The speculative nature of cryptocurrencies personifies the idea that “anything is fair game” when it comes to valuation. These analyses can thread a thin line between being respectable or ridiculed. In 2018-2019, tossing the idea of a $100,000 Bitcoin price was considered so absurd that renowned economists took offense and condemned the mere thoughts of such statements.
Bitcoin (BTC) certainly got the last laugh in that case, and in 2025, the same optimism is flowing within another ferociously loyal community, the XRP (XRP) army.
After President Trump’s election victory, XRP price reached new highs, re-testing its all-time high of $3.41. After four years of the SEC breathing down on Ripple’s neck, the infamous securities case still awaits a resolution.
As a result of XRP rallying to new all-time highs, even larger predictions like “$XRP to $100” or “$XRP to $1,000” have flooded social media platforms over the past 3 months.
However, one unique research report takes the predictions to new highs, with the analyst forecasting an $18,000 price target for XRP.
XRP to $18,000?
In June 2023, a month before XRP was declared “not a security” by Judge Analisa Torres, a valuation white paper named “A Comprehensive Approach To Determine The Fair Market Value Of XRP” was released.
The white paper was published by Valhill Capital, where multiple authors presented five valuation models to evaluate XRP’s long-term price, with “XRP Valuation Model #4” taking the sweet spot as the most ideal outlook based on token utility and future global adoption.
Utilizing the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) approach, the basic assumption taken was that Ripple would handle a large portion of global transactions in the next 10 years, generating fees on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and possibly tokenizing a substantial portion of global wealth, while replacing traditional remittance systems likes SWIFT. The valuation analysis was carried out based on the following data:
Base Global Transaction Volume: $104 Trillion
Economic Growth Rate (Over 10 years, 2023-2032): 2%
Applied Discount Rate: 10%
Total Transaction Present…
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