From a Ripple to a Tidal Wave: Collaboration With PNC Leads to XRP Surge

Ripple made the announcement on Sept. 19, stating that PNC's Treasury Management unit will be using its xCurrent software solution to expedite cross-border transactions for the bank's U.S. commercial clients.

As a result, the price of Ripple soared over the next few days, seeing as much as 15 percent gains in overall market capitalization.

According to initial reports, Ripple considers the move as a necessary first step in order to get banks and financial institutions to eventually use xRapid - its liquidity product that uses Ripple's digital token, XRP. Ripple's product management senior vice president, Asheesh Birla, says xCurrent is "a way to get their toe into the water."

With that being said, PNC has joined a number of major financial institutions that have partnered up with Ripple in various ways.

In August, Ripple expressed interest in breaking into the Chinese market in an effort to speed up international payments.

Ripple is hoping to launch a commercial version of xRapid as early as October.

"XRP's surge shows PNC Bank's recognition of the Ripple protocol. With Bill Clinton keynoting Swell 2018, blockchain is going mainstream. As Ripple's Greater China Chief Rep from 2014-16 and a Ripple shareholder, I'm confident financial institutions will adopt blockchain."

"Ripple is adding a bank per week to the network and RippleNet is live in 40 countries and six continents. PNC being the most recently announced bank shows that Ripple is making huge progress globally toward mainstream adoption, providing cheaper, faster and more transparent payments."

"The traditional finance sector is already implementing blockchain as part of RippleNet and the considerable benefits will drive further adoption globally. Ripple provides banks the ability to make frictionless remittances in three seconds at little cost versus the current format - i.e., SWIFT - which takes three to four days. Banks save 60-70 percent with Ripple."

Others weren't as confident about Ripple massive surge in value this week.