Key Points Despite soaring over the last 12 months, XRP prices have plateaued so far in 2025. Could an easing regulatory climate unlock the next leg of growth? 10 stocks we like better than XRP › The cryptocurrency industry has already made its fair share of millionaires, and XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) is one of the best examples.
With prices up by 25,000% over the last decade, a $5,000 investment would be worth over $1.25 million today. To put that into context, a similar bet on the S&P 500 would have netted just $14,200. However, now that the easiest money has already been made, it will be harder for XRP to deliver the same multibagger returns it made in the past.
Let's dig deeper to see if the stock can hit $3 in 2025 or beyond. What is XRP? Founded in 2012, Ripple Labs created XRP to fix the shortcomings of older platforms like Bitcoin, which was launched three years prior.
The developers realized that blockchain technology was ideal for disrupting the international payments industry, which is currently served by arguably archaic networks like The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which was founded in 1973. SWIFT works by allowing banks to send secure messages to one another before finalizing monetary transfers. XRP's developers wanted to enable users to bypass this process by sending money to one another directly while using XRP tokens as a bridge between different currencies.
Practically all cryptocurrencies can serve this function. And newer blockchains, such as Solana, can handle transactions even faster than XRP. Still, as an early mover, XRP has established a level of brand recognition and trust that puts it in the same league as other "blue chip" cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
And this will be key to attracting the risk-averse institutional investors that are finally dipping their toes into this highly speculative asset class. XRP has secured regulatory wins XRP's primary growth catalyst may come from easing regulations on the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Under the Trump administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun prioritizing regulatory clarity over enforcement, abandoning legal actions against cryptocurrency organizations, including XRP's developer, Ripple Labs.
On March 9, the SEC dropped its appeal against an earlier ruling that found Ripple's sales of XRP to retail investors were not considered unregistered securities sales (although sales to institutional investors still were). Ripple Labs finally settled with the SEC, agreeing to pay a fine of $50 million, reduced from the original $125 million imposed last year.
