IG GROUP/ IG MARKETS UK HAS LISTED RIPPLE

[RDS]

HI Guys. I am not sure if its already posted here, and if it is I could not find it, but I am sure all of us can use some good news today. IG group /IG markets from UK (which is big in UK )

has started CFD options on Ripple. You can not buy it to store but it does let you hedge your positions which is going to be important for banks as they need some trustworthy market place to hedge bets even if they are transferring funds for short time. 

IG is big group they listen on LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE with the value of 393 million pounds. Please find the paragraph below for details and link with their details. 

In May 2005, after two years of private ownership, IG Group and CVC Capital Partners re-floated the company on the main list of the London Stock Exchange with a valuation of £393 million.[6] In October 2008, IG Group acquired FXOnline Japan KK, a Japanese retail FX business.[7] IG Group has been trying to gain access to the potentially lucrative US market where IG Group's main products, contracts for difference and financial spread betting, are currently not legal. In 2007, it purchased HedgeStreet, a small US based company that developed an electronic marketplace that allows online retail investors to trade financial derivatives. It renamed this the North American Derivatives Exchange or (NADEX) and has been attempting to use this to develop a product that looks like its binary option "digital 100s" product but that meets the US financial regulations and can be offered to retail traders. In May 2010, it obtained permission from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to make various technical changes that move in that direction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IG_Group

They have  only listed only few reputed coins and luckily Ripple is one of them. I have used IG markets for CFD trading 5 years ago and their support is awesome and  Ripple getting listed there is a good sign, as I was trading forex when they listed BTC and few months after their listing, BTC picked up, of course not because IG markets only but what i mean is that they seem to be one of those exchanges who would only launch products with upside potential in near term so HODL guys and hope for the best in this speculative market. 

[RDS]

This is what i found on their website about Ripple. It seems they launched it on 5th jan 2018.

https://www.ig.com/au/trading-opportunities/2018/01/05/what-is-ripple--41437

What is ripple?

Ripple is used on a network blockchain technology to connect banks, payment providers and digital asset exchanges via its own ‘RippleNet’. Ripple aims to provide an incredibly cheap and frictionless experience to facilitate cross border transactions for a multitude of different currencies and assets, making it potentially one of the most scalable digital assets in the world today.

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IG Analyst

Saturday 06 January 2018 04:52

Source: Bloomberg

The origins of ripple

It may come as a surprise, but ripple actually originates from a payment protocol originally developed in 2004, five years before the first bitcoin was mined. This RipplePay.com community based payment system aimed to 'provide secure payment options to members of an online community via a global computer network through the use of traditional currency and virtual currency'. Put simply, the goal was to take the concept of credit lines with a bank, and apply them to a trust network between friends and communities, and rely on the six degrees of separation concept.

How ripple works

Before we look at ripple, we need to look at the concept of the RippleNet, the network ripple transacts with.

Imagine you and a friend are on holiday, and you meet up with your friend’s cousin and their friend, who neither of you have ever met. The four of you have a meal at the airport on the way back, and you decide to pay for everyone. You trust your friend will pay you back so you accept an IOU from him, but you don’t really know his cousin or friend. You do however know that your friend trusts his cousin, and that his cousin trusts his friend. You therefore accept an IOU from them. This is the basic principle of the Ripple network – a web of trust between parties who know each other and trust each other by association, to deal their own personal ledger and ‘debt’ (IOU’s), without a need for an intermediary.

With this concept of debt in mind, you can go one step further with the ripple network. Imagine after getting home you want a haircut, and the barber you go to also knows your cousin. He would be willing to accept the IOUs, as he knows you and your cousin, and by association the trust with the other two (your friend and your cousins friend). You can then offload the debt to effectively pay for your haircut.

If you extrapolate this basic concept, allow the network to be multicurrency and cross border, and make it near instant, you have the fundamentals of the ripple network. All users trust and debt balances are updated simultaneously and automatically, causing a ‘ripple’ effect across all trusted associates.

Is ripple a cryptocurrency?

