Ripple XRP, ethereum and litecoin prices rise as interest in bitcoin alternatives surges

Lesser-known digital currencies are becoming increasingly valuable

The increasing amount of interest in bitcoin appears to have helped drive up the value of alternative digital currencies.

The price of XRP, a digital currency created by fintech company Ripple, surged by 37,000 per cent throughout 2017.

Having started the year at $0.0065, it was worth $2.47 at the end of December.

It is worth $3.67 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap.

XRP has also become the number two digital currency by market cap, exceeding $142bn.

It sits behind bitcoin ($251.4bn) and ahead of ethereum ($100.6bn) and litecoin ($13.2bn), which have also seen spectacular gains over recent months.

Ethereum, which is worth $991 at the time of publication, is up more than 9,240 per cent year over year.

Litecoin meanwhile, is worth $241 at the time of publication, and is up more than 5,195 per cent year over year, according to Coinbase. It has, however, slipped slightly over the past two days.

While it isn’t clear why the value of these digital currencies has grown so much, their rise has coincided with that of bitcoin, the best-known cryptocurrency.

This has, naturally, resulted in more and more people investing, but cyber security experts have warned that the situation has increased the risk of computers being infected with malware.

Cryptojacking incidents, in which people’s devices are quietly taken over by people trying to mine cryptocurrencies, are occurring with increasing regularity, and experts believe such attacks will continue.