Why Coinbase listing didn’t boost XRP price

There was a general feeling that when Coinbase announced it was listing XRP on its Coinbase Pro platform there would be a corresponding leap in the value of Ripple’s native token. There was some movement on the day of the announcement (25th February) with XRP shooting up by 10% in value, but that is about as exciting as it got.

Furthermore, when Coinbase then announced on 28th February that it was adding XRP to Coinbase.com, as well as the exchanges’s Android and iOS apps, the response was flat.

The analysts’ analysis

While crypto consumers might be somewhat surprised by this lack of activity, analysts were less so. According to crypto expert Charles Bovaird, writing at Forbes, several analysts were of the opinion that they had never expected anything else. Jeff Dorman, cofounder and head portfolio manager at Arca Funds told Bovaird: “I’m not surprised by the lack of price action for XRP. First, XRP has been plagued by negative press this year and as a result, the token has been lagging the broader market all year.”

Dorman also explained that the 10% rally on the 25th February had amounted to much more, because “those gains were quickly erased when the people who bought before the news sold into those buying after the news.”

Marouane Garcon, managing director of crypto-to-crypto derivatives platform Amulet, shares Dorman’s view. “I can’t say that I’m surprised by the lack of movement. Throughout this entire bear market news and public developments haven’t been able to spark any sort of uptrend.”

However, Garcon did explain what he thought would move XRP’s price — adoption. He said, “In XRP’s case, I think banks utilizing XRP in their daily operations is what’s going to move their market.”

Big announcements don’t always bear fruit for XRP

Joe DiPasquale, CEO of cryptocurrency fund of hedge funds BitBull Capital also claims that he and others have noticed something ‘interesting’ about XRP’s price movements: “We’ve noticed the market anticipate many of Ripple’s moves, resulting in what might seem as counter-intuitive pricing over major events,” he told Bovaird, adding, “For example, during both of their last two conferences, where they announced major business development deals, the price of the XRP token dropped.”

The crypto ecosystem is the ultimate decider

All the analysts seem to agree on another viewpoint, “the different digital currencies that make up the broader market tend to move in tandem.”

So, the reason Coinbase didn’t move XRP’s price upwards as much as might have been expected is down to Ripple also being subject to the waves within the larger crypto pricing ecosystem, and these don’t always work in harmony with big announcements.