Could XRP Ever Hit $1,200? Here’s the One Reason It Might Not

• The question of how the XRP price can hit $1,200 has sparked debate in the crypto ecosystem.
• Notably, the XRP supply of 100 billion makes this projection unrealistic.

XRP performed amazingly following Donald Trump’s victory in the US November election. It rose to as high as $2.89, outperforming other top cryptocurrencies.

Optimism in the XRP Market

The surge in XRP has triggered renewed optimism among market participants about the coin’s future movement. Some predicted that XRP could rally to $27 and reach as high as $100. 

In an X post, market analyst Steph recently presented the idea of XRP reaching an ambitious $1,200 price level. The analyst noted Bitcoin’s movement from $2 in 2012 to $1200 in 2014. He questioned why XRP could not replicate Bitcoin’s historic move.

#Bitcoin went from $2 in 2012 to $1200 in 2014

What’s stopping #XRP from doing the same? pic.twitter.com/obIUfN5IoL

— STEPH IS CRYPTO (@Steph_iscrypto) December 22, 2024

The analyst shared a chart detailing Bitcoin’s price increase between 2012 and 2014. It is important to note that Bitcoin traded at just $2 in late November 2011. However, Bitcoin increased by 7000% to trade at $16 in August 2012 before seeing a brief pullback.

By April 2023, Bitcoin surged to $259, representing a 12,850% increase from its 2011 price. This rally continued, and Bitcoin hit $1,200 in November 2013, marking a two-year gain of almost 59,900%.

With XRP now trading for $2.2, Steph questioned why the altcoin cannot replicate Bitcoin’s uptrend. Besides, XRP has also demonstrated its propensity for growth, increasing from $0.005 to $3.31 in the 2017/2018 bull run. 

XRP Total Supply: A Major Hindrance to the $1200 Price Target

Nathan Goldstein, a real estate investor and Bitcoin advocate, responded to Steph. Goldstein argued that XRP’s circumstances differ from Bitcoin’s, making a similar surge exceedingly unlikely. Goldstein cited XRP’s larger supply as a major limiting factor. For context, BTC has a total supply of 21 million coins, while XRP is 100 billion.

Goldstein stated that if XRP hit $1,200 per coin, its fully diluted market capitalization would rise to $120 trillion. The Bitcoin advocate took account of the total M2 global money supply, which stood at $129 trillion in Q2 2024. The latest data, however, indicates that this figure currently stands at $104 trillion. 

This means 85% of all currency worldwide would have to buy XRP to hit $1200. Also, since circulating supply stands at 57.25 billion, a $1,200 price would put XRP’s market cap at $68.7 billion. This represents 66% of the global M2 money supply.

On the other hand, Bitcoin’s market capitalization at its $1,200 top in 2013 constituted only a small portion of global currency. Data from Statista showed Bitcoin had a circulating supply of 12 million tokens by November 2013. This means its market cap stood around $14.4 billion when the price hit $1,200 in November 2013.

In the meantime, many see Ripple’s stablecoin launch as a major catalyst to propel XRP’s price to higher levels.