The digital currency which lives side by side with the ripple network is known as XRP, and acts as a bridge between multiple different currencies. Simply put, you can send GBP to someone on the other side of the world who has a USD bank account via RippleNet via a number of ‘gateways’ which automatically convert any transaction or exchange. The path may look roughly like this: send GBP via the GBP/XRP gateway to convert GBP into XRP. This XRP then gets sent over RippleNet and hits the USD/XRP gateway to convert back into USD, and the USD then hits the recipients account. It basically allows different financial institutions to communicate directly, and rather than act as cryptocurrency it acts as a settlement, or remittance provider.

Why is ripple going up in value?

The world in general is going mad for cryptocurrencies at the moment, and there are many out there who are looking for the next bitcoin. People see the low price of ripple and think that it could be like betting into bitcoin back when it was $3, however due to the significantly larger supply (nearly 39 billion vs bitcoins max of 21 million), these values can’t be compared.

What is interesting is that ripple has come from a relatively low market capitalisation, and has seen significant gains over the last 12 months. This obviously garners media attention, which continues to fuel the crypto bull market, but there could be more to this than just the hype.

Advocates of the network and cryptocurrency think that this could be the end of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payments system which is currently in use. SWIFT is currently used by the majority of banks throughout the world. If you were to send funds, your cash would basically pass through this SWIFT process and take three days to settle. Bitcoin is trying to become a possible global currency, but currently can still take hours to settle. Ripple takes 3.7 seconds.

What are the negatives of ripple?

Ripple have taken the blockchain model, and have tried to make it commercially friendly and ‘for the banks’. They don’t have a decentralised consensus network in the same way as a number of other coins out there, and in fact the system is wholly owned by ripple labs – this is in direct opposition to a key philosophy of many other cryptographers and crypto users. Furthermore, in theory, ripple could increase the supply of XRP and devalue the coin, and in a worst case scenario they’d be able to run the entire ripple network without the actual coin itself. This, for many, is too great a risk.

Where is the price of ripple likely to head?

As with all assets, no one can truly know where they are heading. The price of ripple could very much rise tomorrow, or it could fall. As with all cryptocurrencies, it’s important to have a firm understanding of the trade you are placing, the volatile nature of the asset itself, risk management with the use of stops and guaranteed stops, and a clear trading plan before getting into the deal.

How do you buy ripple (XRP)?

You can buy or sell a leveraged position in ripple on a CFD or spread betting account through IG. You aren’t actually buying or selling the underlying asset, but rather you are speculating on its price movement. This works in much the same way as our bitcoin, bitcoin cash and ether offering. Please check out IG.com for more details. 

[Tripple]

These are CFDs. You're not buying XRP, you're buying a derivative. 

[RDS]

Just now, Tripple said:

These are CFDs. You're not buying XRP, you're buying a derivative. 

I think you did not read the article mate, i already mentioned that, but its still important as CFDs can be used by big financial institutions to hedge their bets if they are using xrp for big payments (even for shortest duration of time ). so any demand in CFD will also impact the price of physical coins. 

[splash]

3 minutes ago, Tripple said:

These are CFDs. You're not buying XRP, you're buying a derivative. 

Indeed, it says that at the very start of the second paragraph. It's still an important step in adoption. 

[RDS]

few more things to add, they  have clients in 156 countries, with around 15000 markets/products and allow margin lending or leveraging which is a powerful tool for big speculators. they are Australia's number one platform for CFDs and bought Dailyfx company for $40 M i think its big exposure.  

[Tripple]

XRP has been listed as a CFD on multiple UK platforms for some time now; including Trading212 and XM Trading, to name a few.

I don't see how IG Markets taking bets on the future value of XRP (which has already been happening for some time) can be of any direct benefit to XRP. 
 

[RDS]

6 minutes ago, Tripple said:

XRP has been listed as a CFD on multiple UK platforms for some time now; including Trading212 and XM Trading, to name a few.

I don't see how IG Markets taking bets on the future value of XRP (which has already been happening for some time) can be of any direct benefit to XRP. 
 

i am not sure about other platforms credibility, but having traded on IG for around 1 year (4-5 years ago ) i was so impressed with their service that I was waiting for Ripple to be listed there. May be I am biased, but  that is because i saw quality.  For example i called to day to ask their fee and charges of CFD positions in Ripple. I did not even have to wait 1 minute to speak with customer service person and customer service was not bad either. 

