Expert projections eye bullish targets for XRP if the XRP Ledger (XRPL) eliminates 10% of the total supply through burns.
For context, XRP’s built-in burn mechanism has a small but important role in the ecosystem. Specifically, each transaction on the XRP Ledger carries a small fee, and the network permanently removes or “burns” this fee.
The XRPL’s Burn Feature
However, the original architects of the XRP Ledger never designed this feature to make the crypto asset scarce or drive its price upward. Instead, they implemented it primarily to prevent spam transactions on the network.
Despite this original purpose, several individuals within the XRP community believe large-scale burns could impact XRP’s value. At present, the daily average of XRP destroyed through transaction fees hovers around 2,700 tokens. However, recent declines in network activity have pushed this figure down to roughly 600 tokens per day.
Notably, since the network’s launch 13 years ago, only 14.19 million XRP has been burned, which represents a mere 0.014% of the total supply of 100 billion tokens. At this slow pace, reaching even one billion burned tokens, or just 1% of the total supply, would take over a thousand years.
This has led some within the community to call for alternative methods that could accelerate the burn process. Still, the actual impact of burning larger amounts remains uncertain.
To understand what might happen if the XRP Ledger were to remove a large amount, say 10% of its total supply from circulation, we asked for an assessment from the AI chatbot Google Gemini.
XRP Price if the Network Burns 10% of Supply
According to Google Gemini, eliminating 10 billion XRP, or 10% of the total supply, would mark a major deflationary event. Currently, XRP trades at $2.71 with a circulating supply of about 59.48 billion tokens, giving it a market cap of roughly $161 billion.
If 10 billion tokens disappeared from circulation, the supply would shrink to 49.48 billion tokens. If XRP kept the same market cap, its price would only climb to around $3.25 solely from the reduced supply, even without additional demand.
However, Google Gemini noted that markets do not react in such a straightforward way. Specifically, the psychological shock of such a massive supply cut would almost certainly attract new investors and fuel buying pressure.
As a result, the AI chatbot suggested that the price might first surge to between $4 and $5 as traders reacted to the news, before consolidating and potentially breaking past the cryptocurrency’s previous all-time high near $3.84.
According to Google Gemini, the long-term outlook could become even more bullish. Amid higher demand, reduced supply, and renewed investor interest, XRP might target levels between $10 and $15 in the months following such an event, creating a market cap ranging from roughly $495 billion to $742 billion.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.