Two Powerful Drivers Behind Cryptocurrency Swings

Investing.com - Two very different forces have emerged in the cryptocurrency market and are capable of triggering major price swings in what's already a speculative and volatile trading environment.On one side is government regulation or anything resembling a restriction. On the other is the commercial application of the blockchain technology that lies behind the digital currencies. Worries about regulatory crackdowns, even outright bans, have caused selloffs in Bitcoin, Ripple and other digital currencies multiple times,The most recent plunge came when it seemed South Korea planned to ban trading in the currencies. In September, prices fell sharply after China said it would shut down cryptocurrency trading exchanges. Massive rallies are just as possible, when a traditional player in the financial services industry decides to use a company's blockchain technology for a digital payment system. Ripple is a good example. Just recently, Ripple surged after announcing MoneyGram would be using its RXP token for international payments,Similar rallies occurred in 2017 when Ripple announced deals with a consortium of Japanese and Korean banks and later American Express (NYSE:AXP) and Banco Santander (MC:SAN). In both cases, its technology would be used for digital payment systems.