The CEO of fintech company Ripple is now offering a bold prediction for what the new year holds in store for the cryptocurrency markets, as he believes that the market-wide purge that was largely anticipated to occur in 2019 will actually take place in 2020.This market-wide “consolidation” trend that he anticipates to occur in the coming year may have large implications for how the markets will trend in the future, and may even spell trouble for XRP.Ripple CEO: 2020 To Be Year of Consolidation Within Crypto MarketsDuring a recent episode of “The Ripple Drop” – a YouTube show hosted by the company – Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of the fintech company, offered insights into what he believes is going to happen within the cryptocurrency markets in the new year.Notably, he explained that he believes that the majority of the 3,000+ cryptocurrencies that currently exist within the markets will disappear as investors migrate away from smaller speculative cryptos and towards ones with proven utility.“I think you’re going to continue to see consolidation. The world doesn’t need 3000+ cryptocurrencies out there, and I think the utility will bear out that there will be a migration to quality if you will,” he explained during his segment on the YouTube video.The Ripple CEO further elaborated on this statement, explaining that although there’s no telling as to how many of the 3,000+ cryptos will disappear this year, he does believe that eventually 99% of cryptocurrencies will disappear.“And I think you’ll see consolidation, where there’ll be fewer than 3,000 for sure. We can argue how low that number can go. I’ve said publicly that I thought 99% would go away.”Investors Fleeing Smaller Altcoins May Not Turn to XRP; Here’s Why It is likely that investors who flee these smaller altcoins that they deem to be useless will not flock to XRP, which may mean that other major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum will see some decent upwards momentum while XRP remains stuck around its current price levels.Jeffery Tucker, a prominent economist, recently spoke to Russia Today about XRP, explaining that although it does have significant utility that could help usher in a new global financial system, investors may not be too enthused with it due to it being a “specific kind of crypto” that is uninteresting to normal investors.Because XRP’s specific utility does not necessarily impact consumers and retail investors, the upcoming consolidation phase that the Ripple CEO is anticipating may not have a positive impact on the crypto and may even lead some investors to flee it in favor of other digital assets.Featured image from Shutterstock.The post appeared first on NewsBTC
