Ripple’s (XRP) price has been declining of late, but the announcement of a major deal with cash transfer firm MoneyGram has seen its value rocket to a much healthier figure.

In a surprise move, MoneyGram revealed that it is trialling Ripple to see whether it can be used to move funds between accounts – and locations – in a faster and cheaper way than traditional methods.

The price of Ripple has been on the rise since the news broke, hitting a cool £1.61 ($2.20) per token on Friday, January 12 – up from the £1.17 ($1.60) it was sitting at this time last week.

Its market cap value is also recovering, and was sitting comfortably above $80bn at time of publication, with some industry insiders predicting it could eclipse the mighty Bitcoin’s cap if it reaches $7 per unit.

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If the test is successful, MoneyGram could make Ripple its go-to transfer method, moving the virtual currency one step closer towards mainstream acceptance – and making it an even greater long-term threat to pre-eminent cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

It isn’t difficult to see why the firm is interested in adopting Ripple, either.

Industry data shows that the platform – which takes two to three seconds to process a standard payment – charges “fractions of a penny” in transaction fees, maximising profits for financial institutions.

This is the appeal of cryptocurrencies as a whole, but compared to other Bitcoin rivals like Ethereum and Litecoin, Ripple is still relatively affordable, making it more tempting for blockchain newbies to experiment with – and easier for a big business like MoneyGram to put its stamp on.

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