Ripple has come back to reclaim its position as the world’s 2nd largest cryptocurrency in the world by market cap, a spot it took briefly from Ethereum in mid-September of this year.
Cryptocurrency market moment of relative stability ended suddenly yesterday. Most major digital coins hit their lowest level of the year, dipping as low as 16%, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Only Ripple (XRP) stood out as a safe haven and managed to remain positive throughout the day.
Bitcoin shed nearly 10% of its value and is now trading below $6,000 mark. Ethereum, which has held the second spot on CoinMarketCap for a long time, plunged below the $200 price level for the first time since Sept. 2018.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH), the fourth biggest digital asset by market capitalization, also saw its price plummeting by over 16%.
However, it seems Ripple (XRP) was the least affected by the sudden crypto market correction yesterday. XRP price was hovering along the $0,50 mark when other major digital coins were experiencing a bearish market.
At the time of writing, the price of XRP is fluctuating above the $0.46 price level. The San Francisco-based blockchain startup’s native token is only 8% in the red in the last one day. As a result, XRP displaced Ethereum (ETH) from the second spot to become the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency.
The price of Ethereum, which is traded through the digital token (ETH), has plummeted throughout 2018, with cryptocurrency technical analysts and experts blaming the drop on massive sales of Ether on major crypto trading platforms, including Bitfinex.
It is worth noting this is not the first time Ripple is dethroning Ethereum from the 2nd position on CoinMarketCap. It actually beat Ethereum in market capitalization at some point in September this year before going back to the third place.
Whether or not Ethereum will remove Ripple from the position again remains to be seen.