Ripple (XRP) has surged by more than 20 percent in the past 4 hours, despite the lack of momentum of major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. A spike in the volume of XRP was triggered on Bitfinex, affecting other major cryptocurrency exchanges. The surge happens a day after the news came out that Ripple is about to officially launch xRapid, the product many XRP holders have eagerly been waiting for.

Yesterday, Sagar Sarbhai, Head of Regulatory Relations for Ripple in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions, told CNBC that the release of xRapid is near. According to Sarbahi the firm believes xRapid could launch in a month or so. The product, xRapid, is a commercial application that uses the cryptocurrency XRP as a kind of “bridge” between currencies, allowing payment providers and banks to process faster cross-border transactions. 

The surge of today, therefore, may be caused by the news and hype around xRapid. That said, a lot of positive news has been released by Ripple lately. XRP is one of the few assets to have experienced extremely intensified movements on the downside in the past few months, performing poorly against Bitcoin and the US dollar. Oversold conditions, in combination with all the good news and hype, could also have triggered the market to initiate a sudden corrective rally.

In August Ripple announced that it selected three cryptocurrency exchanges — Bittrex, Bits, and Coins.ph — to serve as preferred partners for the xRapid ecosystem. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse predicted earlier this year that “dozens” of banks would be using xRapid — and by extension XRP — by the end of 2019.

Besides all the good news surrounding Ripple and XRP: earlier today some members of the Ripple community have suggested that a massive development by Ripple is set to be announced in the near future, building hype on a product or an event which has not been disclosed to the public yet. The short-term hype around Ripple also sparkerumorsrs towards a potential Coinbase integration in early 2018. This can, however, not be confirmed.

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