Three factors behind Ripple's success

XRP/USD is hovering around $0.54 handle after a short-lived growth to $0.5668 high during Tuesday's session. Ripple's cryptocurrency gained over 19%  in just a couple of days and temporarily pushed Ethereum from the second place in global cryptocurrency rating. RIpple's market value now registered at $21.5B with an average trading volume of $1.2B.

Asia expansion, Apple Pay integration, and Mastercard support

Experts believe that the sudden growth was triggered by Ripple's expansion in the Asian region and technical factors among others. This momentum will hardly be sustainable unless we witness a major shift in sentiments on cryptocurrency markets. 

Also, a news that XRP may be added to Apple Pay through Wirex served as an additional catalyst that allowed the coin to explore the area above $0.54. While the Apple Pay integration is not a done deal yet, the community was very enthusiastic about it

Earlier this week it has become known that the payment company SendFriend backed by  Mastercard и MIT Media Lab will use Ripple's technology xRapid.

“That allows us on the back end to be more efficient with our capital. These are real-time settlements so we don’t have to do pre-funding, we don’t have to park money in the receiving corridor and then manage the foreign exchange risk. We can just do it one by one as the transactions go through.”   MIT's CEO and founder David Lighton commented.

Ripple's technical picture

XRP/USD stays above key technical levels with the Relative Strength Index in an overbought territory. This means that the coin is vulnerable to the downside correction with the vital strong support at $0.50, strengthened by DMA200. If it is broken, the DMA50 at $0.4839 will come into focus.  

On the upside, a sustainable movement above $0.55 will increase the bullish pressure and open up the way towards the recent high at $0.5668.

XRP/USD, the daily chart