Omni invests millions in XRP. Why?
By making a big bet on the future of Ripple, the Omni financial startup has invested " most of $ 25 million " in the round of raising funds for the XRP token .
Hoping that the price of the coin will increase in the long term and the company will successfully pass the traditional rounds of investment series C and Series D, Omni's CEO, Tom McLeod, said:
"I look at the long-term benefits of a potentially valuable asset on the balance sheet."
The traditional venture capital fund, Highland Capital Partners, which invested $ 7 million in Omni in the Series A investment round in 2016, also took part in investing in Ripple, but did not disclose the amount invested.
Investments in XRP look untimely, as the price of coins has fallen by almost 50%, according to CoinMarketCap, as well as the absolute majority of the country's currency.
According to Ripple co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen and technical director Ripple Stefan Thomas, a part of these XRP investments will go to pay freelancers and bonuses to employees.
Anna Rubos, a public relations agent with TablePR, who represents Omni, positions XRP as a form of payment.It is noteworthy that this use of the coin is a departure from the philosophy of the XRP token, mainly intended to create liquidity for cross-border payments between large financial institutions.
Nevertheless, MacLeod positions this crypto currency as a way to break away from the formal traditional venture capital model and instead attract talent to an incentive that can have a longer lasting impact by raising the price of tokens.
XRP has grown significantly during the last month, starting ascent from 20 cents per coin in mid-December and by January 6, set a historic record of 3.80 dollars per coin. However, on Tuesday, the price of XRP reached a two-week low of 0.90 dollars.
Future Use
Omni, which provides a market for the rental of physical items, plans to work more with Ripple in the future. Although the company does not plan to accept XRP for payment right now, McLeod said:
"There are partnerships and plans, which will include Ripple Inc., the tokens of which will be used."
Although no specific details have been given, the current Ripple products are:
xCurrent is a real-time bi-directional messaging platform that is not based on XRP tokens;
xRapid - uses the XRP token to reduce liquidity costs for payments in emerging markets;
xVia is an API that allows users to send international payments over the Ripple network.
For the last couple of years, Ripple has gathered on its platform more than 100 financial institutions, one of the reasons why many beginner crypto-enthusiasts view XRP as a good and inexpensive investment.
Nevertheless, on the Internet, there is a fierce debate about the wisdom of such an investment decision, since most of Ripple's partners use the xCurrent platform, which is not related to XRP. Only the Mexican payment provider Cuallix uses XRP via xRapid, although recently Moneygram announced that it will test the use of XRP for its internal processes.
Nevertheless, MacLeod , despite his optimism about the price of XRP, said that the formation of investment in the crypto currency is not only a kind of speculation, but has a practical purpose:
"We fully agree with their vision for agreeing on faster payments. This gives us the opportunity to increase the level of our products."