XRP Price Jumps 11% After IMF Praises Ripple, Says Banks Will Be ‘Cannibalized’

The price of XRP has popped 11% at time of publishing, according to the crypto price tracker Coin360.

The price jump follows news that Ripple rival Swift will link to R3’s Corda Settler, which uses a distributed ledger to settle transactions between traditional assets and cryptocurrencies such as XRP.

It also comes after a new endorsement of Ripple’s endeavors from International Monetary Fund (IMF) director Christine Lagarde. At the Paris Fintech Festival, Lagarde warned banks that they need to act and adapt to new technologies to better serve their customers.

“I think in the banking system at large in many, many countries, the difference will not be between those who are disrupted and those who survive. The difference will be between those who are cannibalized because they’re not seeing it coming, and they’re not embracing it, and those who self-induce that cannibalization.

And I’m using cannibalization on purpose because it’s a bit of a striking, horrible word. But it’s really what it means. You’re going to disrupt your business model. You’re going to change it. You’re going to reduce your costs. You’re going to expedite your transactions, and you’re going to inspire confidence because you will build out on the basis of an existing backbone, which is your bank and the confidence, relationship you’ve established with your customers.

So that’s where I see changes happening now. If you think of Circle, and Ripple and all those – that’s where they are active and helpful.”

This is not the first time Lagarde has made the case for blockchain technology and digital currencies.

In November, Largarde said that “cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple are vying for a spot in the cashless world, constantly reinventing themselves in the hope of offering more stable value, and quicker, cheaper settlement.”