Ripple Undergoes Major Rebrand: Drops xRapid, xVia, and xCurrent

Visitors to Ripple’s official website will notice that the San Francisco-based company has now integrated all its services into a single platform called Ripplenet. An analysis of what Ripple explains on its website leads to conclude that now xVia and xCurrent coexist within RippleNet while xRapid is now called On-demand Liquidity.

Ripple is Quietly Working on Major Changes

Ripple began this new phase relatively quietly and without much explanation, though it was confirmed by Emi Yoshikawa, Director of Global Operations at Ripple, who explained that they are not talking about new products, but instead everything is just a significant rebranding:

つまり、これまでxRapidと言われていたものがOn demand liquidityと呼ばれるようになり、略称はODLです。ODLを使うにしても、従来型の流動性スキーム(prefunding)を使うにしても、送金メッセージング部分などそれ以外は同じ仕組み(プラットフォーム)です。

— Emi Yoshikawa (@emy_wng) October 1, 2019

“In other words, what was previously called xRapid is now called On demand liquidity, and the abbreviation is ODL. Whether you’re using ODL or prefunding, the remittance messaging part is the same mechanism (platform).”

The xCurrent interbank payment network did not need XRP to function; however, the xRapid system was meant to promote XRP adoption. Ripple follows this same philosophy with its new product explaining that they expect to develop products that allow a seamless transition between the use of Ripple services with and without XRP. This allows financial institutions that initially use RippleNet in traditional liquidity schemes to do so seamlessly if they switch to ODL in the future.

Reasons to be Optimistic About XRP’s Future (At Least in The Short Term)

Although XRP is going through some bad times in a strong bearish trend, it seems that this decision triggered some optimism in the markets. Yesterday, XRP had a slight price increase of 10% going from $0.23 to $0.26 per coin. Today, Ripple’s XRP experienced a small correction to $0.25, however, the Stochastic RSI shows that it’s very oversold. This means that traders could expect a rise in the prices at least in the short term, to levels close to a zone between $0.28 and $0.30 — close to the 200 EMA. This area has served as an essential reference throughout the year. Since February that channel has been an area of constant pivoting in which the token bounces several times before gaining energy for a new significant rise or fall. Are Ripple’s strategies working? it is still too early to tell. All the excitement caused by this rebranding can be contrasted against the rage caused by its treasury unlocking 1 Billion XRP one day after it dumped 60 Million XRP — which was proceeded by yet another dump of 30 Million XRP, all during the same week. Will Ripple’s service rebranding have any positive effect on the price of XRP? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.