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Ripple's XRP is crushing litecoin with an $18 billion jump in market cap this week

The cryptocurrency is flying past competing coins.

  • On Friday, A group of Asian banks plans to test the technology for global money transfers.

XRP, a cryptocurrency by Ripple that is focused on bank transfers, is up 48% in the past 24 hours after following a report major banks in Japan and South Korea plan to test the coin on Friday. The digital coin has gained $18 billion in market cap since Monday morning.

The group of Asian banks hopes to reduce global money transfer times to the less than one day, while cutting costs by 30%. Currently, most international money transfers use a banking network called Swift, which can take days for money to reach its intended destination.

This week’s gains mean ripple now has a total market cap of $24.26 billion, according to coinmarketcap.com, putting it in fourth place behind bitcoin, ethereum, and bitcoin cash. It recently passed litecoin, which has also seen a big jump in price, but not enough to maintain its place in the rankings.

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Ripple could see another bump later Thursday, as it is scheduled to be demonstrated live on Japan’s "Nikkei Morning Plus" TV show at 5 p.m. ET (7 a.m. Friday local time).

Earlier this week, Ripple placed $55 billion of the cryptocurrency in escrow in order to provide confidence to investors and reduce its volatility. It also recently inked a deal with American Express and Santander bank to send international payments on its blockchain.

CEO Brad Garlinghouse plans to drum up support in an ask-me-anything livestream Thursday evening.

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Bitcoin is still easily the largest and most well-known cryptocurrency, and saw a boost of 24% this week after futures contracts for the digital currency began trading on Cboe Global Market’s exchange Sunday.

The price of one XRP is up is up 2178% so far this year.

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