In this episode of The Macro, Lewis Jackson delivers one of his most technically grounded assessments yet, blending macroeconomic research with blockchain infrastructure analysis. Rather than feeding into the hype that often surrounds ripple xrp news, Jackson focuses on the mechanics that genuinely matter: interest-rate differentials, liquidity routing, tokenized deposits, AMM-powered settlement, and how institutions choose to reuse — or not reuse — digital assets across programmable payment networks.
The centrepiece of the episode is an idea Jackson believes the XRP community often overlooks: flows don’t determine XRP’s required value — velocity does.
Jackson begins with a clear and intuitive explanation of the carry trade, the decades-long macro pattern that shaped global liquidity flows.
In a classic carry trade, investors:
Japan became the world’s preferred funding source for this strategy. Its zero-rate regime, which began in 1999 and dipped into negative territory in 2016, allowed institutions to borrow enormous sums at essentially no cost.
That era changed abruptly on 19 March 2024, when the Bank of Japan raised rates for the first time in 17 years. Jackson treats this not as monetary trivia, but as a genuine transformation in the liquidity architecture that underpins everything from FX markets to blockchain-based settlement experiments.
Years of ultra-cheap borrowing created a huge global imbalance. Analysts estimate that $4.2–$4.5 trillion flowed into yen-funded positions. As Japan shifted its policy stance, institutions began unwinding these positions, triggering FX volatility and forcing liquidity rerouting across multiple markets.
Jackson cites BIS documentation describing this as a “carry trade unwind” — a process that exposes structural weaknesses in both traditional financial rails and emerging tokenized alternatives.
The key questions become:
These questions form the intellectual bridge between Japan’s macro shift and the XRP-related narratives circulating online.
Jackson is careful to avoid sensationalism. XRP does not automatically become “the solution” just because Japan is a pro-Ripple jurisdiction. Instead, he notes that XRP’s presence in Japan is measurable, documented, and operational.
SBI Remit currently uses XRP in live corridors between:
These corridors run under regulated oversight and provide a practical example of XRP acting as a neutral bridge asset in real economic flows. That real-world usage is why XRP inevitably appears in discussions about macro shifts — but it does not, by itself, guarantee dramatic price implications.
Which brings Jackson to the most important part of the episode.
According to Jackson, almost every high-end XRP price prediction makes the same mistake:
they assume the price depends on the size of the flows, not the speed of the asset.
Velocity refers to how many times a single unit of liquidity can be reused inside the settlement architecture. In traditional finance, BIS frameworks allow each $1 in nostro/vostro to circulate multiple times per day. In programmable-money or XRPL AMM environments, that velocity could be significantly higher.
Jackson explains the implications simply:
This is the heart of the analysis — and the nuance many crypto influencers never discuss.
The question is not:
“How big is the flow?”
It’s:
“How many times will institutions reuse the same token before the day ends?”
This one variable reshapes the entire XRP valuation framework.
Jackson outlines two architectural paths — each leading to very different price outcomes.
In this scenario:
XRP still functions as a conversion asset, but its required price is modest because the system recycles liquidity so frequently.
If institutions favour privacy layers, ZK rollups, batched settlement, or XRPL-anchored rollup systems, settlement frequency drops and locked liquidity rises. That environment requires:
In this world, XRP must hold more value per unit for the system to work.
Jackson frames this scenario as the foundation of high-value XRP theories — rooted not in hype, but in settlement mechanics.
Jackson closes by reminding viewers that while Japan’s reverse carry trade serves as an excellent teaching example, it is not the ultimate driver of XRP’s value.
The real determinants include:
These forces will shape XRP’s value far more than any single macro event.
For anyone analysing XRP’s long-term position in CBDC experiments, tokenized-asset infrastructure, settlement routing, xrp liquidity, or the evolution of programmable finance, this episode is essential viewing. Watch the full analysis on The Macro and follow Lewis Jackson Ventures for ongoing research into the global financial system’s transition to digital-asset settlement.
