Ripple appears to have gone through a Pump and Dump cycle, like many other cryptocurrencies. The price was artificially raised, and now money has been made, it is going through a rebalance to a more sustainable level for what it has to offer. I, personally, expect a little more volatility in the price of ripple over the course of January (but nothing like the rise which catapulted it into 2nd place in the Market Cap charts), and then a period of stability of between 3 and 5 months before the next major spike or dip in the price.