In the latest episode of The Macro, Lewis Jackson delivers a detailed examination of the forces now shaping XRP’s long-term trajectory. His analysis moves beyond familiar ripple xrp news cycles and instead places XRP inside the broader transition toward tokenized assets, CBDC settlement architectures, AMM-driven liquidity, and privacy-enabled execution layers.
Across the episode, Jackson highlights a single defining idea:
the future system architecture banks choose will determine whether XRP needs a much higher price — or almost none at all.
This choice hinges on a tension playing out inside the global financial system: the push for greater efficiency versus the growing demand for privacy.
Jackson opens by revisiting recent comments from Ripple CTO David Schwartz. For years, Schwartz has argued that a bridge asset cannot be “dirt cheap” if it is to enable global-scale liquidity. That logic made sense in a world built on nostro/vostro pre-funding and slow correspondent-banking machinery.
But, as Jackson emphasises, the system Schwartz described a decade ago has changed.
The world XRP is entering today is shaped by:
This shift changes the mathematical requirements for XRP’s price — and it’s this structural change Jackson unpacks.
Jackson draws heavily on BIS documentation and CBDC pilot results, noting that the world’s financial infrastructure is now evolving around two core priorities:
These two priorities pull XRP’s valuation mechanics in opposite directions.
As settlement systems become faster and more automated, they rely less on large pre-funded liquidity buffers. Tokenized deposits, real-time payment networks, and AMM-driven liquidity recycling reduce the total number of XRP units needed for conversion.
This version of the future benefits from:
In such a world, Jackson argues that XRP can serve as global conversion infrastructure even at relatively low valuations, because the system requires speed rather than stored value.
But the opposite dynamic emerges when privacy is introduced.
Zero-knowledge rollups (ZK rollups), privacy chains, and private settlement layers — increasingly referenced in CBDC research — batch transactions rather than settling them continuously. Batching reduces velocity, and lower velocity pushes the system toward higher-value bridge assets.
Jackson notes that if XRPL adopts a ZK rollup environment:
This is where high-value XRP theories become feasible — not through speculation, but through system mechanics.
Jackson offers a simple analogy:
Without rollups, every transaction must go to “town hall” (the L1 XRPL).
With rollups, transactions occur privately off-chain and then settle at once with a single cryptographic proof.
This approach provides:
For tokenized treasuries, securities, deposits, and CBDCs — ZK rollups solve problems XRPL currently cannot.
This triggers the central question of the episode:
Will XRPL adopt ZK rollups — and what happens to XRP depending on that choice?
Lewis Jackson frames the future around two possible system architectures.
Impact on XRP: lower required price
In this model:
This scenario maximises velocity — reducing the amount of XRP required for any given flow.
Impact on XRP: higher required price
Here, XRPL evolves into a settlement hub where:
This version of the future inherently requires a higher-priced XRP to function as a neutral, collateralised bridge asset across tokenized markets.
Throughout the episode, Jackson highlights global signals pointing toward privacy and modularity:
Together, these trends support an emerging architecture based on rollups, modular layers, programmable liquidity, and cross-ledger execution.
XRP must adapt — and Jackson argues that Ripple and the XRPL community appear to be preparing for exactly that.
Jackson ends the episode with a list of structural signals that would confirm XRPL is moving toward a ZK rollup future:
If these signals begin to appear, Jackson believes XRP’s long-term valuation framework could change dramatically.
To understand the forces reshaping XRP’s future — from AMM-based liquidity to ZK rollups and tokenized settlement networks — watch the full episode of The Macro.
For continuing research on XRPL, Ripple news, CBDCs, programmable finance, tokenized assets, and the architecture of the new financial system, follow Lewis Jackson Ventures.
