Analyst Says You’re Looking At XRP The Wrong Way, Here’s What It Actually Does

[Ben Graham]

There’s a growing undercurrent of frustration among crypto investors watching XRP drift lower, seemingly tied to broader swings in the entire market. But a different perspective came to light after a post by Versan Aljarrah, founder of Black Swan Capitalist, who suggested that the entire discussion around XRP’s day-to-day price movement is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of what the asset actually represents.

What XRP Really Does

Aljarrah challenged the tendency to judge XRP as if it were a typical speculative crypto asset running on a debt-based system of inflows and hype. His point was that saying XRP keeps dropping assumes it is meant to trade like every other token whose value is tied almost entirely to leverage trading and investor appetite. 

According to the analyst, XRP’s behavior only appears conventional because it is currently coupled to the wider market for now. He framed its long-term purpose as entirely different.  Instead of functioning primarily as a speculative instrument, the analyst described XRP as a settlement asset designed to assist in resolving debt, improve liquidity pathways, and ultimately step outside the constraints of the system it currently mirrors.

This reasoning implies that temporary dips, even deep ones, should not be interpreted as failures of the cryptocurrency but as noise while utility-based value continues to build underneath.

Recent Market Events Still Pull XRP Into Short-Term Volatility

XRP’s recent price and market cap behavior confirm its tight connection to market sentiment, at least in the near term. The XRP market cap chart shows the drastic decline that the cryptocurrency has faced in recent months. This decline has seen the XRP market cap fall from over $210 billion to around $129 billion at the time of writing.

XRP Market Cap. Source: @VersanAljarrah On X

That volatility mirrors what has been happening across the wider crypto market, where investor positioning has shifted quickly around ETF expectations, news, and liquidations. In the past week, XRP’s price has pulled back along with Bitcoin and Ethereum due to heavy selling pressure. 

However, speaking of utility-based value, the ecosystem around XRP has quietly been delivering some positive developments that may not yet be fully reflected in price action.

Ripple, the company behind XRP, has been making acquisitions and entering into partnerships to boost its adoption. Ripple has spent nearly $4 billion on acquisitions, including recent acquisitions of Hidden Road for $1.25 billion and stablecoin platform Rail for $200 million.

Another development is that Ripple Labs expanded its partnership with Thunes in September 2025 to improve its cross-border payment infrastructure.  Momentum is also visible on the ETF front. A Spot XRP ETF launched by Canary Capital on November 13, 2025 pulled in $268 million in inflows so far and was described as the largest crypto-ETF debut of the year. 

Further ETF launches are queued: four additional spot XRP ETFs were expected in the study week beginning November 18, 2025 (with one from Franklin Templeton, ticker EZRP, set to launch), which analysts estimate could bring up to $1.2 billion in new capital.