Ethereum and Ripple recorded the most gains on April 28, as Ether price increased by 25 percent and Ripple price recorded a 24-hour increase of 30 percent.
Why did Ethereum price surge?
Ethereum price increased from around $61 to $68 within 24 hours, adding $600 mln to its market cap. On April 27, Ether surpassed its previous all-time high value, breaking $60.15. In the past 24 hours, however, Ether peaked $68, establishing a new all-time high. Although Ether declined by around 10 percent over the past 12 hours, it managed to stabilize at $64.4.
The recent surge in Ether price is suspected to be the effect of the US Securities Exchange Commission's decision to consider the approval of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for Ether.
On July 15, 2016, the EtherIndex Ether Trust team filed a proposal for an Ether ETF to the SEC. The proposal read:
“Shares are issued only in one or more blocks of Shares called “Baskets” in exchange for Ether. The Trust will issue and redeem the Shares in Baskets only to certain Authorized Participants on an ongoing basis as described in the “Plan of Distribution” section of this Prospectus. On creation, Baskets will be distributed to the Authorized Participants by the Trust in exchange for the delivery to the Trust of the appropriate number of Ether.”
On April 21, 2017, the SEC released a statement noting that the ETF is currently being evaluated and the SEC will approach appropriate parties and persons of interest in the upcoming weeks to decide whether the EtherIndex Ether Trust is approved or not.
“Institution of proceedings does not indicate that the Commission has reached any conclusions with respect to any of the issues involved. Rather, as described below, the Commission seeks and encourages interested persons to provide comments on the proposed rule change,” the SEC announced read.
Ether price has been on the rise since, due to the possibility of an ETF approval that would allow institutional and high profile investors to invest in Ethereum via a regulated channel.
Ripple sees major increase in price
Ripple, a Blockchain-based settlement network designed to handle cross-border and cross-bank payments for financial institutions, announced that multi-billion dollar banks including the $60 bln Spanish banking giant BBVA joined the Ripple network to solve speed, scalability and cost of global transactions.
According to Ripple’s press statement released by Ripple Director of Corporate Communications David Patterson, leading banks including BBVA will work with Ripple to utilize its public Blockchain to optimize transactions and the settlement of assets.
“The world’s largest banks have been the first to adopt Ripple’s technology and the network effect from our customer base is accelerating.People know Ripple is the only Blockchain solution for payments that is proven in the real world and it’s driving demand from financial institutions of all kinds and sizes because they want to stay ahead of the curve,” said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
Patterson reaffirmed the importance and necessity of large banks like BBVA and Akbank in testing the Ripple solution at a commercial scale.
“BBVA, one of the top 50 largest banks in the world, is using Ripple to enable real-time payments between Europe and Mexico. Digital banking pioneer and one of Turkey’s largest private banks, Akbank, is the first bank in Turkey to adopt Blockchain and is a model for other banks who want to make faster cross-border payments without the need for correspondents,” Patterson stated.