XRP has long been positioned as a fast, low-cost solution for cross-border payments, with transactions settling in seconds on the XRP Ledger. But as the dust settles on Ripple's multi-year legal battle with the SEC, investors are asking whether now is the right time to buy XRP for the long term.
The SEC lawsuit, which formally ended in 2025, removed a major cloud hanging over the asset. The court ruling that public exchange sales of XRP are not securities remains intact, while Ripple paid a $125 million penalty for certain institutional sales. This resolution gave exchanges and institutions more confidence to offer XRP products, yet supply dynamics still weigh on the token's future.
Ripple holds approximately 32.6 billion XRP in escrow as of June 2026, with up to 1 billion tokens eligible for release monthly. Although most unused tokens are re-locked into new escrow accounts, the persistent possibility of increased supply creates ongoing dilution risk. Furthermore, Ripple's payment products can now settle using stablecoins—including its own RLUSD—rather than XRP, breaking a once-assumed direct link between Ripple's business growth and demand for the token. XRP holders also receive no dividends or profit share, meaning price appreciation relies entirely on broader adoption and speculative demand.
Technical analysts highlight a possible bullish setup: some point to a 5-wave structure on the weekly chart that suggests a macro Wave 4 low may already be in place, with Wave 5 targeting double-digit prices. However, such projections remain speculative and do not change the fundamental supply overhang.
