Think It's Too Late to Buy XRP? Here's Why You Still Have Time.

Key Points

• XRP intends to make cross-border payments cheaper and faster.

• Analysts anticipate significant growth in cross-border payments through 2034.

• XRP should only be a small portion of your portfolio.

• 10 stocks we like better than XRP ›

Of the thousands of cryptocurrencies that have been created, many of those have proven useless, but XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) seems to be one of the few exceptions. It's also been one of the more rewarding coins over the 12 months, up over 430% in that time.

Considering the huge run-up in the past year, it's natural to think that it might be too late to buy XRP. However, its use case means there's still time.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Image source: Getty Images.

XRP was created with the purpose of making cross-border transactions quicker and much cheaper by removing the intermediaries that are usually involved when sending money through traditional financial institutions. What could cost someone 5% to 7% of the amount sent and potentially take hours or days, XRP can do for fractions of a cent and almost instantly.

The reason it's not too late to buy XRP is because of the expected growth of the cross-border payment market. According to Allied Market Research, the global cross-border payments market is expected to grow from roughly $206 trillion at the end of 2024 to around $414 trillion by 2034.

In the grand scheme, XRP is a very small player, and there will be many hands in the pot, but it's a huge enough market that even an extremely small piece of the pie or adoption could work out in XRP's favor. Even with its potential, it's crucial to understand how volatile XRP and cryptocurrencies in general can be. Even if you're interested in the coin and believe in its long-term potential, I would make it a minimal part of your overall portfolio (around 1%).

Should you invest $1,000 in XRP right now?

Before you buy stock in XRP, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and XRP wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $651,345!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,080,327!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 189% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of September 15, 2025

Stefon Walters has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.