Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said XRP could become the standard for institutional cryptocurrency payment infrastructure within the next five years. Speaking at Ripple’s annual Swell event, Garlinghouse said the company will continue expanding XRP use cases and will prioritize XRP in customer transactions when conditions are appropriate. However, he also noted that XRP may not be suitable for every payment, with traditional fiat currencies or Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin potentially better suited for some transactions.
Garlinghouse shared transaction data showing $16 trillion in total volume conducted through Ripple products. He said 99.9% of current transactions still move through traditional financial payment networks, but he expects between 1% and 3% of that volume to begin running on blockchain next year. Based on the $16 trillion base, that would translate to roughly $160 billion to $480 billion in transactions moving on-chain.
Separately, crypto expert John Lilic outlined a more aggressive scenario in an interview with XRP influencer Eri. Lilic projected that Ripple could process $35 billion in weekly payments through RLUSD-powered cards and digital banking services. He cited potential partnerships with major payment networks such as Visa and Mastercard, noting that Visa processes about $350 billion in weekly transactions and that capturing 10% of that business would equal $35 billion weekly. On an annual basis, that would reach approximately $1.82 trillion, or $5.46 trillion over three years. Lilic also predicted the strategy could generate at least $10 billion in additional RLUSD supply within three years, though he emphasized the arrangement remains a projection rather than a confirmed partnership.
Lilic argued that expanded financial activity on the XRP Ledger could strengthen XRP’s valuation and its ability to compete with Ethereum. Ethereum currently has a market capitalization of about $278.85 billion, while XRP holds roughly $79.13 billion. With XRP trading near $1.24, it would need to rise to about $4.40, or roughly 255%, to match Ethereum’s current capitalization. XRP was trading around $1.24692 with an RSI of 36.78, below its 20-day Bollinger Band moving average of $1.29811. Immediate support sits near $1.22961, while a recovery above $1.29811 could improve the short-term technical outlook.
Lilic also noted that higher transaction volumes would not automatically produce proportional gains in XRP’s market capitalization. Actual performance would depend on XRP’s involvement in settlements, liquidity provision, and payment processing. Ripple’s ability to secure payment partnerships and attract customers would determine whether the projections materialize.
