Ripple plunges 6% to six-week trough

Ripple fell nearly six percent, or $0.02 on Friday to October 15 lows, on track for the first weekly loss in six amid a violent crypto selloff wave. 

As of 06:09 GMT, Ripple fell 5.75% to $0.4029, with a five-week low at $0.39866, and a session-high at $0.43417, with Ripple's market value receding sharply to $16.13 billion. 

Ripple's losses this week amounted to 21% after marking an 8% drop on Tuesday, the worst such performance since October 11. 

Cryptocurrencies are experiencing an exodus of cash and investments for the last few weeks, with analysts blaming a hrad fork (split) for Bitcoin Cash that instigated all uncertainty. 

Last week, International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde suggested on global central banks and their respective governments the possibility of issuing their own digital currencies to make them more stable and controlled and accessible for all sectors instead of the current mayhem in that market. 

Lagarde believes that payments through digital currencies would be instant, safe, and cheap, and while they would be anonymous, central banks will keep a database of all payments, cutting out fraud and money laundering operations. 

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 up to 90% of value on a violent selloff wave that stormed crypto assets this year. 

Ripple then reversed nearly 80% higher in only a few days in September on positive news for the cryptocurrency and its standing between major financial institutions, before joining a mass decline in the crypto market in recent days and weeks.