Evaluating the crypto project — XRP (Ripple)

We start off by scrutinizing the project itself.

Well, what does that mean?

We take a closer look at the Whitepapers (if the project has any), we check if it went through an ICO/IEO phase, does it have a real-life use case, and does it solve a problem.

Since XRP has had a Whitepaper for years now, we ticked the “Read Whitepaper” row. XRP didn’t go through an ICO campaign therefore we skip that one, and we added the following use case example as taken from the whitepaper:

“When taken together, these qualities allow the Ripple Network to function as a fast and low-cost global payment network with well-understood security and reliability properties.”

This further implicates that we tick the “Solving a problem” box.

This completes this section. But before we move on, I suggest that whoever reads this can expand his project due diligence further in order to get a much better rating in place. Since Evaluating the Project chapter carries a big chunk of the rating percentage (40%), and only 4 elements are included (whitepapers, ICO, use-cases, problem), I would add here at least 3 other elements.

1. Funds raised (if not applicable use P/L ratio; P/E ratio; Net profit, etc) — you can get this data from the website, CrunchBase, LinkedIn page, FinViz, etc.
2. Where they are on their roadmap - how dedicated and determined are they to respect their vision
3. Project’s sentiment — find out whether there’s been a major news factor that plummetted its price historically or if they had too many bumps along the way

Evaluating the Team — XRP (Ripple)

Once again, pretty self-explanatory section. We check the people behind the project, to determine whether they have what it takes to get the project out there (or in this case approved by the SEC) thereby soaring the price “to the moon”.

Now, why would we tick the box under the “Team (Professional Experience)” section? It’s simple, we went on LinkedIn, found Ripple’s page, and checked out where the people worked before, what is their current position, etc.

We can see that some of the key C-level execs have been with the company since the start. Legendary Crypto names such as Brad Garlinghouse and David Schwartz pop out first.

Their extensive backgrounds are exactly what we want to see — huge experience, a vast network of people, a lot of technical know-how.

For smaller projects, this is a crucial step, particularly in the crypto industry which has a history with scam artists.

Try to dig as hard as you can, for smaller projects, LinkedIn mustn’t be your only source of truth. Anyone can create LinkedIn profiles and pages, and add 500+ connections using automation tools. You must check other online business information in order to make sure that the team is legit and not trying to sell off some pyramid scheme or create a pump and dump scenario. You must check their background, their past projects, and evaluate their future performance by their previous results.

XRP has a 10/10 in this regard, undoubtedly.

Evaluating the Tech — XRP (Ripple)

Now, the tech section of the review is by far the most comprehensive and complex to decipher (and therefore rank).

Why?

Well because it encompasses various criteria which can be both tedious to find and even more so, very vague and hard to rank appropriately if one is not very tech-savvy.

Bear in mind that the first couple of criteria can be found on one of the best Crypto Research Platforms — CoinPaprika.

Based on the predefined points structure, we go along and fill in the required information.Consensus mechanism — PoC

Point distribution

2. Platform — native (not built on other blockchain networks, but rather has its own)

3. Algorithm — Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm

4. Org. Structure — Centralized (Definitely a minus overall, but as it's built with a purpose of fitting banks and low-cost transactions, it’s understandable)

5. Open-source(d) — Yes!

6. Type — Coin (another type is Token)

When reviewing technology, we must also pay close attention to coding (its quality, programing languages, contributors, commits, etc). What better source to look at than GitHub.

Ripple’s developers have more than 109 contributors (amazing), 12k commits, and 3.8k stars. An awesome statistics.

GitHub Points Distribution

Ripple primarily leverages C++, Python, JavaScript, Typescript, and Shell when publishing their open-source code.

This also doesn’t strike as odd as Ripple foundation mainly developed its source code from 2012–2014, and only later refurbished it to meet the market’s standard.

People often use websites such as BuiltWith to get a better hold of the tools that a given website utilizes. In Ripple’s case, the list is exceptionally long consisting of various tools in the areas of Analytics and Tracking, Widgets, Frameworks, Content Delivery Networks, Payment (services), Content Management Systems (CMS), JavaScript Libraries and Functions, Advertising, Email Hosting Providers, Web Hosting Providers, etc.

