XRP Holders Question Ripple’s RLUSD Push as $20 Price Target Resurfaces

Ripple’s expanding RLUSD business has revived a difficult question for XRP holders: will the company’s growth create demand for the token, or mainly strengthen Ripple’s broader payments operation? The distinction matters because a company can expand its services without every asset associated with it gaining the same value or use. An investor’s public appeal to Ripple leaders has put that tension back in focus, including a call for XRP to reach $15 to $20 or more.

Investor says longtime XRP holders deserve a return

In a November 1 post on X addressed to CEO Brad Garlinghouse and CTO Emeritus David Schwartz, XRP investor Fabrizio Scudu accused Ripple of placing its RLUSD stablecoin and corporate expansion ahead of XRP holders’ interests. Scudu argued that Ripple was directing the token’s economic and technological potential toward RLUSD and enterprise initiatives while securing the company’s future. His post is a complaint about priorities, but it also reflects a broader distinction: Ripple’s commercial success and XRP’s market performance aren’t automatically the same thing.

His appeal rests on a sense of shared history. Scudu said XRP holders had supported Ripple through years of negative sentiment, financial uncertainty and legal challenges. Some, he said, had put personal savings into the ecosystem and remained loyal through that period. He wants Ripple’s leadership to recognize those sacrifices and help XRP reach what he sees as its fair value: $15 to $20 or higher. That target is his demand, not evidence that the token is likely to reach that level.

Scudu framed the dispute as one of accountability, warning that Ripple’s community should not be forgotten as the company grows. “History is watching you, and so is God,” he wrote in closing. The appeal is emotional by design, invoking loyalty and obligation rather than laying out a direct mechanism for Ripple’s business growth to raise XRP’s value.

Ripple says RLUSD and XRP serve different roles

Garlinghouse has rejected the idea that RLUSD is replacing XRP. Speaking at the Swell 2026 conference in New York, he said, “We will never give up on XRP.” He has also described the two assets as “very complementary.” Those statements make clear how Ripple wants the relationship understood: as two products with distinct purposes inside a broader payments strategy.

In Ripple’s account, RLUSD provides price stability for payments and financial transactions, while XRP can supply liquidity and move value across the XRP Ledger. A stablecoin is designed to maintain a steady value, while XRP’s price can move; that difference can make the assets useful for different steps in a transaction. But a complementary role doesn’t by itself show how often users will need XRP, or how much demand that activity could create.

Garlinghouse said the company “will never do something we think is bad for the XRP ecosystem,” positioning RLUSD’s growth as compatible with continued support for XRP. That is a statement of company intent. For holders asking about the token’s prospects, the practical question is how that intent translates into product design, adoption and actual use—details the comments cited here don’t settle.

Ripple’s growth and XRP’s value remain separate questions

That reassurance addresses Ripple’s stated priorities, but it doesn’t settle the question investors are asking: whether the company’s expansion will translate into meaningful demand for XRP. More payment channels, partnerships and RLUSD adoption could broaden Ripple’s business, yet none guarantees that XRP will capture enough value to meet Scudu’s $20 ambition. This is more significant than it looks: the argument concerns how benefits from a growing company are distributed between its business and an asset held by its community.

Here's the thing: activity in a payments network and demand for a particular token aren’t interchangeable measures. A business can win customers through services that don’t require those customers to hold its associated token for long, while a token can have a defined technical role without that role producing demand at a scale holders expect. Similar systems typically depend on how products are used in practice, not just on whether their functions can fit together.

What XRP holders should watch

If you're working in this space, the useful question is what evidence would connect RLUSD’s growth to XRP usage. Ripple’s descriptions identify possible roles for both assets, but they don’t quantify how much XRP transactions require, how frequently the token would be used, or whether greater activity would translate into lasting demand. (And this is the part most people overlook.) A company can support an asset as part of its ecosystem while still building revenue and customer relationships through other products.

That said, Scudu’s criticism puts pressure on Ripple to explain the connection more clearly. Holders who have backed XRP for years may see the company’s expanding business as a test of whether their interests remain part of its strategy. Ripple’s executives have offered reassurance, and the company’s account gives RLUSD and XRP separate functions. Whether those functions reinforce each other in a way that matters to XRP’s value is still unresolved.

For now, the disagreement is less about whether Ripple supports XRP—the company says it does—and more about what that support means in economic terms. A supportive statement can answer concerns about corporate intent; it can’t, on its own, establish a price outcome. The gap between those two claims is where the debate over RLUSD and XRP will continue.