Ripple's XRP Worst Hit By January Market Decline

Large-cap cryptocurrencies may have had a stellar 2017, but 2018 hasn't been so kind.
Among crypto assets with over $1 billion in invested value, Ripple's XRP cryptocurrency may have been the biggest disappointment to newer investors, declining sharply amid heightened scrutiny after a period in which it became an industry darling for new investors.

Still, XRP was far from alone in its sizable declines.

Bitcoin forks saw a similar sell-off, with bitcoin cash (BCH), which forked from the network in August, and bitcoin gold, which quickly followed, falling sharply amid a broad market decline.

XRP

• January performance: -49.56 percent
• All-time high: $3.84 hit on Jan. 4
• Price on Jan. 1: $2.39
• Price on Jan. 31: $1.16
• Rank as per market capitalization: 3
• Entering January, it's safe to say investors were high on XRP.

A key product for one of the most well-known industry startups, the digital asset won no shortage of favor from investors enamored by its goal of disrupting an oligopolistic global payments industry.

And the company provided fresh reasons for the interest. By the time XRP had become the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, three of the top five money transfer companies worldwide were said to be in the process of implementing XRP in their payment flow systems.

However, as the month progressed, the optimism failed to keep XRP bid.

A rumored listing on Coinbase never happened, and this, coupled with a broader market weakness weighed heavily over XRP. As of now, XRP is changing hands at $0.89 – a figure that's down almost 80 percent from its record high.