Crypto Payments Giant Supports XRP Amid Slew of Positive News
It seems that BitPay is starting to migrate away from being a Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash-only company, recently unveiling support for XRP. This soon-to-launch integration will allow the thousands of merchants that have integrated the payment solution to accept e-commerce payments with the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Use XRP Via BitPay
Announced in a press release published on Wednesday morning, Atlanta-based crypto payments giant BitPay has partnered with Ripple’s developer initiative, Xpring, to enable XRP payments through “BitPay’s merchant processing and cross-border payments platform safely, securely, and compliantly.” This payment method will be activated by the end of the year.
Speaking on the matter of the surprise integration, Sean Rolland, the Director of Product at BitPay, remarked that XRP payments are important as they are “fast, cost-effective and scalable”.
Ethan Beard, the Senior Vice President of Xpring, also expressed his excitement, quipping that this partnership with XRP will be “key in advancing the proliferation and adoption of XRP as a medium of exchange to help solve real-world problems.”
Although not enabled by default, global merchants like Microsoft, NewEgg, Dish Networks, FanDuel, and Avnet will be able to activate XRP payment support without “any additional integration.”
This move to support the third-largest digital asset comes shortly after BitPay began to offer an Ethereum integration for its clients, giving the cryptocurrency an opportunity to be used as a medium of exchange in hundreds of online stores.
Positive Fundamental Trend
While this is a strong news event in and of itself, it isn’t the only positive fundamental development that XRP or Ripple has seen over recent days. Earlier this week, Ripple revealed that it has acqui-hired (acquired and hired) Algrim, a cryptocurrency trading firm based in the Nordic country. According to the announcement, this new team, which formerly focused on developing a crypto trading platform, will be focused on leveraging their skills to develop Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity product, which uses the XRP token as a means to settle and process cross-border payments.
Moreover, Ripple will soon be hosting 2019’s rendition of the SWELL Conference, the leading event for the Ripple ecosystem and XRP Ledger. Per previous reports from this outlet, prominent analyst Luke Martin claims that hype around the event and developments announced will likely “be a positive force [for the XRP price] for the next ~30 days.” Indeed, prior to the last SWELL event, the cryptocurrency saw a bout of bullish price action, outshining other altcoins by leaps and bounds.
