Longtime XRP Holders Weigh Patience Against Opportunity Cost

Seven years of waiting meet a new calculation

For some XRP holders, the hardest question may be what years of waiting have cost them elsewhere. Genfinity founder Ryan Solomon, known as King Solomon, says he’s likely to sell his entire position at current prices after holding the token for seven years, even as some investors continue to anticipate a move toward $10. His decision, as he describes it, is less a rejection of every possible future rally than a reassessment of how long he’s willing to wait for one.

“When XRP eventually hits $10, many won’t sell,” Solomon wrote in a post on X. “I’m likely selling everything at current prices. Tired after 7 years. Too much opportunity cost.” He also criticized what he sees as shifting narratives and gaslighting around the token. That frustration points to a problem for any asset whose investment case depends heavily on patience: supporters need to explain not only why a target might be reached, but why holding through years of uncertainty remains worthwhile.

Opportunity cost tests long-term conviction

XRP was trading around $1.10, according to CoinGecko data cited at the time, down about 51% over the previous year. That decline adds pressure to a decision that goes beyond any single price target: holders have to weigh the prospect of future gains against the returns they might have pursued elsewhere. Opportunity cost can be difficult to measure in hindsight, but it becomes harder to ignore the longer an investment sits below an investor’s expectations.

Solomon’s comments carry particular weight among XRP followers because of his work researching the token and digital asset infrastructure through Genfinity. His willingness to consider selling suggests that a hoped-for rally to $10 may no longer outweigh the cost of waiting for some early supporters. That’s a pointed signal, though it shouldn’t be mistaken for a measure of what all holders think.

Another longtime holder, who goes by Nikolas, said in a separate post that waiting for XRP to reach $5 to $10 was one of his biggest investment mistakes. He also argued that parts of the community have become too attached to bullish expectations to assess them critically. The issue here isn’t simply whether a price target is optimistic; it’s whether believers have a clear way to judge progress when the target remains out of reach.

Questions about Ripple and XRP’s relationship

Nikolas also questioned whether Ripple Labs’ corporate growth is translating into comparable benefits for XRP holders. In his view, the company’s interests appear increasingly detached from the token’s performance. Those comments reflect a distinction some holders draw between Ripple’s business progress and the returns they expect from owning XRP. A company can advance its own business without that progress automatically answering the separate question of what drives demand for a token.

For holders, that distinction matters because the two are often discussed together, even though corporate activity and token performance aren’t the same measure. If you’re working in this space, the practical question is what evidence connects a company’s progress to a reason for investors to keep holding its associated asset. Without that connection, broad claims about growth may do little to resolve holders’ concerns about returns.

Frustration may be wider, but the evidence is limited

Crypto commentator Good Evening Crypto said in a post that Solomon’s concerns may extend beyond one prominent investor. He described a private equity friend who has held XRP since 2021 and recently raised similar concerns about opportunity cost. Good Evening Crypto said he doesn’t share that view, but argued that Solomon’s experience makes his willingness to sell worth attention.

That anecdote adds another voice, not a reliable count of investor sentiment (and this is the part most people overlook). The accounts don’t establish how broadly the sentiment is shared, and individual holders can reach different conclusions from the same price history. Still, repeated public doubts can expose where a community’s case for patience is under strain.

The test ahead is a clearer reason to hold

The numbers here are underwhelming for holders who expected a much stronger performance, and that makes the debate more significant than it looks. Price targets can keep attention fixed on a distant outcome, but they don’t resolve the present choice between waiting and putting capital elsewhere. The opportunity cost is real to the people making that choice, even when there’s no single answer that fits every investor.

And yet. A few public statements don’t settle XRP’s long-term prospects or show that the community has broadly lost confidence. They do show that some longtime holders are reassessing the case for staying invested. The next test for XRP may be whether its progress can give patient holders a clearer reason to keep waiting—and whether that case can be judged on more than promises of a higher price.