Pundit Shares The Most Important Thing To Remember About XRP

Crypto pundit SMQKE has shared an important thing that XRP holders have to remember when it comes to the altcoin’s price. He alluded to the token’s historical price appreciation and noted that XRP is better positioned to record more significant gains following Ripple’s recent acquisitions. 

In an X post, SMQKE reminded XRP holders that the token delivered nearly 350x returns between 2017 and 2018, while Bitcoin and Ethereum gained 14x and 100x, respectively, during that period. He noted that this means XRP’s price increase was roughly 24x steeper than Bitcoin’s. 

The pundit remarked that this occurred before Ripple completed any of its major institutional acquisitions, with XRP recording those gains simply due to early network momentum. Now, the fundamentals are believed to be more bullish as Ripple has completed strategic acquisitions of over $3 billion since 2017 to build institutional-grade infrastructure. 

SMQKE stated that these key moves include Ripple’s 2023 acquisition of Metaco for $250 million, which now provides bank-grade custody used by G-SIBs. In 2024, the crypto firm acquired Standard Custody, which is a New York-regulated trust services provider. Most of its acquisitions came last year, which have been bullish for XRP. 

Ripple acquired Hidden Road, which is now Ripple Prime, for $1.25 billion. SMQKE noted that this is a prime brokerage that clears trillions annually. Ripple also acquired the stablecoin payments platform Rail, the corporate treasury management platform GTreasury, and the wallet and custody provider Palisade last year. 

The pundit stated that these acquisitions create a much stronger foundation for durable price appreciation in XRP. He also alluded to the potential integration of XRP into SWIFT, FedNow, and DTCC. Based on this, SMQKE remarked that the altcoin’s past returns may have only been a preview of what its future network value could become. 

SMQKE alluded to a statement from former Ripple executive Marcus Treacher, who noted that XRP isn’t a speculative currency but rather a long-term play for the future. He highlighted how the altcoin could grow massively in value over the long term as a result of what Ripple is building with XRP. 

Treacher noted that transforming how payments work worldwide is a big deal and that once they achieve this with the XRP Ledger, everything else will start to fall into place. Meanwhile, SMQKE mentioned that news doesn’t move prices and that utility does. As such, he suggested that the focus should be on expanding XRP’s use cases and that the price will rise significantly as the altcoin continues to gain adoption. 

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.39, up in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.