Ripple and XRP - serious challenger to bitcoin?

Ripple has booming lately as more and more financial institutions have started to use the service for its fast transactions and extremely low fees. As banks seek to move away from the somewhat outdated SWIFT system, the Ripple protocol and it's token XRP has risen up as a viable alternative.

Demand for Ripple and XRP

Previously, there were concerns about the use of the token. In theory, it is possible to use the Ripple payment protocol without the XRP token and people were left to wonder about it's worth. However, Ripple has recently tweeted that, "3 of the top 5 global money transfer companies plan to use XRP in payment flows in 2018".

https://twitter.com/Ripple/status/949131179797626880

Furthermore, the CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, has also confirmed that banks and payment providers plan to use xRapid (the XRP liquidity product) in a serious way.

Future outlook for Ripple - serious challenger to bitcoin?

Ripple, currently second in market capitalization, has been continuing on an upward trend. At press time, the altcoin was trading at an average of $3.36. With a market cap of over $131 billion, it is over half that of bitcoin.

The success of Ripple and other altcoins have led to an all time low for bitcoin dominance at 33.3 percent. With this recent news, will we finally be seeing a challenger to bitcoin for the top of the crypto throne? One thing for certain is that 2018 is sure to bring much more exciting news for crypto.