer, with over 110k followers, tweeted:

As seen from the tweets for and against XRP surpassing BTC, there is a great divide with strong opinions on the matter. Regardless of what people think or say, only time will tell what will happen as there are viable arguments on both sides.

Do you think XRP will surpass BTC in the near future? Let us know in the comment section below.