One of the triggers of the recent Ripple rally has been a potential inclusion in the No. 1 exchange, Coinbase. Reports about beta testing have pushed XRP/USD higher. Coupled with better reasons for a rise: the potential usage of Ripple for transactions between Japanese and other banks, the price reached $3.31 and the market cap surpassed $150 billion, around $250 that of bitcoin.

But now we learn that Coinbase is denying the rumours of inclusion, and this sparks a sell-off. XRP/USD is still marginally higher on the day, but it plunged all the way from $3.31 to $2.60 before stabilizing. Ripple’s market cap still exceeds that of Ethereum, despite the recent rise in ETH/USD.

Is this a buying opportunity?

Coinbase is not the only exchange and there are other good fundamental reasons to be optimistic on this specific currency, thanks to prospects of real usage. The reason for its usage is fast transaction times: 4 seconds according to the company’s claims, while bitcoin suffers from slow confirmation times and high fees. In addition, we are seeing that bitcoin is no longer immune. Yes, there is such a thing as bad publicity for bitcoin.

Yet it is also important to note that the meteoric rise of Ripple means that perhaps this downside correction would have come in any case.

What do you think?