$XRP has doubled in price in the past week, adding $12B to the market cap
$XRP is on a tear over the past few days, leading to a more than 108% week-over-week price increase that is significantly larger than any of the other top 15 cryptocurrency gains this week. The increase has added ~$12 billion to the market cap of $XRP.
The increase in price follows an announcement by Sagar Sarbhai, Ripple's head of regulatory relations for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East that Ripple Labs will be rolling out the long-awaited xRapid product to production in the next month. Ripple Labs claims that xRapid will enable currency transfers around the world by payment providers that are both faster and more cost-effective. Ripple's CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, has previously said that he expects dozens of banks to use xRapid by the end of next year.
The large price move in $XRP has continued unabated despite Ripple's PR team declining to comment on an official commercial release timeline for xRapid. This price move follows a long-time pattern in $XRP's price history of the token making significant moves on forward-looking comments by Ripple executives.