Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices fell sharply last year, but now the situation seems to be changing. Investors say that increased institutional support for cryptocurrencies, escalating U.S.-China trade tensions, and Facebook's plans to release its own digital currency have put positive pressure on the Bitcoin price. There will be other solutions, that will be more promising. I can say that Ripple is a fairly promising cryptocurrency, which is different from other coins. Ripple is a decentralized platform for payment systems. It is focused on currency exchange operations, but without the possibility of return payments. Many people today are interested in why Ripple is used by banks. According to the company, the use of this platform can help to save more than three dollars on average on each transfer of funds. And given that the annual number of transactions of some banks reaches millions, they can save a lot of money. Banks are attrected with such an opportunity, because it will significantly increase their profits. That's why, Ripple has the potential to become the most popular platform for real-time transactions.