[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee] XRP could rise gradually as real-world use expands, rather than relying on speculative surges as in the past, a forecast said.

The Crypto Basic, a blockchain media outlet, reported on April 28 that a figure in the XRP community, Digital Asset Investor, presented an “endgame theory” outlining that view.

The core idea is that real-world utility first pulls up the lower bound of the price, and speculative money then flows in and increases volatility. Digital Asset Investor likened it to a “slow rising bathtub” effect. As real demand builds in the background, the price floor rises gradually, and market participants who react late to the utility flow enter later, adding swings on top, the report said.

From that perspective, XRP could show a more stable long-term upward trend than a typical boom-and-bust pattern. A turning point, however, was cited as supply pressure. If more XRP is tied up in real-world use cases, exchange circulating supply would shrink, and if demand continues to rise at the same time, the pace of price gains could accelerate, the report said.

The claim also aligns with remarks by Ripple senior vice president Markus Infanger (마르쿠스 인팡거) in response to concerns that XRP’s price has recently failed to reflect real-world utility. He said the “gap” between price and demand may not actually exist. Utility is growing quietly as the market enters a transition phase, but price discovery is following more slowly, he said.

Infanger pointed to tokenised assets on the XRP Ledger growing in a year from about $100 million to $200 million to more than $2 billion. He also cited the introduction of a U.S. spot XRP exchange-traded fund as a factor expanding liquidity. He said such institutional access does not compete with utility, but instead improves XRP’s efficiency as a payment asset and strengthens its usability.

Developers have also said XRPL’s internal structure itself could generate demand for XRP. XRPL validator Vet explained in a recent podcast that XRP plays a central role in liquidity pathways within the network.

The auto-bridging function he mentioned links trades between different assets via XRP to improve price efficiency. For example, a trade between 2 stablecoins can also be executed through XRP. As the range of assets and institutional participation on XRPL grows, demand for XRP as a liquidity layer could naturally increase, he said.

It was also noted that XRP is used to pay transaction fees, and those fees are burned. That means the asset could take on a slightly deflationary character over time. With new functions such as a permissioned decentralised exchange and compliance tools already operating, XRPL is targeting institutional decentralised finance (DeFi), foreign exchange and cross-border payments.

That could also create conditions in which market makers must directly hold XRP to provide liquidity, the report said. It argued that growing network activity could form a link that leads to higher demand for XRP.

Overall, the forecast places weight on the view that the disconnect between XRP’s price and utility may not be a permanent problem but a timing issue. If adoption of XRP continues to rise in payments, tokenisation and institutional finance, demand could increase steadily rather than sharply, gradually lifting the price floor, it said. If speculative money then fully reflects the change, reduced circulating supply could produce a supply shock that amplifies price swings, it added.

My XRP Endgame Theory has always been that when utility begins the price will become like a slow rising bathtub of water. At some point the speculators will realize this and move in fast. This will create a slow rising price floor and speculation will bounce up and down off the…