Michael Arrington Says XRP Ecosystem Value Depends on Ripple

Arrington Capital founder Michael Arrington said in an April interview that Ripple’s execution will shape the broader XRP ecosystem, saying Ripple and XRP had been misunderstood in the last decade and offering no token price target.

Arrington made the remarks in an interview released Apr. 20, 2026. He said the ecosystem’s potential depends on Ripple staying focused on its mission and carrying out its plans. “There is no upper limit on the value of that ecosystem in general,” Arrington said.

Ripple develops technology, and XRP is the open-source asset native to the XRP Ledger. Arrington’s comment concerned the value of the broader ecosystem, rather than a specific valuation for XRP.

Ripple announced its $1.25 billion acquisition of prime broker Hidden Road on Apr. 8, 2025, and completed the deal on Oct. 24 that year. Hidden Road then became Ripple Prime. At the time of the announcement, Hidden Road cleared $3 trillion annually across markets and served more than 300 institutional customers.

Ripple Prime provides clearing, prime brokerage and financing services for markets including foreign exchange, digital assets, derivatives, swaps and fixed income. At the acquisition’s close, Ripple USD (RLUSD) was being used as collateral for several prime brokerage products, and some derivatives customers had chosen to hold balances in RLUSD.

The acquisition plan included moving Hidden Road’s post-trade activity onto the XRP Ledger. At closing, blockchain use by Ripple Prime was described as a future possibility.