Some time has passed since the astonishing growth of Ripple (from: $0,005 to more than $0,25 per coin). There is a lot of confusion about this coin, so I’ll try to outline the major characteristics that will decree its success in the long term. 

![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSixEVcFbJ2itobq4kfdSFPveX1gmGvjVX6kKn6zGBQ1p/image.png)

1. It is meant to replace SWIFT, the actual cross-border payment system that banks use to transfer large quantities of money one to each other. This means that in a couple of years ripple market cap, which is now more than $10 billion dollars, is definitely going to increase. How much? I don’t know. It depends on how many banks on corporations are willing to support the project.

2. **Scalability:** it is fast, very fast. The Ripple network can handle up to a thousand transactions per second, whether Bitcoin now can only manage 5-7 transactions/second. This is definitely the most important feature, since Ripple is meant to handle bank-to-bank payment, and if it wasn’t so quick, banks wouldn’t even take it into consideration.

3. The price seems now to be solid. In my opinion solidity is another characteristic that will certainly help this coin. Banks won’t put their money on a coin which is too much instable. Of course the price is going up in the long run, but don’t expect anymore in the next months to see a 5000% increase. Ripple now is a long-term investment.