thecryptobasic.com
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has recently made another bold prediction for what could happen in the crypto industry this year.
Garlinghouse’s latest commentary on the outlook of the crypto market came during an interview over the weekend with CNBC.
In particular, he expressed a conviction that the combined size of the crypto market would crack a $5 trillion valuation this year.
As of the latest data, the global cryptocurrency market stands at over $2.58 trillion. Garlinghouse’s $5 trillion projection suggests he expects the market to double within the next eight months.
Factors Supporting the Ambitious Outlook
Supporting Garlinghouse’s ambitious outlook for the crypto market are macroeconomic factors, especially the new institutional involvement in the space via Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF). His bullish anticipation is also grounded in the Bitcoin halving event, which is due two weeks from now.
“I’ve been around this industry for a long time, and I’ve seen these trends come and go,” Garlinghouse remarked during the interview.
Moreover, he emphasized that crypto ETFs are attracting genuine institutional investment for the first time. He pointed out the surging demand for Bitcoin from these ETFs at a time when BTC’s daily supply is decreasing.
For instance, while Bitcoin miners produced around 28,500 BTC in March, Bitcoin spot ETFs reportedly consumed over 66K BTC tokens.
“It doesn’t take an economics major to tell you what happens when supply contracts and demand expands,” Garlinghouse added. Accordingly, the Ripple CEO asserted that the crypto market could “easily” double in valuation amid the new trends.
“2024 Will Be Big”
In the early weeks of 2024, Garlinghouse emphasized that this year “is going to be big.” His bold declaration heightened optimism about XRP’s outlook.
LFG! 2024 is going to be big. https://t.co/3CcCQNo4D9
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 16, 2024
Similarly, Garlinghouse’s latest forecast of a $5 trillion market has re-ignited confidence within the XRP community. Luke Thomas, an enthusiastic XRP proponent, noted that in his seven years of monitoring Ripple, he had never seen Garlinghouse so explicitly offer market indicators.
Thomas believes that Garlinghouse’s latest statement suggests significant developments are on the horizon for the cryptocurrency landscape, particularly for Ripple and XRP.
In all my seven years of monitoring @Ripple, I've never witnessed @bgarlinghouse explicitly providing market indicators. It seems there are significant developments on the horizon for Cryptoland, especially for #Ripple and #XRP!https://t.co/JIaFjiyUta
— Luke Thomas (@DEarthshaker) April 8, 2024
Indeed, Ripple is already signaling progress towards this projection, as the firm recently revealed its plans to launch a USD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger before the year concludes.