Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), David Schwartz, has provided a clear explanation for why the Bitcoin price remains so high, currently the most expensive cryptocurrency on the market. Notably, Schwartz’s statement had sparked new discussions across the crypto community. His remarks focused on how people view and use BTC in transactions, revealing a simple economic truth that helps explain the market’s continued confidence in the world’s leading cryptocurrency. Ripple CTO Explains Logic Behind Elevated Bitcoin Price On Tuesday, Schwartz shared his thoughts on X, offering a simple but insightful explanation for Bitcoin’s current price strength. Responding to a community member’s question about why anyone would spend BTC given its potential for future appreciation, Schwartz explained that the reason lies in the asset’s perceived value and future expectations. Related Reading: Why Did The Bitcoin And Ethereum Prices Crash On October 10 And Will It Happen Again? According to the Ripple CTO, when individuals use Bitcoin to pay for goods or services, they are essentially realizing the full expected value of its future growth today. Rather than holding Bitcoin as a long-term investment and waiting for price gains, these users convert its potential into immediate utility. This behavior, he noted, reflects a broader belief in BTC’s enduring value and is one of the primary reasons why the cryptocurrency’s price remains so high. Notably, Schwartz’s remarks followed a conversation that began when Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Square, a business technology company, announced that Bitcoin payments had gone live across the firm’s platforms. Dorsey revealed that Square customers can now pay for services and products using Bitcoin directly, and sellers can choose between multiple settlement options, including BTC-to-BTC, BTC-to-fiat, and fiat-to-BTC transactions. Funds received through Bitcoin payments will be automatically stored in a user’s Square wallet, with self-custody transfer limits of up to $15,000 per day or $50,000 per week. Interestingly, the timing of Schwartz’s explanation comes a month after BTC reached a new all-time high of over $126,000. Compared to other digital assets, Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency in the six-figure territory, even surpassing traditional investments like gold and major stock indices. While some analysts argue that Bitcoin is overvalued, many investors remain convinced that it could still climb significantly higher in the long term. Bitcoin Price Expected To Rise Even Higher The Bitcoin price is currently sitting above the $100,000 level, but analysts believe it could rise even further. The leading cryptocurrency is hovering near $103,300, experiencing some volatility, which has triggered a nearly 2% dip in the past 24 hours amid whale capitulations. Crypto analyst Joe Francesco noted that Bitcoin had initially surged to $107,000 following a wave of optimism sparked by US President Donald Trump’s proposed $2,000 stimulus plan. Related Reading: New XRP ETF Just Dropped, But Will Anything Be Different This Time? However, the rally proved short-lived, as BTC fell a few days later. Despite the pullback, Francesco has described the cryptocurrency’s chart setup as positive, predicting that Bitcoin could soon break through $107,000, with the potential to reach $115,000 and even $120,000 if upward momentum continues. Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com
What gives XRP its value? In an exchange on X, Ripple CTO David Schwartz – known as “JoelKatz” – tried to answer that question without pretending crypto already behaves like traditional assets. He didn’t lean on marketing language about instant settlement or global payments. He talked about power, control, censorship, incentive design, and speculation. How Does XRP Get Its Value? First, Schwartz reframed what XRP is actually for. He argued that the XRP Ledger is built for people and institutions that don’t want an intermediary sitting in the middle of their transactions. He put it in blunt terms: “Do you want to use a blockchain where people can be their own bank and no middlemen tax their transactions or do you want to be someone else’s bank and tax their transactions? If you want the latter, there are dozens of blockchains for you. If you want the former, there’s XRP.” In that framing, XRP is not just another token. It’s the only counterparty-free asset native to XRPL. Everything else on the ledger is an IOU from someone – a promise by an issuer, bank, fintech, money transmitter, or gateway. XRP is the exception. It exists on-ledger, without an issuer, and can move between any accounts without anyone else’s permission, freeze authority, or seizure authority. Related Reading: High Liquidity At This Level Could Send The XRP Price Surging Soon Schwartz made that explicit: “XRP is the only asset without a counterparty that can be accessed by every account in every jurisdiction with no risk of default, freeze, or clawback.” That point is central to how Ripple has always positioned XRP: the ledger is multi-currency, but only one asset on it is universally clean. What Schwartz is arguing is that this special status is not cosmetic. It is economic. He said: “I do think XRP’s special place on XRPL ensures that XRP will capture some of the value XRPL transactions generate.” To understand that claim, you have to understand how most blockchains try to “capture value.” The dominant 2020–2025 playbook in crypto is explicit extraction. Protocols design fee switches, burn mechanisms, staking capture, MEV capture, sequencer rent, or other tolls, and then say to the market: holding this token entitles you to a share of that toll. Schwartz is openly saying XRPL is not built like that. The XRP Ledger was not designed to tax users at the protocol layer. In his view, that’s a feature, not a bug. He described XRPL as a public good, not a rent machine. He explained it by analogy: “When you ask what eBay is good for, you normally don’t think about it being a good way to enrich the people who invest in eBay. You think of it as a way of bringing buyers and sellers together with the buyers and sellers wanting the costs to be as low as possible. The buyers and sellers shouldn’t want eBay’s investors taxing their transactions as much as they can get away with because that is mostly money the buyers have to pay but sellers don’t get.” Then he applied that logic directly to XRPL: “I think of XRPL as a public good that doesn’t tax people who want to use its capabilities. I am not arguing that it is the best design or even that it’s better than most other designs. But it is different. XRP really is about being your own bank and having no middlemen passively taxing your transactions.” XRP Price Is Driven By Speculation This is where the philosophical tension becomes an economic tension. If XRPL is designed not to skim value from users, then how does XRP appreciate? Why should holding XRP benefit from the ledger’s success? Schwartz’s answer is that XRP’s role as the only universal, non-freezable settlement asset on XRPL is itself enough to force some level of demand if XRPL becomes important infrastructure. In other words, the ledger doesn’t have to tax flow in order for XRP to matter. XRP matters if the ledger matters. But Schwartz did not pretend that this mechanism is currently driving price on its own. In fact, he went in the opposite direction and said something most executives in crypto either won’t admit or can’t afford to say in public. He said the market is still pricing the future, not the present: “The funny thing is that I think that most of the value of most cryptocurrencies comes from expected future speculation. So if what you care about future price changes, what people think will happen is much more important than what has happened.” Related Reading: XRP Chart Mirrors Gold Right Before Its Parabolic Run Then he pointed at bitcoin to make the point unavoidable: “Look at bitcoin. Most of the current investment thesis is something like, ‘Imagine if most companies start storing 1% of their treasury in bitcoin, what will that do to the price?’. What that’s saying is that in the future, more people will speculate on future price appreciation than speculate currently.” And he went even further: “It’s not even based on expected future utility, it’s based on expected future speculation! I want to believe utility matters, I really do.” That last line is probably the most revealing thing Schwartz said. He is not saying “XRP price today is purely a function of measurable payment volume today.” He’s saying that’s not how crypto is priced, period. Crypto, in his view, is reflexive: people buy because they believe other people will one day buy for the same reason, at higher size and higher urgency. That leads to the next objection: if value is driven by expectation of an “explosion scenario,” shouldn’t tokens be basically worthless until that scenario actually hits scale? Schwartz rejected that. He argued that markets continuously reprice probability, not outcomes: “There may come a day when we look at today’s cryptocurrency values as, in comparison, nothing. But the idea that values will be very low and then suddenly rise is just not how speculation works. As the probability of explosion or size of expected explosion grows, value follows.” At press time, XRP traded at $2.48. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Ripple Labs Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, has offered rare and pointed clarity on what drives the XRP price value in the long term, despite the company’s recent spotlight on its new stablecoin, RLUSD. In a recent exchange with an XRP supporter on social media, Schwartz emphasized that the crypto continues to sit at the core of Ripple’s payment infrastructure, especially as the main bridge asset in cross-border transfers. XRP’s Role As A Bridge Asset Is Still Central While RLUSD plays a specific role, Schwartz reveals XRP’s utility in real financial use cases will ultimately boost its value. His comments reaffirm Ripple’s longstanding plan for the digital asset, relying on XRP for its proven liquidity and built-in role on the ledger as it explores other digital options. Related Reading: XRP Set To Explode? Analyst Sees $5 Surge Any Moment – Details In his response, Schwartz directly addressed growing speculation that the company may be shifting its attention away from XRP in favor of its new stablecoin, assuring that the digital asset remains Ripple’s cross-currency asset that allows for fast, low-cost currency exchanges. While Schwartz didn’t share exact data, he said he was confident that the token’s usage “dwarfs every other asset” in Ripple’s system. XRP links to how the XRP Ledger functions, so an increase in ledger activity is almost guaranteed to drive more demand for the crypto token, naturally lifting its price value as it becomes more essential in global financial workflows. Schwartz argued that as real-world adoption of the Ripple blockchain networks grows, so will demand for XRP. The embedded demand, as more businesses and developers build on XRPL, is what could be the core driver of XRP’s future price value. Ripple CTO: Stablecoins Support, XRP Sustains Some community members worried that Ripple’s new stablecoin RLUSD, launched in December 2024, could replace the crypto token, but Schwartz clarifies that the stablecoin and XRP serve different purposes. He said stablecoins like RLUSD are better suited for use cases that require a fixed value, such as when companies post collateral or need to enter and exit markets without dealing with large price swings. Related Reading: XRP Blows Cold: Price Crash To $2.15 Still Possible If Buyers Falter Volatility in crypto markets can be disruptive in these scenarios, and stablecoins avoid that issue by holding a steady price. However, Schwartz believes that for most other applications, especially those related to real finance and long-term holdings, digital assets like XRP are still the better choice. He noted that, unless highly risk-averse, most long-term users would likely prefer holding the top digital asset over cash because of their potential for upside and active role in blockchain ecosystems. The Ripple exec added that as more institutions turn to XRPL for financial use cases, XRP’s role in facilitating quick currency movement becomes more vital, particularly in volatile markets where stablecoins may not be ideal. Schwartz made a subtle but important distinction, saying XRP’s place on XRPL is privileged. With this, the crypto token is less likely to be replaced or worked around, providing a long-term advantage that many other tokens may not have. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView.com
One trader has set a $1,200 bid for one RLUSD, an early warning sign there could be massive volatility when Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin launches.
