Ripple Valuation Skyrockets to $50 Billion, But What About XRP?

Ripple's market value has skyrocketed to $50 billion after an employee share buyback in March 2026, surpassing Coinbase's market cap at the time. However, XRP, the token associated with Ripple, is still struggling to gain traction and maintain its price above $1.35.

The reason for this discrepancy lies in the fact that banks don't necessarily need XRP to use Ripple's payments network, which processes cross-border transfers in three to five seconds for a fraction of a cent. Currently, only a handful of customers, including SBI Remit and Travelex Bank, route liquidity through the token itself.

The XRP Ledger's decentralized finance total value locked sits at around $50 million, trailing behind 40 other chains and dwarfed by Ethereum's roughly $50 billion.