Rise of Bitcoin Competitor Ripple Creates Wealth to Rival Zuckerberg<br />Stellar has risen even faster than Ripple in recent weeks, with all outstanding Stellar tokens — known<br />as Lumens — worth around $14 billion on Thursday, making it the seventh largest virtual currency.<br />Nearly 40 virtual currencies are worth more than $1 billion — when all the outstanding tokens are counted at their current<br />value — despite many of them not having been used in any sort of transaction other than speculative trading.<br />Yet the fortunes of Mr. McCaleb and Mr. Larsen are not nearly as durable as those of other people on the Forbes list given<br />that the value of virtual currencies fluctuates wildly.<br />If Mr. Larsen wanted to access his wealth by selling Ripple tokens for dollars,<br />it would likely drive down the value of Ripple tokens — and his riches.<br />Several virtual currency hedge fund investors said that they have talked to banks and heard about interest in Ripple’s software, but not its tokens.<br />Most of the buying and selling of Ripple tokens is happening in South Korea, according to data providers<br />that track virtual currency exchanges, where ordinary investors have thrown money at a wide array of virtual currencies.