[RubenParren]

Nice. These are the types of things that will be needed to provide greater liquidity for XRP. 

Miguel Vias is hard at work.  Miguel laid out the path forward very clearly in Ripples announcement of his taking up the role of Head of XRP Markets:

"Additionally, my experience in OTC markets and at an exchange will aid in charting a path toward wholesale XRP adoption. Similar to other digital assets, XRP exists in an interesting hybrid of OTC and exchange-traded markets. If we want to transform XRP into an institutionally viable currency, it’s crucial to understand how both those markets function individually, how they complement each other, and how we can leverage a deep understanding of both to further develop XRP." https://ripple.com/insights/cme-group-executive-miguel-vias-joins-ripple/

 

Edited January 10, 2018 by RubenParren

[splash]

34 minutes ago, Tripple said:

XRP has been listed as a CFD on multiple UK platforms for some time now; including Trading212 and XM Trading, to name a few.

I don't see how IG Markets taking bets on the future value of XRP (which has already been happening for some time) can be of any direct benefit to XRP. 
 

IG is the biggest cfd/markets company in the UK. They are listed on the FTSE 250 and have an excellent reputation. 

[RubenParren]

22 minutes ago, Tripple said:

XRP has been listed as a CFD on multiple UK platforms for some time now; including Trading212 and XM Trading, to name a few.

I don't see how IG Markets taking bets on the future value of XRP (which has already been happening for some time) can be of any direct benefit to XRP. 
 

When it's used by institutions for payment and settlement this will be very helpful. Also, IG is the U.K.'s largest CFD provider.  As well, they have many global accounts. Good for the long term utility of XRP.

[Tripple]

6 minutes ago, RubenParren said:

Good for the long term utility of XRP.

In what manner is this good for long term utility of XRP? I'm in the dark here. 

I get that the company is reputable - I don't doubt that - but you're not touching XRP, you're just betting on its future price.

It won't directly affect XRP trade volumes, velocity of payments, demand, price, any of it.  

Edited January 10, 2018 by Tripple
Poor spelling

[RubenParren]

3 minutes ago, Tripple said:

In what manner is this good for long term utility of XRP? I'm in the dark here. 

I get that the company is reputable - I don't doubt that - but you're not touching XRP, you're just betting on its future price.

It won't directly affect XRP trade volumes, velocity of payments, demand, price, any of it.  

Yes.  The way I understand it is that these types of instruments are used by large financial institutions as a sort of cushion or hedge against risk when entering/exiting a position in a currency/commodity like XRP.  Thus, they can lower their underlying exposure/risk in dealing with something like XRP.   CFD's are much more like the FX trading market, you don't own the underlying asset (currency pair), you're taking a position on future price movements.  

CFD's offer people a way to trade on the future movement of a cryptocurrency without having to go through the process of ever purchasing any. This also gives institutions an off exchange view of price against which they can model risk.

 

[Tripple]

Awesome, I'm with you. 

[RippleGambler]

This is great news. So far that is 2 out of the 3 businesses that I have been harassing regularly to deal with XRP.

1. The Telegraph - now pumping XRP/Ripple articles

2. IG Index - now accepted

3. Blackrock - telling them to get me a crypto fund to invest in

 

Success breeds success.

 

A word to the person who suggested this would not have impact on the XRP price/market. In essence a spread betting company do take part in hedging processes and do acquire exposure to the underlying asset. Therefore IG will buy/sell XRP depending upon their risk analysis profiles and any unmatched trades. For example:

Spreadbetter 1 buys XRP at $1.90 - $10 per $0.01

Spreadbetter 2 sells XRP at $1.90 $5 per $0.01

All of a sudden IG are on the hook for £5 per $0.01 if XRP goes up, as it is unmatched, now of course there is an assessment of spreadbetter 1 and 2's account and how good a trader they are etc. If there is an assessment that the risk is too high for IG to not own the underlying asset then they will purchase in accordance with their risk profile.

This is brilliant news and perhaps should get moved to general discussion? A lot of people will have missed this. @Mercury what do you say?