Experts Reveal XRP’s Real Utility as Programmable Money In 2026

In crypto, perhaps being early can really pay off.  This sure seems to be the case for Ripple Labs, the San Francisco-based blockchain firm that is now worth over $40 billion. 

And after years of tangling with the SEC, the company is experiencing much fairer weather in the regulatory climate with Trump in charge. Since the US presidential election, the price of XRP, the altcoin Ripple launched way back in 2012, has stayed above a $2 price point not seen since the blockchain bull run of 2017.

But is there an actual use case for XRP?

The XRP Payments Corridor

Hedy Wang, CEO of crypto liquidity provider Block Street, says Ripple’s foothold in America may grow now, but it already has traction in other parts of the world, too. 

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What can’t be denied is that investors have been grabbing up XRP over the past year. Since Trump was elected in November 2024, the price of XRP has gone from $0.50 to $2.15, a 330% increase. 

Monaco pointed to Ripple’s 300 financial partners in 45 countries and $15 billion in annual cross-border payments as key indicators of its use case. 

It’s possible, then, that a company behind a cryptocurrency, like Ripple, can put in the real manpower and work to achieve an important payments corridor. 

“If Ripple keeps stacking licenses and bank/fintech integrations, XRP can survive as niche financial plumbing,” added Block Street’s Wang. 

Cross-Border Is Not So Simple

The term “cross-border payments” may sound like a lot of corporate jargon. But ask anyone who has sent money from one country to others, and it is obvious this is a problematic process. It can be slow. It can be expensive. 

Additionally, currency exchanges are required. Cryptocurrencies like XRP are borderless, global, and cheap. There’s value in reducing TradFi’s reliance on regular payment systems. 

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Still, ‘hopium’ alone doesn’t necessarily mean that XRP’s valuation is that closely tied to its payments use case, noted Paul Holmes, a researcher at BrokerListings. 

It may be that crypto investors and OG whales are simply accumulating more XRP because Ripple Labs, as the largest contributor to the cryptocurrency, appears to be a fairly well-performing crypto firm. 

Ripple’s recent influx of $500 million in capital from Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities at a $40 billion valuation certainly reflects that. 

XRP as an ETF Catalyst

Recently, UK-based CoinShares backed away from launching a US XRP ETF product, which likely would have increased demand from investors who stick to the public markets. 

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It’s important to keep in mind that CoinShares also decided not to launch ETFs on Solana or Litecoin either, so it’s not just XRP that there’s some hesitancy from them to launch these crypto-backed products. 

CoinGecko’s data pegs the price of XRP appreciating by over 36,000% since it was first listed on exchanges starting August 3, 2013. 

The irony of a speculative asset being used for payment isn’t lost on BrokerListings’ Homes, however. 

A Rip to the Moon?

While it may seem confusing to use a volatile asset like XRP as a payment rail, it’s important to remember that many cryptocurrencies, like XRP, are highly divisible and fast. 

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XRP is essentially ‘programmable money.’ Code can be implemented to use XRP in its required amounts based on its current trading price. 

And for high-end institutional payments, which is what XRP is used for, it doesn’t really matter what the back-end looks like as long as money reaches its destination. 

While stablecoins may be popular for consumer use and trading, XRP serves as a sort of logistical money mover for companies that need to transfer value globally. 

This would explain why, according to the CPA Monaco, 58% of activity on the network comes from just ten wallets. 

That use case, in addition to Ripple Labs’ now-dropped fight with SEC, is likely the reasoning for a bullish narrative. 

By early 2024, the network had over 5 million XRP wallets.  After Trump’s win, on November 13, 2024,  brokerage app Robinhood relisted XRP on its app. 

In May 2025, Ripple Labs agreed to a $50 million satisfaction of judgment in its dispute with the SEC, ending a years-long quagmire that likely stymied XRP for some time. 

And XRP doesn’t necessarily need a CoinShares ETF, as there are already nine live products on the market with total Assets Under Management (AUM) of $1.1 billion. 

So yeah, the XRP Army, which is what fervent investors in the chain like to call themselves, sees a lot of reasons to be hopeful for the future and a lot less risk to the downside – more than ever before.