The post “Why XRP’s high price ($1.39 · Live) is good for holders and important for banks” appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News
XRP is trading at $1.39 today, down 63% from its peak. And while most owners are looking at the price expecting a recovery, they may be missing a more important question: will XRP work even if the price is low?
According to Ripple’s own CTO, the answer is no.
David Schwartz said eight years ago
In a post on Kora that went viral at the time, Ripple CTO David Schwartz laid out the logic clearly.
As noted recently by crypto analyst Levi, Schwartz wrote: “The price of XRP you have to pay $1 million will always be at least $1 million. Higher prices are usually associated with higher liquidity, which means cheaper payouts.”
The argument is not complicated. If a bank needs to transfer a billion dollars and XRP is trading at five cents, buying that much XRP will change the price dramatically in the middle of the transaction – creating a slide that makes everything impossible.
A higher market cap means that the same transaction will barely move the needle. Banks are not the only ones tolerating the high price of XRP. They demand.
Also read: Has the Enlightenment Act passed? Not yet, but banks are already buying these 8 altcoins
A goal of $33 trillion
Ripple’s recent moves make more sense through this lens. The team is expanding RLUSD ($1.00 · Live), its stablecoin on the XRP Ledger with a stated goal of a $33 trillion stablecoin market. As Levy points out in his analysis, every RLUSD transaction on XRPL requires XRP as a gas fee.
Stablecoin removes concerns of slippage for banks while keeping XRP at the center of every transaction.
The strategy, outlined by Schwartz years ago, starts with smaller currency corridors — markets like the Euro to INR, where margins are thin and inefficiencies high — before moving on to major currencies that move trillions daily.
Structural parts are now real
What has changed since Schwartz first made this argument is that the infrastructure is actually being built. Ripple received conditional approval from the OCC for a national trust bank charter in December 2025. Mastercard has added Ripple to its 85 global crypto partner program alongside Binance, PayPal, Circle and Gemini.
Ripple also launched a $750 million share buyback in March, valuing the company at $50 billion — a 25% increase from its November funding round. The company values its capital higher, while the token is trading near its lowest.
This gap says something about where Ripple’s management thinks this is going.
Crypto Sensei also noted on-chain data showing that XRP’s multiple exit delta has fallen to an all-time low – meaning more investors are moving XRP out of exchanges, which is historically a bullish signal for long-term holders.
Schwartz’s reasoning has always been logical. The question was whether the pieces of the real world would fall into place. They will start working in 2026.
