The long-running debate over XRP’s market cap is missing the point, Digital Ascension Group CEO Jake Claver says. In a March 26 video, Claver argued that market capitalization is a blunt metric for a payments-focused digital asset. The real question is whether XRP’s market structure can absorb institutional-scale payment flows without catastrophic execution costs — and that, he says, likely requires a materially higher XRP price. Claver laid out a “liquidity index” to evaluate a token’s practical utility and stability rather than its headline valuation. The model combines six variables: market depth, liquidity continuity, slippage, available supply, settlement speed, and access. When judged together, Claver says, the priority for a payments asset isn’t speculative upside but a high, stable price that makes very large transactions feasible. Key points from his case - Supply and float matter more than total issuance. Claver compared XRP to a scarce collectible: what counts is how many tokens are actually available to trade. As demand grows and more XRP is effectively locked up, the tradable float shrinks and each circulating token becomes more important for absorbing large flows. - Market depth is the central constraint. He used a water-pool analogy: the market must be “deep” enough to swallow big trades without creating severe price dislocation. For example, moving $100 million via XRP at $1 per token would require roughly 100 million tokens in the liquidity pool; at $100 per token, the same $100 million move needs only about 1 million tokens. - Slippage is a showstopper for banks today. Claver estimates a $100 million XRP transaction could lose roughly 10% to slippage — about $10 million — whereas traditional equity markets can handle similar size trades with slippage well under 0.5%. Closing that gap, he argues, would require 20x to 100x more value sitting on order books. With a fixed token supply, price has to do “all of that work.” - Available supply may tighten further. Claver points to ETFs, corporate and bank treasuries, and DeFi pools as sources that could lock up more XRP, shrinking the float and potentially triggering price jumps rather than gradual increases once sellers become scarce. - Speed helps but isn’t sufficient. XRP’s 3–5 second settlement gives the same pool of capital much more turnover than slower networks, enabling market makers to recycle liquidity faster. But that advantage evaporates if every trade costs 1–2% (or worse) to execute: “the speed advantage turns into a faster way to lose money,” Claver warned. Claver summed up by saying market cap is a superficial snapshot that assumes every token could be transacted at the last traded price. For a network built to process cross-border value at scale, the practical test is whether its order books can absorb institutional volumes without “destroying capital.” On his view, a higher, stable XRP price isn’t mere hype — it’s a structural requirement if the token is to support bank-scale settlement. At press time, XRP traded at $1.3337. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news