The crypto industry is bracing for serious developments as Ripple prepares to face off with Facebook’s Libra. Since 2014, Facebook has had plans to launch its own digital currency to be deployed within its huge user base especially via WhatsApp. The crypto is named Libra. According to a tweet by Anthony Pompliano, a lot of people are entertaining the thought that Libra might grow to eventually overtake Ripple’s XRP.
Facebook is rumored to launch their cryptocurrency, Libra, tomorrow which many believe could render Ripple/XRP useless.
Ripple not going down without a fight though — they just agreed to invest $50M in MoneyGram to accelerate adoption.
The token wars are upon us!
— Pomp ? (@APompliano) June 17, 2019
However, that notion doesn’t seem to strike home so well especially considering that Facebook has only just released the Libra White Paper and that the cryptocurrency itself is still under development.
Ripple Is Investing Heavily
For years, Ripple has been proactively wooing new clients within the banking industry and has been campaigning heavily to boost XRP’s adoption targeting institutions dealing in cross-border funds transfer.
The company has just invested about $50 million in MoneyGram, a move that many see as a step up meant to fast-track the adoption of XRP as it’s used to boost liquidity during funds transfer using Ripple’s payment solutions like xRapid.
Is Libra A Threat To XRP?
While the introduction of Libra into the crypto space may be a good thing in market development, there are those like Pompliano who see it as a declaration of war between Libra and the incumbent XRP, making it a “token war” that could culminate with one of them losing out. However, that may not be the case since Libra’s use cases are somewhat to XRP’s.
For starters, Libra is meant to circulate within Facebook’s user base and will be used for peer-to-peer transfers via WhatsApp. As such, the transactions are bound to be low-volume as opposed to Ripple’s usage of XRP to facilitate fast cross-border transactions between banks. In that case, it’s certain that Libra doesn’t present that much of a threat to Ripple and XRP.
