** Update **

Its looking more like boom than bust for Ripple XRP.

Here's what has changed in 6 months:

Ripple continues to add more banks as their customers, most notable SBI in Asia.

Ripple continues to test XRP transfers with banks to display the advantage of using the native token.

Ripple has given banks a discount period to buy XRP, which is assurance that they are fully behind the XRP token as they encourage it's use.

To finally silence the critics about the 50B tokens owned by Ripple, Ripple has executed the escrow smart contract (verifiable) to lock these tokens and have them only released each month over a 4-5 year period. This controls inflation while meeting demand.

Ripple has partnered with American Express. One could only imagine the revenue if they process all of American Express' transactions.

Rumors added to fuel growth that are only rumors:

Visa or Mastercard could also use the Ripple network and/or partner with Ripple.

Amazon could begin accepting XRP as the first cryptocurrency to their site. This kinda makes sense as Ripple works well with regulators.

Coinbase to add additional altcoins, many speculate XRP is a perfect candidate. This makes sense and seems to meet Coinbase's framework for adding new tokens. Key words here are "works well with regulators", which can be a mantra of sorts for Coinbase.

Have you packed your bags?