XRP surges 12% and central bank crypto still 10 years away

XRP surges 12% after the announcement about Ripple’s new partnership

The price of XRP has surged 12% within 24 hours, having risen from the level of $0.25 up to $0.28.

The reason for the growth could be Ripple’s announcement about partnering up with the payment system International Money Express, specializing in transferring money between the USA and Mexico.

In addition, the BitMEX exchange announced the launching of a perpetual XRP contract offering leverage of up 50 times. The exchange opened access to the new instrument on February 5 at 04:00 UTC.

Christian Noyer: Central bank crypto still 10 years away

Christian Noyer, former Banque de France governor, believes that consumer-focused central bank digital currency (CBDC) could still be 10 years away, despite huge current interest displayed by over 50 central banks. On the other hand, he expects digital payments between commercial banks to happen fairly soon.

Noyer stated that the decline in cash usage, amid the rise of private cryptocurrencies such as Facebook’s Libra, had drawn the attention of many central banks to explore possibilities of a CBDC. But Noyer thinks that there is ‘clear hesitation’ from top financial institutions, as they fear for privacy and impact on monetary policy control.

One difficulty with a CBDC is that consumers may be required to have an account with the central bank, rather than using a commercial bank as an intermediary. Such a move would make the financial institution responsible for anti money laundering measures.

It would also disrupt the commercial banks position in the financial system. Consumers currently only access central bank money through notes and coins.

There needs to be a central bank-backed currency at some point. It’s an important part of the credibility of money that the general public can access.