Why XRP Was Down 8.33% Today

A broader sell off in crypto mirrors a slide across stock markets in Europe and Asia as fears grow amid expanding COVID lockdowns in China.

Overnight, equity markets across Asia and Europe slid amidst increasing concerns about COVID lockdowns that are reportedly expanding within the country of China. As the broader markets dropped, so did the overwhelming majority of crypto assets within the fintech space. Over the past 24 hours, XRP was down the most among top cryptos, trading at $0.6482 per coin, marking an 8.33% loss for that timeframe, according to CoinMarketCap at press time.

XRP's lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding whether or not XRP is actually a securities asset rather than a form of digital currency continues to progress slowly with resolution now expected in early 2023. Until then, most major cryptocurrency exchanges have delisted XRP from their respective trading platforms, except for Binance and Kucoin.

XRP has greater exposure to traditional markets

At the time of writing, all the top-10 crypto assets ranked by their respective market valuations were in the red -- including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Terra. However, XRP was still down the most. That's most likely due to the fact that XRP has more exposure to the traditional banking market than other crypto projects.

XRP was created by Ripple Labs to facilitate cross-border money transfers for banking institutions for less than a penny per transaction and requiring less than five seconds to settle those transfers. According to the Ripple website, it currently has hundreds of banking institutions as customers across 55 countries, including Bank of America, Santander, American Express, and many others. All of those traditional banking clients are greatly impacted by fluctuations in the financial and securities markets, which indirectly affects XRP's price as well.

Should you buy XRP?

Ripple Labs provides a more efficient, cheaper option to banks than the current global payment system known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT). Specifically, its RippleNet solution is a global network that financial institutions have been using for years to transfer money more quickly and at a lower cost than through SWIFT. Instead of proof-of-work or proof-of-stake methods to approve blockchain transactions, Ripple uses its more centralized -- read as "micromanged" -- XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol, which is more appealing to larger institutional clients from a security and safety perspective.

This is not financial advice and investors should do their own research, investing only what they can afford to lose. However, according to CoinMarketCap, XRP is currently trading at an 83% discount from its all-time high of $3.84 back in Jan. 2018, making it an incredibly cheap buy for a proven asset.

Since XRP already has widespread adoption among hundreds of banks globally, even if the SEC wins its case -- and XRP is deemed a security -- it's unlikely to affect XRP's current institutional use case. Conversely, if XRP wins against the SEC, there's significant upside for this unique crypto project.