[Digital Today reporter Yoonseo Lee] A forecast says XRP holders could earn annual returns of about 5 to 10 percent within the next few years.

The Crypto Basic, a blockchain outlet, reported on April 11 that Kevin Cage (케빈 케이지), who has invested in XRP since 2017, believes long-term holders could generate returns solely from their XRP holdings once new financial infrastructure becomes established.

The XRP ecosystem currently has fewer yield-generating uses than other major cryptocurrencies. Cage also noted that many long-term holders are simply holding tokens without generating separate returns. He said this could change as DeFi tools, institutional products and cross-chain links expand.

Cage outlined four main sources of returns: crypto lending, institutional investment products, tokenisation of real-world assets (RWA) and cross-chain strategies. The crypto lending market could offer returns of 3 to 8 percent, and institutional vaults and professional investment products could generate annual returns of 5 to 12 percent, he said. He also said tokenised real-world assets could provide return opportunities of 4 to 10 percent.

He said wallets, exchanges and financial applications could develop toward directly linking automated yield accounts. That would allow users to earn returns on their XRP holdings without complex procedures. He cautioned, however, about strategies that offer annual returns of more than 20 percent, stressing that such high-yield opportunities typically come with much greater risk.

Beyond passive income, meaning returns earned simply by holding, XRP-backed loans were also presented as a use case. In this structure, holders can post XRP as collateral and borrow liquidity. Using collateralised debt positions (CDPs) can allow holders to raise funds without selling XRP while maintaining exposure to potential price gains, it said.

The discussion also ties to structural limits of the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Because the XRP Ledger does not operate on a proof-of-stake (PoS) model, it does not inherently offer rewards for simply holding, as staking does. This has been cited as a reason some XRP investors have missed opportunities to generate returns from idle assets.

Recently, third-party protocols have been moving to address this. Flare Network (플레어 네트워크) launched FXRP last year, opening a route for XRP holders to participate in DeFi. Users can deposit XRP into Flare vaults, mint FXRP as a liquid asset, then deploy it on other DeFi platforms to earn rewards.

Flare has also integrated with Xaman Wallet (자만 월렛). Cage said the integration allows XRP holders to enter the DeFi ecosystem from their wallets with a "single click". It has been described as an effort to simplify access and lower practical barriers to use.

Axelar (악셀라) and Hex Trust (헥스 트러스트) are also offering DeFi solutions aimed at XRP holders. As related infrastructure expands, paths for using XRP beyond simple storage are also gradually broadening, including lending, collateral and cross-chain deployment.

Cage said that if these changes continue, XRP holders could expect annual returns of about 5 to 10 percent using a combination of relatively conservative yield strategies. He said this is not an already established return structure in the market, but a forecast based on the assumption that new infrastructure and services become established.

✅In the next few years, we’ll likely be able to earn 5-10% on our Crypto in multiple ways. We know that $XRP isn’t Proof of Stake. But yield is coming through new infrastructure being built. Today options are limited and XRP is mostly just idle capital. That’s changing.…