According to reports, Joshua Dalton, founder of Triblu, has put forward a striking scenario: that XRP holders could become millionaires, billionaires, or even trillionaires if the token were used as part of a US strategic crypto reserve.
Dalton argued that XRP, because of its ties to a US-based company, is a safer fit for a national reserve than Bitcoin. The claim has energized some corners of the crypto community, but it also faces steep legal and market obstacles.
Dalton’s Bold Claim And The Numbers
Dalton’s case relies on hard math. Based on reports, the US national debt is about $38 trillion. Ripple’s escrow holds roughly 34.4 billion XRP. Using those figures, Dalton and others calculate that an XRP price near $883 would be needed to offset roughly 80% of that debt.
Many people won’t like what I say below.
“Bitcoin cannot be the official currency for the United States’ reserves because Satoshi Nakamoto is still unknown and it could be the currency operated by China. The government can
trust XRP because it is operated by @Ripple and
— Joshua Dalton (@J9Dalton) January 23, 2025
At present, XRP trades around $1.91. That would mean a rise of over 46,000% for the token. By comparison, Bitcoin is trading near $89,000 and would have to reach about $30 million per coin to meet a similar debt-offset goal if the plan focused on 1 million BTC, an idea once floated by US Senator Cynthia Lummis. That would be a gain of more than 33,000% from current levels.
Legal And Market Limits
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year creating a national Bitcoin reserve and a wider crypto stockpile framework. But policymakers appear to be focused mainly on Bitcoin for the reserve role, with other coins treated as seizure assets or general holdings.
Importantly, Ripple’s escrow is privately controlled and governed by contracts. It cannot be commandeered by a government without legal action and likely long court fights. Even if US authorities somehow obtained large amounts of XRP, unloading such a position on global markets would likely push the price down, not up. Markets are not built to absorb trillions of dollars without heavy distortion.
Holders And Wealth Scenarios
Based on wallet data, some XRP addresses would see big nominal gains at an $880 price. For example, a holder of 10,000 XRP — currently worth about $19,100 — could see that stake climb to nearly $9 million on paper.
Reports show 179,546 wallets hold between 5,000 and 10,000 XRP. About 2,006 addresses sit between 500,000 and 1 million XRP. Yet most of the largest reserves are held by Ripple, its founders, or exchanges. Only 20 wallets contain between 500 million and 1 billion XRP, and six addresses hold more than 1 billion.
2026 is going to be epic! Locked in!
XRP will be the star of 2026.
— Coach, JV (@Coachjv_) December 23, 2025
Market Reaction And Expert Views
Matthew Sigel, lead researcher at VanEck, has argued in public that Bitcoin offers the best path to large-scale fiscal uses, and other analysts remain skeptical of any single token being used to “solve” national debt.
Coach JV and other commentators have shifted attention to 2026 as a potentially strong year for XRP price action, framing the outlook as speculative and time-bound. These views are primarily sentiment-driven and rely on factors beyond government policy, such as market demand and regulatory clarity.
Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView
