Ripple, not bitcoin, set to convert crypto cynics: deVere CEO

Ripple, a cryptocurrency and settlement system, experienced a spike last week, nudging it toward the important $0.7000 level against the U.S. dollar.

Read: How blockchain offers opportunities for investors

Ripple can be expected to convert crypto cynics, says Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group, in a release. The firm has a crypto exchange app called deVere Crypto.

Green says that, after a price correction to most major cryptocurrencies in the first quarter, the cryptocurrency market is now looking “significantly more bullish.”

“This latest upward crypto market trajectory can be attributed to the fact that institutional and retail investors are increasingly appreciating the fundamentals, such as the need and demand for digital currencies in a digitalized, tech-driven age,” he says. “Also, there is now huge awareness that blockchain, the technology that underpins the likes of bitcoin and Ripple, is likely to be the world’s next major disruptive technology.”

He’s optimistic that Ripple, in particular, can convert remaining skeptics because of its emphasis on integration with banks and other financial institutions.

“For instance, banking giant Santander has recently launched a foreign exchange service that uses blockchain technology developed by Ripple to make same-day international money transfers,” says Green, adding that other major global banks and money transfer groups are in talks to develop similar products.

With those developments, “Ripple is likely to help change the perception of crypto, expand its own value and co-lead the ongoing shift in the way the world uses, manages, accesses, stores and exchanges money,” says Green.

He concedes, however, that cryptocurrencies are vulnerable to market sentiment, and he suggests investors be cautious and seek professional advice.

More regulation ahead?

Speaking in Toronto last week at the Public Policy Forum’s Canada Growth Summit, Bank of England governor Mark Carney said cryptocurrency systems can expect more regulation.

“There are these exchanges where you transfer your Canadian dollars for a cryptocurrency, and those in general are unregulated, and in some cases there’s plenty of serious abuse or, at a minimum, they are very porous to a cyber attack and theft […],” he said. “There is no reason why that should be tolerated.”

Carney has previously slammed cryptocurrencies and called on regulators to start monitoring them as they do other financial assets because, he says, “being part of the financial system brings enormous privileges, but with them great responsibilities.”

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