The Higher the XRP Price, The Cheaper It Is for Payments: Ripple CTO Emeritus - U.Today

Ripple’s former Chief Technology Officer (CTO), David Schwartz, has stated that a higher XRP price would make the payment system more efficient and cheaper to operate. Schwartz’s comments come as a clarification to a post he made in 2017, as requested by a community member.

Liquidity Efficiency in Ripple’s Payment Model

According to the earlier post in 2017, Schwartz stated, ‘If XRP costs $1, they need a million XRP, which could cost $1 million. If XRP costs a million dollars, they’d need one XRP, which would again cost $1 million.’

The former Ripple CTO is emphasizing that higher XRP prices reduce the token quantity required for equivalent-value payments. He argues that this will make transactions more efficient without altering costs.

Schwartz insists that a higher price addresses Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity model, where XRP bridges currencies as it will require fewer tokens and free liquidity, thereby minimizing slippage.

Notably, Schwartz implied that handling a lesser volume of XRP at a higher price is much easier than handling millions of the asset. This is because the liquidity strain that comes with handling large volumes of the asset would be eliminated.

The veteran’s explanation implies that it is not in the best interest of the ecosystem for the price of XRP to continue its downward volatility. For instance, if XRP dips below the $1 level and crashes to $0.5, the economics does not favor the asset.

XRP Struggles to Regain $2 Price Level

The explanation has sparked a reaction from a user who wondered when XRP will climb out of the $1 price zone. XRP has not been able to reclaim and stabilize above $2 since the last week of January, 2026. In the last 24 hours, the coin has fluctuated between a low of $1.30 and a peak of $1.36.

With XRP network activity plummeting by 52%, this has cast doubt on XRP’s price recovery as uncertainty continues to trail the asset’s performance.

As of this writing, XRP exchanges hands at $1.35, which represents a 1.71% increase within the period. Its trading volume has jumped by 57.64% to $1.6 billion.

Investors and market participants alike are looking ahead to April, which is a historically bullish month for XRP. As U.Today reported, XRP has an average gain of 24.8% in April, and if 2026 aligns with history, it could see the coin climb to approximately $1.70.

However, this falls short of the $2 price, except that other market forces support it to breach the resistance that has held for the past 60 days.