bitFlyer, reportedly Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by bitcoin trade volume, announced today that it added support for Ripple (XRP).
The exchange revealed the development in a Dec. 2 press release noting that XRP is the second-largest cryptocurrency in Japan in terms of trade volume, with only Bitcoin (BTC) leading the way. Thus, the addition of the altcoin, which is also the third-largest by market cap, according to CoinMarketCap, was necessary.
Beyond bitFlyer users now being able to trade XRP, the exchange also announced it was giving away 100,000 Japanese Yen ($911) to mark the new altcoin listing. Notably, XRP is the only cryptocurrency that bitFlyer has listed for the last two years.
Ripple (XRP) Price Action – Bearish
News of XRP’s listing on one of Japan’s largest crypto trading exchange has had little to no effect on the price of the altcoin, perhaps given the recent release of 1,000,000,000 XRP from Ripple’s escrow wallet over the weekend.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 1,000,000,000 #XRP (225,092,032 USD) unlocked from escrow at Ripple Escrow wallet
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) December 1, 2019
At the time of writing, XRP was exchanging hands at $0.21 per coin, marking a 1% decline in the last 24 hours, with the altcoin’s market cap also sliding just below $9.5 billion.
As shown in the chart above, the current price is way off the $0.35 region for which XRP traded at the start of the year, a stark contrast to the significant increase recorded by other cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH)
