With a market now buoyed by regulatory clarity, XRP is back in the spotlight. On May 20, 2025, the XRP price has risen to $2.33, and conversation has returned about its ultimate valuation potential. This latest wave of interest comes on the heels of some major ecosystem updates, the SEC’s formal withdrawal of its lawsuit against Ripple, and the resurfacing of a now-famous 2018 valuation model which pegged XRP’s fair market value at an astonishing $4,813.
That model, published by Susan Athey and Robert Mitchnick, is being revived again boosted by a post on TimesTabloid, which has ignited conversation over XRP’s long-term utility as a cross-border settlement tool and possibly as a store-of-value asset.
But is the price trajectory for XRP actually reasonable? Or, is this renewed optimism simply another spike of the historically volatile asset? Let’s unpack the numbers, the news, and what you should consider before making your next move.
XRP Price Climbs to $2.33 With a $130B Market Cap — Is a New High Incoming?
XRP price sits at $2.33, with a high of $2.40 and low of $2.30 according to market data from May 20, 2025. The market capitalization sits at $130.9 billion with a trading volume of $2.67 billion over the past 24 hours. After a crazy, volatile price path from 2023 to 2024, XRP appears stable.
At today’s opening price of $2.32, XRP was able to show consistent price action after closing at $2.32457 the previous day. XRP had a bottom of $0.38 and top of $3.40 over the past year.
The recovery is predominantly attributed to Ripple’s legal victory over the SEC that concluded earlier this year. The regulatory cloud that hung over XRP was removed, and investors started to view this asset once again as a long-term place to invest. Price analysts have given near-term resistance levels of $2.56–$2.62, and if momentum continues, they could see upside ranges of $2.85–$3.40.
XRP Fair Market Value Set at $4,813? Here’s What the Model Really Says
A Model With Moonshot Projections—And a Heavy Assumption Set
With so much buzz in the crypto media recently around the $4,813 XRP price target from a valuation model built in 2018 by Stanford professor Susan Athey and Ripple advisor Robert Mitchnick, there are consequences to applying the model and extrapolating out the value of XRP.
A recent article from TimesTabloid brought attention back to a model that suggests XRP could be worth much more. According to the model, XRP might handle 10% of all cross-border payments worldwide and also hold 10% of global store-of-value assets, which is around $53 trillion. It also expects XRP to support about $700 billion in daily transactions if adoption grows as predicted.
The model uses a 10% discount rate and assumes 56 billion XRP in effective circulation, excluding tokens in escrow. As a result, the implied market cap exceeds $269 trillion, which—realistically—makes this more of a theoretical maximum than a likely price target.
Still, the model does point to the power of network adoption, reduced supply, and increased transaction utility to push prices higher over time.
Recent Developments Add Credibility to Ecosystem Growth
While $4,813 may remain out of reach, the broader Ripple ecosystem is indeed expanding. Projects like XenDex and XpFinance are rolling out features that extend. XRPL’s utility in DeFi, cross-chain trading, and AI-based copy trading—areas of intense demand in crypto. XenDex is preparing for its first security audit and has already published a mockup of its upcoming platform.
XpFinance is focusing on stable yield products and tokenized debt instruments using XRPL’s native features. This shift toward real-world DeFi adoption could become a major long-term catalyst for XRP, reinforcing some assumptions of the original fair value model.
Why XRP Is Being Closely Watched by Analysts Again
For XRP, the most significant moment this year was when the SEC officially dropped its lawsuit against Ripple Labs. This event greatly fueled the XRP project. Confidence from larger institutional investors is returning, U.S.-based crypto exchanges are now relisting XRP on their platforms, and developers are once again working on new tools and platforms on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Since gaining legal clarity through the SEC ruling, XRP is no longer associated with some of the same regulatory concerns as many cryptocurrencies that still face regulatory uncertainty.
Furthermore, with the U.S. government demonstrating a more favorable sentiment towards crypto assets in 2024 and 2025, this puts XRP in a very good position to exploit the upside.
Conclusion: XRP Price at $2.33 Could Just Be the Start — But $4,813 Remains Out of Reach (For Now)
The current XRP price of $2.33 shows a healthy momentum comeback, particularly with Ripple’s win against the SEC and the emergence of new XRPL ecosystem creation. The potential for price movement has short-term targets near $2.85 – $3.40, so there is room to go up, especially if XRP breaks critical resistance levels in the coming weeks.
While the $4,813 fair value projection is anchored in a complete model, it is more a vision than an actionable target. It is a great long-term vision, but for XRP to realize that value, it would need to take over global finance at an unseen scale.
Nonetheless, with increasing investor sentiment, new integrations for DeFi, and legal clarity in the U.S, XRP is certainly one of the strongest narratives in crypto today. Whether you are trading XRP or holding it, it could be one of the most important windows for XRP seen in years.