Evaluating the Market — XRP (Ripple)

Now, we will pore over some investment terminology that will bring us closer to the original question.

How do you know whether a specific crypto asset has the potential to become the next BTC?

Well, definitely one of the answers lies in observing its past performances, price actions, volatility, volume, all-time highs/lows, etc.

In cases that some among you are day/swing traders, you also might want to pay closer attention to ATR, RSI, Bollinger Bands, and other technical indicators, but as this article was originally intended to provide an insight into a long-term investment opportunity, we will not go there more than we already did.

So, without further ado, here are Ripple’s market stats:

All-time high(ATH): $3.40

All-time high date: 7-Jan-2018

ATH Difference: -80.52%

Current price (25.08.2021): $1.14

ATL Difference: 24658.59%

All-time low (ATL): $0

All-time low date: 22-May-2014

Date added: 4-Aug-2013

Market Cap Rank: 6

Market Cap: $54,354,435,847

Volume 24h: $5,084,268,019

So, how are points calculated?

Price, Date, Market Cap, and Volume Point Distribution

To put it in a nutshell, the older the company is, the better — thus it earns more points. Why you ask.

Well Ripple earn high points here because its ATH was in early 2018, its ATH Difference is more than -80%, and it is created back in 2013. This means that Ripple (and the team behind the project) has had ample time to experiment with the project, to see what works and what doesn’t, and they are known for having a good track record with fast cross-border payments. Also, this means that the coin is already well-known since its market cap is #6 overall, so there’s a lot of room for growth.

Lastly, in the bull market, it's important to find an asset that hasn’t moved that drastically in price over the years/months. This, along with other fundamental elements, is also an indicator that the price might start going along with other crypto-assets or even overcome them in terms of price.

What to also look out for

Circulating supply: 46,513,604,835 XRP

Circulating supply %: 46.51%

Max Supply: 100,000,000,000XRP

Total Supply: 99,990,349,851

Liquidity: $452,021,469

Market Pairs: 607Exchanges: 125

Circulating Supply, Liquidity, Pairs, and Exchanges Points Distribution

To draw out the conclusion — in a perfect scenario, we would be looking for a crypto asset that is relatively volatile, highly liquid, has tons of trading pairs and exchanges, and the longer it has been in the market the better. These are the rare gems that will one day definitely pay off. But, as we all know, there’s no such thing as a ‘perfect scenario’, and we must be able to afford any sort of scenario coming our way.

That’s why it’s not wise to jump to conclusions and take advice for granted. There are instances where a certain crypto asset soared by over 6,900% (DOGE) in the span of a few months.

However, always make sure to stay away from these as they can reverse as quickly as they soared. Often, these may as well be pump and dump shitcoins.

Evaluating Performance — XRP (Ripple)

If you are not already familiar with the platform LunarCRUSH, you have been missing out on a lot of things. LunarCRUSH delivers community insights through research applications and APIs, through which real-time data points are available that help make informed crypto investment decisions.

They have even created their proprietary analysis and monitoring KPI:

And here comes the XRP stats:

Top trading pair: XRP / USD

Market dominance: 2.40%

Galaxy score: 81/100

AltRank: 109/2,852Correlation rank: 74/100

Evaluating Social Sentiment— XRP (Ripple)

Social Sentiment is quite similar to some of the performance indicators but they rely on the mixture between search engine sentiment, social media sentiment, and how the coin is perceived throughout the entire internet (Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Medium, etc).

You can add other criteria here as well if these mean anything to you. Reddit would be a good indicator for example, as it is a known source that has a history of people following bullish/bearish signs/sentiments/signals. WallStreetBets being the most cited use case.

Conclusion

Now that we have everything filled in, we can go back to the overall ranking. We are able to draw a lot of conclusions by taking a look at this:

Overall XRP rating

XRP, unsurprisingly, got a very high % of max points (77.8). The project, team, tech, and market far exceeded other key criteria. For that reason, XRP is considered one of the most valuable long-term investments. Meaning, that it’s only a matter of time before it goes beyond “its comfort zone”.

NOT AN INVESTMENT ADVICE

The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained in this article constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by HII or any third party service provider to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.