As the price of XRP escalated to an all-time high value of $1.96 during 2021, its market capitalization briefly touched a record high of over $88 billion. It subsequently fell by a whopping 70% due to the saga of the US SEC lawsuit, thereby creating the boom in the market regarding the “millionaire potential of xrp.”. According to CoinMarketCap figures, during the fourth quarter of 2023, the trading volume of XRP remained consistent at 1.5 billion to 2 billion US dollars, which accounted for 5.3% of cryptocurrencies’ trading volume, representing a remarkable liquidity premium. If Ripple does manage to settle in full with US regulators during 2025, as Bloomberg Industry Research suggests, the price of XRP could breach $3.5, and that rate of return for early purchasers (such as those who bought in 2017 at $0.006) will be more than 580 times, upping a principal of $100,000 to $58 million.
According to technical application case analysis, RippleNet has partnered with more than 300 international financial institutions (including Santander and Bank of America), streamlining cross-border payment efficiency by 60% and reducing the cost per transaction to 0.00001 XRP (or approximately 0.003 US dollars). By contrast, the traditional legacy SWIFT system settles cross-border remittances in 3 to 5 days and for up to 30 to 50 US dollars. If Ripple enjoys a 15% market share of global cross-border payment by 2025 (currently around 5%), as estimated in a McKinsey report, its daily web transaction volume will exceed 5 million, and the demand for XRP will grow more than 300%. Additionally, the 2023 Federal Reserve report mentioned that the efficiency of bank settlement using blockchain technology has increased by 40%, and the transaction processing per second (TPS) capacity of XRP Ledger is at 1,500 times, three times the Visa network’s capacity. The technological advantage provides support for its long-term value.
Risk considerations should not be ignored. According to CryptoCompare data, the volatility (30-day annualized standard deviation) of XRP in 2023 was 85%, higher than Bitcoin’s 45% and Ethereum’s 60%. When the overall market declines, XRP can go back to the $0.3 support level (the lowest point in 2023), and investors will lose more than 50%. Further, the pending US Congress consideration Digital Asset Market Structure Act could impose a 20% to 30% compliance cost on XRP, which would knock out its margin. Despite all this, a survey from Finder’s group of experts reports that 73% of respondents have the belief that there are 30% chances of XRP reaching over $5 within 2025. If so, 90% of the top 1% of current holdings (circa 35,000) will have million-dollar gains.
History can teach us lessons: During the 2017 Bitcoin fork, XRP price surged by 850% within half a year. However, after Grayscale Fund’s expansion of XRP derivatives holdings in 2021, its price increased by 120% weekly. When the same market drivers of 2025 (e.g., the deployment of XRP Ledger in central bank digital currency interoperability) are married with the $3.5 trillion incremental cross-border payment opportunity as a result of the global economic rebound, the xrp millionaire potential can once more be unleashed. Investors need to consider risk, though. It is recommended to have the place of cryptocurrencies in 5% to 10% of the total assets and use a dynamic take-profit strategy (i.e., reduce 20% of the position for each 50% increase) in order to cope with potential volatility.
