Bitcoin has been at the forefront of the crypto market. It was the first cryptocurrency to be conceived and it has led this new market to extraordinary levels. But, Ripple Coin (XRP) is catching up with Bitcoin and it is turning into a rival now.

The value for a single Ripple is far from that of Bitcoin; Ripple is trading around $1.90-$2 at the moment while Bitcoin is at $13,000, which seems like a pretty huge gap. But, the amount of Ripple coins in circulation is nearly 40 billion, while the amount of Bitcoin in circulation is getting close to 17 million.

That puts the market capitalization at around $87 billion for Ripple and at $231 billion. This puts Ripple at second place, which automatically makes it the contestant for the throne of the cryptocurrency market.

But it gets more interesting seeing the recent jump of the last few weeks in Ripple. By mid-December, the price of Ripple was around $0.20, now it is nearly $2. That’s a huge jump in just two weeks.

It came as the XRP CEO announced that “Ripple is a highly effective payment method” after some Japanese financial firms decided to adopt it. So, this is the reason for the surge in Ripple lately.

Another strange thing which I have observed in these last couple of weeks is the fact that the crypto market is taking the opposite direction of Ripple; when Ripple jumps, the crypto market dives and vice versa. Bitcoin used to do that until mid-December, which meant that the cash in the cryptocurrency market was flowing from Bitcoin to the rest of altcoins and vice versa.

Now, it seems like the cash flows are moving Ripple and the rest of Altcoins. Is Ripple taking over Bitcoin? Will it become the hot currency of 2018? No one knows but these are some positive events and positive signs for Ripple. If more firms embrace Ripple, then it might even take the top spot, but only as market cap, because I don’t think it willever reach $20,000.