This $32.91 XRP price model has an unexpected connection to Blackstone Funds

The $32.91 XRP price target is circulating again: A misread BlackRock correlation

analyst Pumpius pointed out that an old valuation model co-authored by Robert Mitchnick, current head of BlackRock's digital assets business, has once again attracted attention, which mentions the $32.91 XRP price target. At first glance, this seems to mean BlackRock itself had predicted that XRP would reach $32.91. This is not the case.

This figure comes from a 2018 research paper jointly published by Mitchnick and Stanford University economist Susan Athey. The study explored the valuation framework for crypto assets and gave a roughly low valuation of XRP of US$6.37 and a high valuation of US$32.91 under different assumptions of transaction volume, adoption rate and token circulation speed. In a high valuation scenario, assume XRP can ultimately generate hundreds of billions of dollars in daily trading volume.

The reason why this story attracts attention today is because of Mitchnick's career trajectory. He currently serves as head of BlackRock's digital assets business, a position that has been directly confirmed by BlackRock.

The true source of $32.91 XRP data

Pumpius views the resurrected research as evidence that the executive currently responsible for BlackRock's digital asset strategy is already studying the future of XRP playing a greater role in global finance. This is fair.

具有误导性的部分在于将32.91美元称为“BlackRock对XRP的目标价”。Mitchnick和Athey完成这项工作是在他任职BlackRock多年之前，且32.91美元这个数字来自理论估值模型，而非资产管理公司发布的投资建议。

该模型试图通过XRP作为交换媒介和价值储存的双重潜在用途来对其进行估值。

BLACKROCK HAS A $32.91 XRP TARGET在掌管BlackRock的数字资产业务之前，Robert Mitchnick就已经在研究一个$XRP深度嵌入全球金融的未来。他与斯坦福大学经济学家Susan Athey合著的研究探讨了一种XRP成功的情景，其估值为每枚XRP 32.91美元。令我着迷的是，这位目前负责BlackRock数字资产策略的人，早在机构级采用成为主流叙事之前，就在审视XRP在全球金融中的潜在角色。— Pumpius (@pumpius) 2026年10月11日

其高估值情景使用的估计XRP交易量为每天约1900亿至5600亿美元，原始框架承认其中几个假设存在相当大的不确定性。这一背景极大地改变了该数字的含义。

32.91美元并不是断言XRP会达到该价格。它代表的是，如果一系列严苛的采用假设成为现实，XRP在理论上可能拥有的价值。

BlackRock的联系仍然值得玩味

This is what makes Pumpius's point interesting. Long before institutional cryptocurrency adoption became a major theme on Wall Street, Mitchnick was thinking seriously about the valuation of digital assets.

Today, he leads BlackRock's digital asset business and frequently discusses Bitcoin, tokenization, and the integration of blockchain-based assets with traditional financial markets. BlackRock itself describes its strategy as building a bridge between traditional capital markets and digital assets.

But this did not transform an old XRP model into a modern BlackRock endorsement. However, this history is indeed worth noting. An executive who currently adopts core operations at institutional level cryptocurrencies has previously co-authored a study that takes XRP seriously, modeling its scenarios involving large-scale global trading activity.

Is the $32.91 XRP price realistic?

Based on current supply, an XRP price of $32.91 means that the market value will be in the trillions of dollars. This immediately makes the goal extremely challenging.

For XRP to justify such valuations, adoption rates may need to go well beyond speculative trading. Networks need to be used substantively in terms of payments, liquidity, tokenized assets or other financial infrastructure, combined with ongoing investment needs.

That's why the skeptical reaction under Pumpius's post was understandable. One commentator dismissed the claim as false hype. If the claim is presented as "BlackRock has a $32.91 XRP target," then the criticism is reasonable. BlackRock did not do this.

But to deny this story altogether would miss an important difference: the $32.91 figure itself does come from a true valuation framework Mitchnick co-authored before joining BlackRock.

Our View

The most interesting part of this story is not the $32.91 figure itself, but the difference between valuation scenarios and price forecasts.

This model demonstrates how valuable XRP may become theoretically under extremely large adoption assumptions. It does not establish that these assumptions will occur, and Mitchnick's current position at BlackRock cannot retroactively translate the paper into corporate research.

This difference is important because the social media version is much more dramatic than underlying facts.

A legal BlackRock connection does exist. There is indeed a legal $32.91 XRP valuation scenario. But there is no evidence that BlackRock currently has a $32.91 XRP price target.