Ripple spikes 6%, erasing weekly losses on brisk short-covering

Ripple rallied over 6%, or $0.02 on Thursday off December 12 lows for another session on aggressive short-covering after sustaining heavy losses earlier this week, with investors picking up cheap crypto assets. 

Ripple jumped 6.12% to $0.29765, with a session-high at $0.30317, and a low at $0.27558, with Ripple's market value now amounting to $29.5 billion. 

Ripple's surge for another session helped wipe out the losses of this week, with fresh new liquidity entering the struggling crypto market after bursting the bubble of late 2017 and early 2018. 

Saudi Arabia: Cryptocurrencies Are Illegal 

Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia reiterated warnings that trading cryptocurrencies is illegal in the kingdom amid a resurgence of promotions and ads for crypto trading. 

Officials asserted that all websites who claim a government license to offer crypto trading are fraudulent and fraught with fake promises of monetary gain and quick wealth. 

World Bank Announces First Ever Blockchain Bond 

The World Bank has partnered up with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia to set up the world's first blockchain bond, which was priced by the markets as clear international support for the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies. 

It's expected the bonds will carry 100 million Australian dollars in value, to be called bond-i, an acronym standing for Blockchain Offered New Debt Instrument, with an ethereum-based blockchain to be used in these bonds for its suitability. 

SEC Delays Crypto ETF Decision 

In other news that hurt sentiment in the market last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed its final decision on requests to set up bitcoin exchange-traded funds to late September, in another development that upset crypto enthusiasts in the States.

The Path of Ripple 

It's worth mentioning that Ripple was first launched on March 7, 2015, to start trading at $0.015, with the virtual currency losing nearly two thirds of its value by early 2016 to $0.0059, before rising 5% during 2016 to $0.0063, and then skyrocketing 28,000% to $1.748 by the end of 2017, before marking unprecedented highs in January at $3.30, then losing 85% of value rapidly in the last few months, and finally closing the first half of the year below $0.5.