Persistent skepticism around XRP's price trajectory is misreading the asset's moment, according to a prominent crypto researcher — and a recently surfaced panel video makes the case for why doubters are likely to come up short. SMQKE, a well-followed crypto researcher on X, recently shared footage from a Crypto Valley panel in Zurich in which Ripple’s Sales Director outlined the company’s growing infrastructure footprint. The post reignited a broader debate about whether XRP bears are underestimating what is quietly being built beneath the price chart. XRP enthusiast Tony amplified the call, posting that critics “will be proven wrong” as the utility case becomes harder to dismiss.
The Zurich panel provided the substance behind that conviction. Tania Griffith, Sales Director at Ripple, explained during the discussion that banks and financial institutions are becoming increasingly comfortable using crypto and blockchain rails for payments — a shift that would have seemed remote just a few years ago. Griffith noted that Ripple has moved from relying on a handful of exchanges with limited volume to building a global network of liquidity providers, stablecoins, and major financial infrastructure players. The result, she said, is straightforward: larger payments and better foreign exchange rates. The system now supports true 24/7, 365-day settlement — a capability traditional cross-border payment rails were never designed to deliver. Ripple’s approach treats blockchain and crypto as complementary to existing financial infrastructure rather than a replacement. XRP sits in the liquidity layer of that architecture, facilitating the movement of value between currencies and jurisdictions at speed.
This development marks a pivotal distinction for XRP in the current market cycle. The bear case has largely rested on price action and regulatory uncertainty. The bull case increasingly rests on adoption metrics and infrastructure depth — two things that continue to expand regardless of short-term chart noise. As of writing, XRP trades at around $2.11, holding steady after a week of consolidation.
The larger context of the SEC lawsuit resolution looms over this narrative. The Ripple SEC lawsuit began in December 2020 when the SEC alleged that XRP constituted an unregistered securities offering, triggering a cascade of US exchange delistings and cutting off institutional access to the token at exactly the moment the broader crypto market was entering its 2021 bull run. A 2023 partial court victory sparked a 70% price surge, but the case dragged on until both parties dropped their appeals on August 7, 2025, with Ripple settling for a reduced $50M penalty. That resolution removed the single largest structural drag on XRP adoption in the US market. Within 24 hours of the dismissal, trading volumes spiked 140% to over $9.5Bn, and XRP surged +11% to $3.30. The CLARITY Act debate that followed added another layer of forward-looking uncertainty that the market is still pricing.
What didn’t change: Ripple’s payment network still operates largely independently of direct XRP settlement. The company’s enterprise clients can use its infrastructure without routing transactions through the token. That distinction matters more than most headlines acknowledge, and it’s the central question now resurfacing as Ripple releases scale data on its treasury platform.
Ripple’s bullish outlook was boosted recently by the announcement that its treasury platform, enhanced by the $1Bn acquisition of GTreasury in 2025, now connects 13,000 banks and manages $12.5 trillion in payments. Investor Patrick L. Riley suggested that if 20 billion XRP tokens underpinned this volume, each could be worth $625. However, the scale of the network raises questions about whether XRP is a primary asset or merely part of the underlying technology. Ripple’s David Schwartz addressed speculation fueled by 1,700 non-disclosure agreements in the SEC v. Ripple case, stating they are common in business and don’t indicate secret market-moving events. On-chain data shows a concerning drop in active addresses on the XRP Ledger, which plummeted from a peak of 626,854 on March 19 to 54,704 within four days, suggesting a loss of demand following a brief surge.
Key technical levels for XRP focus on whether $1.40 can transition from resistance to support. The 20-day moving average is around $1.38 and is currently holding above it, which is slightly positive. The 50-day moving average at $1.52 presents the first significant resistance, while the 200-day average near $1.85 is essential for confirming a trend reversal. The RSI is neutral at 52, and the MACD shows a slight positive crossover but weak momentum. The stochastic RSI has recently reset from overbought levels, suggesting a possible pullback.
Analyst price targets vary widely, with Geoffrey Kendrick from Standard Chartered projecting $8 by the end of 2026 and a Finder panel averaging $5.25 by 2030. The newly approved spot XRP ETFs launched in October 2025 provide a new institutional inflow mechanism that could impact future rallies. Three scenarios emerge: a bull case where XRP reclaims the 50-day moving average and pushes towards $2.13–$2.61 resistance on sustained ETF inflows; a base case of oscillation between $1.28 and $1.65 for weeks as institutional buyers slowly accumulate; and a bear case where the $1.40 level fails, price drops to $1.10–$1.20, and on-chain metrics signal continued demand fade.
