If Patience Were a Token, XRP Holders Would Already Be Billionaires: Pundit

A crypto pundit and market commentator has commended the patience of XRP holders amid years of extensive market struggles.

With a near 600% rally from November 2024 to January 2025, XRP was the best-performing asset among the top cryptocurrencies during the Trump-led market-wide rally, as confirmed by CNBC. However, while some might consider XRP holders lucky, they fail to acknowledge the years of agony suffered by these investors.

John Squire, a market commentator, recently called attention to this. According to him, if patience was a crypto token, XRP holders would have already assumed billionaire status. This is due to their ability to hold the asset through seven years of price struggles.

XRP Faced a Turbulent Period After 2018

For context, after surging over 68,000% from March 2017 to January 2018, XRP price stumbled considerably. This downturn continued for over two years, with XRP reaching a new low of $0.1140 by March 2020. Notably, this marked a massive 97% crash from the $3.8 all-time high.

When XRP attempted a recovery push in November 2020, soaring 177% that month, it encountered a fundamental issue. Specifically, the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple began the month after, triggering a 67% crash in December, XRP’s highest-ever monthly loss.

The asset witnessed a bearish campaign after December 2020, as several U.S. and Canadian exchanges ceased trading. Massive selloffs also engulfed the asset, triggering intense bearish pressure. As a result of this, XRP missed the 2021 bull run and faced relegation below the top 5 list of largest assets.

While other assets posted new gains in 2021, XRP failed to leverage the uptrend due to the bearish pressure, only rising to $1.96 in April 2021, 92% away from its 2017/2018 all-time high. 

XRP Holders Remained Unperturbed Amid the Struggles

Notably, despite the bearish campaign, most XRP investors held strong. Interestingly, the number of XRP holders continued to increase during this turbulent period. Specifically, data from Santiment confirms that there were about 986,000 XRP holders in January 2018 amid the all-time high.

However, despite the downturn that followed, the number of XRP holders quickly crossed the 1 million threshold and continued to increase. Over the next few years, amid the price collapse and the SEC lawsuit, existing holders held strong, and the market welcomed new entrants. 

Between January 2018 and December 2022, XRP welcomed over 3.53 million new holders. Ironically, the growth pace saw a remarkable uptick from November and December 2020 when the SEC lawsuit began. This pace dropped after the effects of the May 2022 Terra collapse.

Reward for Patience?

Now, XRP is attempting to make up for years of what many have believed to be an elaborate price suppression campaign. The near 600% rally from November 2024 to January 2025 is the first step toward this recovery effort.

Multiple analysts believe a much larger upsurge is imminent, citing XRP’s 2017 price action. Analysts like BarriC believe their patience will be rewarded, and not at meager prices such as $2. Last month, he stressed that he did not hold through all these years to sell at $2, eyeing a lofty target of $100.