XRP Unlikely to Repeat Past Life-Changing Gains
XRP once made investors significant profits, particularly between early 2017 and early 2018, when a $1,000 investment could have grown to about $347,000. However, replicating those returns today seems unlikely. The coin's current investment thesis faces added pressure to succeed, as it aims to become a financial platform for institutional investors, a goal that has seen limited progress so far.
For XRP to match its past performance, its price would need to surge from $1.50 to approximately $520.50 per coin, giving it a market cap of $32.8 trillion. This is nearly 11 times the current value of the entire crypto market, making such growth highly improbable. Moreover, any future gains would rely on XRP's role in the real economy, which currently appears riskier with less upside than in the past.
The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is competing in tokenization and payments but lags behind leaders like Ethereum. XRPL holds $499 million in tokenized assets compared to Ethereum's $16.7 billion. In payments, XRPL has just $1.3 billion of the $305.7 billion in stablecoins in circulation. Ripple, the coin's issuer, even promotes stablecoins over XRP for settlements, indicating weak positioning for XRP in these sectors.
Despite owning XRP in the past and holding shares of XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the author is not buying more. They suggest reconsidering only if XRPL's share of tokenized assets or stablecoins grows significantly in the coming quarters. For now, today's buyers should not expect the same fortunes as past investors.