XRP is not Ripple
A false pretence
The company controlled asset is not its name
Eksaarpee
It does worry me quite a bit, because I hear more people in my direct surroundings talk about XRP, as if it were Ripple. "It is being used by banks and financial institutes." No, it is not at all! Only one bank, a fairly unknown English one seems to be using XRP, the asset controlled by Ripple Inc. They currently have about 55 billion XRP in reserve, which Ripple Incorporated manages. The partnerships Ripple Inc. has though does not automaticly mean XRP is used by them.
Yet, it is being insuated that it is. And many people invest in XRP for that reason. That might result in a big loss, as the XRP asset (Ripple Inc calls it an asset themselves.) is losing its market capacity. Now, to be honest, I do not mind, as I consider XRP a JP Morgan like digital asset, completly privately controlled. Real Cryptocurrencies are different, I think, not centrally controlled by a private company. But I know not everybody looking for a return on their investment cares about that.
Looking at the long run though I believe XRP is on its way out of the top 3. As the overal long term trend is moving downwards. It is not a Cryptocurrency, like Steem for example, to invest in. It is not being used by banks and financial institutes, but it made Ripple Incorporated, and its owners, quite a few bucks, I guess. The reason I am writing this is not because I'm all of a sudden against XRP. If you have read some of my past publications you already may know my strong negative opinion about it.
It is a business asset
The main reason is that people get drawn to invest in XRP under false pretences, that I'm worried about. And when I now even hear it being advised to others by people close to home, I think it is time again to set something straight. Ripple (Inc) is NOT xrp. Ripple Incorporated might have partnerships with a lot of so called 'big names', but it has nothing to do with their XRP asset! If you still want to invest in it, well, you are free to do so, of course. At least I have proof on the blockchain that I did warn about it.
Sure, many are unaware how XRP is a business controlled digital asset. Just like there are Steem members that believe SteemIt Incorporated owns the Social Media platform. That it runs on their servers and they control it all. Maybe some Steemians are still not aware that Steem is a blockchain running on many decentralized computers. And anybody could create an interface like SteemIt dot com. It is all Open Source, free to use and build upon. Nobody centrally controls it and it is there for all of us. How awesome is that!?
And forget about so called partnerships with financial institutes. The Litecoin foundation bought a big share in a German bank, a while back, now that might be the hardcore way to go about it. This has nothing to do with the recent price developement of LTC though. It is caused by a build up to the Litecoin blockreward halfing going from 25 downto 12.5 LTC. (And yes, I do HODL LTC in my Crypto portfolio.) Yet, remember to only invest what you are willing and able to lose. If that is still XRP, then be aware of the disinformation that is being spread all the time. But, XRP is still not Ripple (Inc).
Read more about it on how and why that is: https://cryptonomist.ch/en/2019/02/23/which-banks-use-ripple-xrp/amp/