Ripple price prediction 2030–2050: What is the future of XRP?
Ripple Labs' XRP cryptocurrency is one of the oldest around, with the idea behind the coin dating back to 2004, five years before bitcoin (BTC) came onto the scene.
But while BTC has gone on to dominate the cryptocurrency universe, Ripple-developed XRP has lagged behind. XRP, which was once valued higher than Ethereum's ether (ETH) cryptocurrency, has underperformed its rivals due to an ongoing lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Ripple.
Despite the hurdles, XRP has managed to keep its position among the top 10 cryptocurrencies in the world in terms of market capitalisation, as of April 2023.
But, despite the uncertainty surrounding the court case, what can be said of the far future? Let's take a look at some of the ripple price predictions for 2030 and beyond.
Ripple explained
The XRP Ledger is an open-source platform that anyone can develop on and use for transactions. David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto began the development of the ledger in 2011 with the intention of creating a global decentralised payment system that is more scalable and efficient than bitcoin – one that is “built specifically for payments”.
XRP itself was launched in 2012. XRP is a payment token used to help make it easier to both send payments internationally and exchange cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.
As the US Government Accountability Office (US GAO) explained in a report on virtual currencies:
What is the future of Ripple?
Recently, Ripple and XRP have been involved in an ongoing lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple. The XRP price over the coming years will be highly dependent on the outcome of the lawsuit.
In December 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against two Ripple executives, executive chairman of the board and former CEO and co-founder Christian Larsen, and current CEO and member of the board of directors Bradley Garlinghouse, alleging that they raised over $1.3bn through an unregistered, ongoing digital-asset securities offering.
The SEC argued that XRP is a security rather than a currency and should be regulated by the market watchdog. In its lawsuit, the SEC said Ripple raised billions of dollars via the sale of XRP to finance the company’s business. It also alleged that Larsen and Garlinghouse profited by over $600m from “personal unregistered sales of XRP”.
A SEC complaint filing read:
The SEC also alleged that “Ripple viewed the Institutional Sales as the lynchpin of its strategy to generate speculative interest in XRP from public investors”, with Ripple making sales worth over $624.8m to at least 26 institutional investors from 2013 to 2020.
Ripple made many of those XRP institutional sales at discounts between 4% and 30% of the market price. The deals did not provide restrictions on the buyer’s ability to resell XRP and had only “brief” lock-up periods that limited buyers’ ability to resell quantities of XRP, according to the SEC.
After almost two years, the question at the heart of the lawsuit is currently focused on whether Ripple executives were aware of the risk that XRP could be deemed a security, and whether they were warned by their lawyers before the XRP sales.
The lawsuit that has been ongoing since December 2020 looked to have entered it final phase as both the SEC and Ripple filed motions for a summary judgement on 17 September 2022.
A summary judgement is a court ruling made with evidences put before the court without having to go into full trial. In the case US vs City of Stilwell, Oklahoma and Stilwell Area Development Authority, the US Department of Justice said :
By the middle of April 2023, the case was awaiting a ruling by Judge Analisa Torres of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The outcome of the case is expected to have far-reaching effects on the crypto industry, which has for long argued that cryptocurrencies are not securities, but rather are commodities like gold and silver, and therefore should not be regulated by the SEC.
XRP price history
Let's now take a quick look at some of the ripple price history. While past performance should never be taken as an indicator of future results, knowing what the coin has done in the past can help give us some very useful context when it comes to either interpreting a ripple price prediction for 2030 or making one of our own.
XRP to USD price chart, all-time performance
Source: CoinMarketCap
As of 13 April 2023, XRP is the eighth-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalisation of over $26bn.
Until January 2019, the digital payment token was the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, ahead of smart contract platform leader Ethereum.
XRP’s all-time high stood at $3.84, reached on 4 January 2018, data from CoinMarketCap showed.
Since then, the token has been on a downward trajectory hurt by the SEC lawsuit. XRP plummeted throughout 2022 and stooped to a 52-week low of $0.2906 on 18 June.
On 31 December 2022, XRP was trading at $0.3399, having lost nearly 60% over the course of the year. However, over the course of 2022, ripple had actually outperformed the crypto market, which was down around 65% throughout the year.
So far 2023 has been a more upbeat year for both XRP and the crypto market. Ripple surged to a high of $0.5804, its highest price since May 2022, on 29 March and, by 13 April 2023, it was worth about $0.5075.
Ripple price predictions for 2030-2050 round up
Let's now take a look at some of the long term ripple price predictions that were being made on 13 April 2023. It is important to remember that price forecasts, especially when it comes to something as potentially volatile as cryptocurrency, very often end up being wrong. Also, many long-term crypto price predictions are made using an algorithm, which means that they can change at a moment's notice.
First, CaptainAltCoin made an XRP price prediction for 2030 which said that the coin could be worth $3.88 and also made a ripple price prediction for 2040 that saw it trade at a potential $7.77
Elsewhere, in PricePrediction suggested that the ripple price in 2030 could be $8.84.
Meanwhile, DigitalCoinPrice made a ripple price prediction for 2030 that said it could be worth $5.18.
Finally, Telegaon claimed the coin could trade at an average price of $25.32 in 2030, before making an XRP price prediction for 2040 of $72.06 and an XRP price prediction for 2050 of $125.14.
When considering a ripple coin price prediction, it’s important to keep in mind that cryptocurrency markets remain extremely volatile, making it difficult to accurately predict what a coin or token’s price will be in a few hours, and even harder to give long-term estimates. As such, analysts and algorithm-based forecasters can and do get their predictions wrong.
If you are considering investing in cryptocurrency coins and tokens, we recommend that you always do your own research. Look at the latest market trends, news, technical and fundamental analysis, and expert opinion before making any investment decision. Keep in mind that past performance is no guarantee of future returns. And never trade with money that you cannot afford to lose.