XRP Is Reaching a 1990s-Style Turning Point, Says Evernorth CEO

• Asheesh Birla asserts that XRP is approaching a pivotal moment akin to the digitization of the stock market in the 1990s.
• He ties that shift to new US regulatory clarity and growing institutional adoption.
• The latest XRP chart shows the price near $1.2994 after a long decline from the 2025 highs.

According to Asheesh Birla, CEO of Evernorth and a former Ripple executive, XRP is approaching a pivotal moment similar to the stock markets in the 1990s. In posts on X, Birla says Washington has finally delivered the kind of regulatory movement the digital asset industry has waited for, and he argues that XRP is now shifting from a speculative phase into a utility-driven phase tied to real financial infrastructure.

Birla says the market is moving away from hype and toward rails, settlement, and institutional use. He compares that shift to electronic trading in US equities, where volume was still small in the early 1990s before regulation and capital commitment pushed the entire structure into a new era.

Birla Ties XRP to a 1990s-Style Shift

Birla says, “In the span of ten days last month, Washington did something the digital asset industry has waited a decade for.” He points to recent SEC and CFTC guidance classifying certain digital assets, including XRP, as digital commodities in an interpretive release.

He also points to a bipartisan Senate deal on stablecoin yield that cleared an obstacle for the CLARITY Act and helped add legislative momentum.

He then makes the broader comparison. In another post, he says that in the early 1990s, less than 15% of equity trading was electronic, but by 2009, almost all of it was. His point is that the technology existed before the shift, while regulation and capital commitment made adoption irreversible. In his view, XRP is now entering that same kind of structural phase.

XRP Market Action Still Looks Cautious

Price action is not fully confirming that thesis yet. The Coinalyze chart shows XRP/USDT perpetual trading at 1.2994, down 1.58% on the day shown. The broader structure of that chart is weak. XRP climbs above 3.00 in mid-2025, but then trends steadily lower through late 2025 and into 2026, with the market now holding near the low end of the recent range.

Source: Coinalyze

The OKX monthly data supports that same reading. XRP/USD is trading near 1.3005, down 3.72% on the live quote shown. Monthly closes also show a long stretch of declines from 3.0216 in July 2025 to 1.2997 in April 2026. That is a sharp retracement, even though XRP remains above its 52-week low of 0.3846.

Is Birla Correct About XRP’s Turning Point?

Birla’s infrastructure is not built on price alone. He points to stronger institutional and on-chain signals, including ETF inflows, record transaction counts, and tokenized real-world assets on XRPL, which rose from $24.7 million in early 2025 to more than $2 billion by March 2026, as well as a growing financial stack that now includes AMM pools, lending, stablecoins, and tokenized transfers.

So, is he correct? On the structural side, his argument has support. Regulation is moving, tokenization activity is expanding, and XRPL is showing more real financial use. On the price side, the answer is less convincing for now. 

XRP’s last one-year performance still shows that the market is in decline from its highs and is not yet trading like a fully recognized infrastructure asset. Birla may be early rather than wrong, but last year’s performance data is still asking for stronger proof.

Related: XRP Price Prediction: 50% Of XRP Supply Is Underwater As Price Tests Support At $1.30