Ripple's courtroom win sent XRP soaring overnight, but whether that surge created lasting wealth or a costly trap depends entirely on which side of the ruling you bought on.
The Crypto Desk desk. Editor: Sam Daodu.
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Ripple scored a major victory on July 13, 2023, in its legal battle with the SEC, which had a big impact on XRP’s price (CRYPTO:XRP). If you had invested $1,000 in XRP around that day, your investment would now be worth between $1,562 and $2,715, depending on when you bought in. This notable ruling declared that XRP’s programmatic sales on exchanges were not securities offerings, while Ripple’s institutional sales were.
For context, a securities offering is an investment that must be registered with the SEC. Both Ripple and the SEC eventually dropped their appeals in 2025, bringing the case to a close. As of November 3, 2026, XRP trades at $1.28, down about 15.8% over the past month. The price peaked at $1.52 on October 4 and fell to $1.24 by October 29.
$1,000 in XRP a Day Before the SEC Ruling Is Worth 74% More
On July 12, 2023, the day before the ruling, XRP closed at $0.47. That was the price before the news broke. The next day, after the ruling was made public, XRP surged to a close of $0.82, a remarkable 73.9% gain in one session.
At the pre-ruling price of $0.47, a $1,000 investment would have bought about 2,121 XRP. At the current price of $1.28, that amount is worth around $2,715. In contrast, if you purchased XRP at the close of the ruling day at $0.82, you would have bought only about 1,220 XRP, which is now worth approximately $1,562. This means that buying before the price jump gave you about 74% more value, as the earlier buyer holds significantly more tokens for the same investment.
Both XRP Stacks Were Worth Nearly Three Times More at the $3.65 All-Time High
XRP reached its all-time high of $3.65 on July 17, 2025. At that peak, the pre-jump investment would have been valued at around $7,743, while the investment made on the ruling day would have been worth about $4,453. However, XRP is now trading 64.9% below that high and has fallen about 44.6% over the past year. Anyone who invested around the ruling and held onto their tokens through 2025 has witnessed a significant drop in their potential gains.
XRP’s market cap, which measures the total value of all circulating tokens, adds another layer of complexity. On July 13, 2023, the market cap was around $42.8 billion. It now stands at approximately $81.1 billion, reflecting an increase of 89.5%. However, this rise in market cap outpaces the price increase of just 56.2% from the previous day. This discrepancy is because more XRP tokens are now in circulation, as Ripple continues to release tokens from its escrow account, a reserve that is gradually unlocked over time. This means returning to the $3.65 price point could require a much larger influx of investment than it did in 2025.
Bitcoin Beat the XRP Buyer Who Waited for the SEC Ruling
To put things in perspective, if you had invested $1,000 in Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) on the same day, when Bitcoin closed at $31,460, you would have purchased about 0.0318 BTC. At Bitcoin’s current price of $77,609, that investment would now be worth around $2,467.
While the pre-jump XRP buyer outperformed Bitcoin, the investor who waited for the ruling day did not fare as well. Ultimately, Bitcoin continues to lead over anyone who chased XRP’s price surge.
How Much Is $1,000 in XRP From the SEC Ruling Worth Now?
In conclusion, the $1,000 investment is worth approximately $2,715 for those who purchased on July 12, 2023, and about $1,562 for those who bought on July 13. This difference highlights the risks of timing the market and chasing news-driven price jumps. The ruling-day investment remains profitable only as long as XRP stays above $0.82, with the lowest close in the past year being $0.99 on August 16.
Currently, XRP is trading below its 20-day average of $1.30 and its 50-day average of $1.39, suggesting weaker momentum. For the ruling-day investment to regain traction, XRP needs to rise above $1.39 first, and it would take about $2.02 for that stock to catch Bitcoin’s $2,467. However, if XRP drops below its August low of $0.99—23% lower than its current price—this investment could trend toward break-even, while the pre-jump investment would still show a gain above $0.47.
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Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst and the editor of 24/7 Wall St.'s Crypto Desk, where he covers Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum, Solana and the altcoins investors search for most. His work focuses on price levels, spot ETF flows, on-chain data and the regulatory decisions that move crypto markets, written so a first-time buyer and a seasoned trader can both use it.
Sam has written about crypto professionally since 2019 and has published more than 2,000 articles. Before joining 24/7 Wall St., he wrote for crypto media outlets and Web3 companies and ghostwrote for crypto founders and token launches. His analysis is syndicated on Yahoo Finance, MSN and AOL and has been cited by other crypto news sites. He also founded MacLabs Marketing, a content and personal branding agency for crypto founders and executives.
When he isn't reading charts, Sam is usually at the gym or watching One Piece, a series he maintains has better tokenomics than most altcoins.