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, and David Schwartz, the Chief Technology Officer of Ripple, have unveiled details about a potential collaboration between their respective blockchain platforms. The partnership aims to integrate Cardano’s advanced decentralized finance (DeFi) capabilities with Ripple’s extensive liquidity network, potentially bridging two of the industry’s most prominent ecosystems. Potential Cardano And […]
In an exchange on X (formerly Twitter), Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz, also known as “JoelKatz”, addressed criticisms about his company and the XRP Ledger. Has Ripple Failed With Its Payments Business? User @188ape challenged Schwartz by questioning the uniqueness of the XRPL in today’s market, stating that it seems like “most new layer […]
The Ripple Chief Technology Officer (CTO) David Schwartz has responded to rumours that the Company might be considering abandoning its association with the XRP token. The crypto firm has so far provided XRP with its major utilities, and such rumors could negatively impact its price. Ripple Is Not Abandoning XRP Schwartz clarified in an X […]
In an exchange on X, Ripple‘s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), David Schwartz, also known as JoelKatz, responded to queries about the strikingly similar price movements of XRP and Stellar (XLM). This discussion has brought to light not just the intertwined market dynamics of these two major cryptocurrencies but also the complex factors influencing their valuation. Curious Correlation Between XRP And XLM Schwartz candidly addressed a post by Good Morning Crypto, who highlighted a long-term price chart comparison between XRP and XLM since 2014, questioning the “unnatural price symmetry” and the potential for both to “breakout together during this bull run.” Schwartz replied, “I genuinely don’t know. The thing that I think is most likely is that both prices are driven primarily by factors completely outside their ecosystems.” Related Reading: Ready For Liftoff: XRP Price Primed To Skyrocket Before November However, Schwartz also acknowledged conflicting evidence to his theory. When pressed for specifics regarding the unusual correlation, he pointed to the significant event of Stellar burning half of their token supply, which surprisingly did not impact their price or disrupt the price correlation pattern with XRP. “The one bit that’s the most convincing to me is that Stellar burned half their supply and there wasn’t so much as a blip on their price chart or any real deviation from XRP’s price correlation,” Schwartz explained. This dialogue underscores a broader narrative within the cryptocurrency sector, where XRP and XLM share not only a founder in Jed McCaleb but also similar technological frameworks aimed at streamlining cross-border payments. Despite these overlaps, the absence of a price impact post-Stellar’s token burn has been a particularly puzzling aspect for analysts and the crypto community alike. Both XRP and XLM have historically mirrored each other’s price movements, potentially due to overlapping use cases, investor behaviors, and market perceptions. As financial tools facilitating quick, cross-border transactions with minimal fees, both have attracted similar investor bases looking for alternatives to traditional banking hurdles. Related Reading: XRP Price Consolidates, Gearing Up for Its Next Major Breakout Market sentiment plays a significant role. News impacting one of the cryptos can quickly spill over to the other due to their perceived substitutability. Additionally, regulatory shifts in one can inadvertently sway investor sentiment towards the other. Popular pro-XRP lawyer Bill Morgan commented on this, “I don’t know what causes it but it shows how useless Ripple burning the escrow would be. Stellar burned XLM and Ripple did not burn XRP and it had no impact on the symmetry. Same for the lawsuit. No impact overall. Stellar was not sued. Factors external to either blockchain and not specific to either Ripple or Stellar must be the explanation.” The ongoing debate includes speculation about whether XRP and XLM will jointly make significant gains in an anticipated bull run. Historical price patterns suggest a high level of correlation, but as Schwartz indicates, external factors such as global market conditions and macroeconomic factors are likely at play. At press time, XRP price stood at $0.5282. Featured image created with DALL·E, chart from TradingView.com
The crypto community is witnessing a virtual showdown between Cardano Founder, Charles Hoskinson and Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), David Schwartz. The two crypto giants are clashing over Ripple’s present regulatory challenges and the allegations surrounding the ETH Gate. Hoskinson And Schwartz Embark On Heated Debate Tensions have flared up within the crypto community as […]