Ben Loski joined the Ripple team this week. Mr. Loski is quite an interesting and an important figure in the cryptocurrency markets. Besides being the New York State Department of Financial Services ex-official, he is also an active advocate for cryptocurrency market development and promotion. As such, his interests include creating a regulatory base for cryptocurrencies, as well as licensing (so-called Bit Licenses).

It’s not the first time Mr. Loski falls under the spotlight of the cryptocurrency market. Earlier this year, there was a good deal of debate regarding his activity, as the most active market players were saying Loski could use his connections in the financial sector in order to quickly bring in regulation to the cryptocurrency market. Others took it with a grain of salt, saying that Loski was just looking for a better job.

With Loski joining the Ripple Board of Directors, the situation looks questionable. From the one hand, nothing bad has happened, while Mr. Loski has a good understanding of financial market and can be much useful for the company.

From the other, however, such financial background is what can work against Loski and Ripple; cryptocurrency market is decentralized, while what Ripple is doing is trying to create a controlling center. Cryptocurrency forums are full with comments saying that hiring financial ex-officials is becoming a strong trend in digital currencies, a trend that is disliked by all.

Apart from this, however, there is enough good news for Ripple. Take American Express starting to use Ripple Net for example. Ripple Net is actively used as a payment solution by the large US and UK banks, which makes Ripple quite an interesting asset in terms of long term investment.

Over the last month, Ripple significantly dropped: XRP was trading at $0.3065 on Oct 16 and fell to $0.2745 by Nov 16. Currently, it’s lost even more, trading at $0.2345. Just like other ‘altcoins’, Ripple has been under pressure with Bitcoin skyrocketing and the sentiment constantly changing. Money is where the volatile Bitcoin is, so altcoins are still ‘underdogs’.

Technically, Ripple is trading in a mid-term channel between $0.1300 and 0.3435, and is unlikely to exceed this range by the end of the month or even by the end of the year. Most likely, the price is going to consolidate around $0.2250 or 0.2350.

However, another scenario is also possible: in case Bitcoin rallies towards $8,030 or $8,040 next week, Ripple may follow it in an attempt to achieve $0.32 or $0.34, for at least two weeks.

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