XRP (Ripple) Investors’ 5-Year Wait Is Over - Here’s What Comes Next

After half a decade of regulatory purgatory, XRP finally breaks free—and the market's reacting with seismic shifts.

The Regulatory Thaw

Ripple's legal battles created five years of uncertainty that froze institutional adoption in its tracks. Now that clarity's emerging, traditional finance players are finally dipping toes into crypto waters—albeit with the cautious enthusiasm of cats testing bath temperature.

Price Action Unleashed

XRP's chart's showing volatility that'd give traditional stock traders heart palpitations. The token's ripping through resistance levels like they're made of tissue paper, proving once again that crypto markets move at light speed while regulators shuffle along at bureaucratic pace.

Institutional Floodgates

Banks and payment processors that've been watching from the sidelines are now forced to make moves. They're either building integration or getting left behind—because in finance, being late to the party means you're just cleaning up empty champagne bottles.

Market Domino Effect

XRP's resurgence isn't happening in isolation. It's pulling the entire altcoin market along for the ride, proving that when one major crypto wins its legal battles, the whole ecosystem benefits. Even the Bitcoin maximalists are quietly nodding approval.

The cynical take? Wall Street's only embracing crypto now that they've figured out how to charge fees for it. But for XRP holders who weathered five years of uncertainty—this moment's been earned, not given.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why the SEC sued Ripple

Ripple created a unique payments network called Ripple Payments. It facilitates instant cross-border transactions by enabling global banks to deal with one another directly, no matter what existing infrastructure they use. Without Ripple Payments, banks using the SWIFT (Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) network WOULD have to use an intermediary to send money to banks that don't use the system, delaying payments by several days.

Ripple created XRP as a bridge currency to standardize each transaction within Ripple Payments. For example, an American bank might send XRP to a European bank rather than sending U.S. dollars, cutting out costly foreign exchange fees. The cost of a single transaction using XRP is typically 0.00001 of a token, which is a fraction of one U.S. cent.

XRP has a total supply of 100 billion tokens. There are 59.6 billion in circulation, and the rest are controlled by Ripple, which gradually releases them to meet demand. As a result, XRP is a centralized cryptocurrency. Decentralized cryptocurrencies like(BTC 0.08%) aren't controlled by any person or company, and they are typically earned through a process called "mining."

That's why the SEC sued Ripple in 2020. The regulator argued that XRP should be classified as a financial security, just like stocks and bonds, which are also issued by companies. This would have forced Ripple to operate under a very strict regulatory framework, potentially derailing its business model.

In August 2024, a judge issued a ruling that mostly favored Ripple. The SEC lodged an appeal which could have dragged the legal battle on for several more years, but the TRUMP administration's pro-crypto agenda changed things. The Atkins-led SEC officially dropped the appeal last month, formally closing the case.

Here's what might happen next

XRP hit a new record high in July for the first time in seven years, in anticipation of Ripple's settlement with the SEC. Bullish sentiment was also fueled by the approval of a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) called theon July 18. It invests in futures contracts, so it doesn't own any XRP directly. But investors are speculating that regulatory approval for spot ETFs could follow, and those funds would start buying up XRP tokens.

There is some precedent, because futures-based Bitcoin ETFs came before spot ETFs, so investors are hoping XRP follows the same path. This proved to be very bullish for Bitcoin because many investors already viewed it as a legitimate store of value, so ETFs gave financial advisors and institutions a safe, regulated way to own it.

I'm not convinced that spot ETFs would have the same effect on XRP, because it doesn't have a proven reputation as a store of value. It's a bridge currency in the Ripple Payments network, and ETFs wouldn't improve that use case at all.

That brings me to a crucial point. Ripple Payments supports the use of fiat currency, so banks don't have to use XRP. This means that the success of the network won't necessarily lead to a higher value per token over the long term.

Therefore, if Ripple Payments isn't a reliable value creator for XRP, and ETFs fail to become a tailwind like they are for Bitcoin, then volatility is likely to be the overriding theme from here. When XRP hit its previous record high in 2018, it plunged by more than 90% over the following year.

The token is in a better position today, but I don't see a clear fundamental case for sustainable long-term upside from here, which leaves investors exposed to potential price corrections in the future.