Here’s the Price XRP Needs to Settle CBDCs and Global FX

XRP community voice Pumpius recently presented the price levels XRP might need to hit if it became a major part of global finance.

Our latest review of his remarks follows an earlier report in which Pumpius argued that XRP could help reduce the U.S. national debt.

For context, he suggested that if Ripple applied its escrow holdings of roughly 35.6 billion XRP toward America’s $35 trillion debt, XRP would need to rise to $983 to settle the debt. The report confirmed that such a price would represent a 32,000% increase from the level at the time.

His argument in the CBDC and FX utility section comes from XRP’s design as the native asset of the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The original architects built XRP to act as a neutral bridge for quick, low-cost cross-border payments.

The ODL system already allows banks and financial firms to convert currencies in real time without holding large pre-funded accounts, unlike the traditional SWIFT network. Each transaction settles in three to five seconds and costs less than a cent. This gives XRP the efficiency to handle global payment volumes.

Importantly, CBDCs, which now cover projects representing 98% of global GDP according to a 2024 BIS report, show where XRP could fit in

For instance, direct transfers between CBDCs often face issues due to liquidity shortages and settlement delays. XRP is a bridge that allows one digital currency to flow easily into another

Adoption Already Underway

Interestingly, Central banks already testing Ripple’s technology, such as Bhutan and Palau, use private versions of the XRPL in pilots for remittances, FX swaps, and cross-border trials. Similar efforts are underway in Colombia, Montenegro, and Georgia

To facilitate these, Ripple’s private CBDC platform, built on XRPL tech, enables central banks to issue and redeem digital currencies while optionally using XRP for global settlements.

Meanwhile, the global FX market, which moves around $7.5 trillion daily, presents another opportunity. SWIFT, the network that currently dominates, suffers from high fees and slow processing. If banks tap XRP liquidity directly, they could free up as much as $27 trillion tied up in Nostro and Vostro accounts.