Key Takeaways
- XRP supporters are recirculating a $32.91 valuation scenario co-authored by Robert Mitchnick before he joined BlackRock.
- The research produced a lower expected-value range after accounting for the possibility of XRP failing.
- Theories surrounding why Mitchnick removed his Ripple experience from LinkedIn continue to gain traction.
XRP supporters have revived claims that BlackRock has a $32.91 price target for the token, drawing on research co-authored by the asset manager’s digital assets chief, Robert Mitchnick, before he joined the company.
The posts have circulated alongside speculation that Mitchnick removed his Ripple experience from LinkedIn.
XRP Bulls Revive the $32.91 Scenario
In a post circulating on Monday, XRP commentator Pumpius declared:
“BLACKROCK HAS A $32.91 XRP TARGET.”
The post cited A Fundamental Valuation Framework for Cryptoassets, a June 2018 paper by Mitchnick and Susan Athey, a Stanford economist.
Pumpius argued that Mitchnick’s involvement showed he had considered XRP’s potential role in global finance before taking charge of BlackRock’s digital-assets business.
“The man now overseeing BlackRock’s digital asset strategy was examining XRP’s potential role in global finance long before institutional adoption became a mainstream narrative.”
What the Research Actually Calculated
The paper combined demand for transactions with demand to hold cryptoassets as a store of value.
Its XRP success scenario produced estimates ranging from $6.37 to $32.91, expressed in present-value terms at the time.
The authors then assigned a 25% probability to that success scenario and assumed XRP would be effectively worthless in the failure scenario.
That reduced the expected-value range to $1.59–$8.23.
Mitchnick’s June 2018 introduction also stated that the authors’ opinions did not represent Ripple, Stanford, or any other entity.
It also warned that both Bitcoin and XRP faced a meaningful possibility of near-zero long-term value.
XRP Would Need to Rally More Than 2,250% to Reach $32.91
With XRP trading around $1.40 at the time of writing, reaching $32.91 would require a whopping 2,251% increase.
Even reaching a rounded $32 would require an increase of roughly 2,186%.
Using its current 63.13 billion circulating tokens, XRP at $32.91 would have a market capitalization of around $2.08 trillion.
That implied valuation would exceed Meta’s approximately $1.83 trillion, Tesla’s $1.51 trillion and Berkshire Hathaway’s $1.11 trillion market capitalizations at the Oct. 9 close.
It would also be almost three times Visa’s roughly $720 billion valuation.
Some holders have already challenged the increasingly wild forecasts circulating across the community.
As CCN previously reported, EGRAG Crypto’s separate $90 projection drew skeptical replies from followers.
“You have been saying it’s going to XYZ for a long long time….it’s stuck at $1.50,” one user wrote.
LinkedIn Screenshot Fuels Ripple Speculation
A separate post over the weekend from XRP commentator @unknowDLT questioned Mitchnick’s employment history.
“I wonder why Robert Mitchnick would remove the fact that he worked for Ripple from his LinkedIn profile…?”
Digital Asset Investor amplified the claim, asking why someone would remove a role that could strengthen their résumé.
“Why would anyone scrub their LinkedIn of a resume enhancer like @ripple and then talk about nothing but Bitcoin while at BlackRock?”
The shared screenshot shows a LinkedIn experience section without a visible Ripple entry.
However, FINRA’s BrokerCheck report lists Mitchnick as an MBA intern at Ripple from June to September 2017.
It records his move to BlackRock in August 2018, after the valuation paper was published.
Mitchnick has also discussed the experience in a podcast transcript published on BlackRock’s own website.
“It just so happened that I ended up at this company called Ripple,” he said.
He described joining in June 2017, returning to complete his MBA, and then pursuing an opportunity to build BlackRock’s digital-assets business.
Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
