A $32.91 XRP price target is circulating again after analyst Pumpius pointed to an old valuation model co-authored by Robert Mitchnick, the executive who now leads BlackRock’s digital assets business.

At first glance, that sounds like BlackRock itself once predicted XRP at $32.91.

That is not what happened.

The number comes from a 2018 research paper by Mitchnick and Stanford economist Susan Athey. The study explored valuation frameworks for cryptoassets and included low and high XRP estimates of roughly $6.37 and $32.91 under different assumptions about transaction volume, adoption and token velocity. The high case assumed XRP could eventually facilitate hundreds of billions of dollars in daily transaction volume.

What makes the story interesting today is Mitchnick’s career path.

He now serves as Head of BlackRock’s Digital Assets Business, a role confirmed directly by BlackRock.

Where the $32.91 XRP Figure Actually Came From

Pumpius framed the resurfaced research as evidence that the person now overseeing BlackRock’s digital asset strategy had already been studying a future in which XRP played a much larger role in global finance.

That part is fair.

The misleading part would be calling $32.91 a BlackRock XRP target.

Mitchnick and Athey produced the work years before his current role at BlackRock, and the $32.91 figure came from a theoretical valuation model, not an investment forecast issued by the asset manager.

The model attempted to value XRP through its potential use as both a medium of exchange and a store of value.

BLACKROCK HAS A $32.91 XRP TARGET Years before taking charge of digital assets at BlackRock, Robert Mitchnick was already studying a future in which $XRP became deeply embedded in global finance. Alongside Stanford economist Susan Athey, he co-authored research exploring an XRP success scenario valued at $32.91 per XRP. here’s what fascinates me. 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.

— Pumpius (@pumpius) October 11, 2026

Its high-end scenario used estimated XRP transaction volume between roughly $190 billion and $560 billion per day, with the original framework acknowledging substantial uncertainty around several of the assumptions.

That context changes the meaning of the number considerably.

$32.91 was not a statement that XRP would reach that price. It represented what XRP could theoretically be worth if a demanding set of adoption assumptions became reality.

Read also: Here’s Where XRP Price Could Go This Week (October 12-18)

The BlackRock Connection Is Still Interesting

This is where Pumpius does have an interesting point.

Mitchnick was thinking seriously about digital asset valuation long before institutional crypto adoption became a major Wall Street theme.

Today, he leads BlackRock’s digital assets business and regularly discusses Bitcoin, tokenization and the integration of blockchain-based assets into traditional financial markets. BlackRock itself has described its strategy as building bridges between conventional capital markets and digital assets. BlackRock

That does not turn an old XRP model into a modern BlackRock endorsement.

But it does make the history noteworthy.

One of the executives now operating at the center of institutional crypto adoption previously co-authored research that took XRP seriously enough to model scenarios involving massive global transaction activity.

Is $32.91 XRP Realistic?

At current supply levels, an XRP price of $32.91 would imply a market capitalization measured in the trillions of dollars.

That immediately makes the target demanding.

For XRP to justify that kind of valuation, adoption would probably need to extend far beyond speculative trading. The network would need substantial use in payments, liquidity, tokenized assets or other financial infrastructure, combined with sustained investor demand.

This is also why the skeptical reaction underneath Pumpius’ post is understandable.

One commenter dismissed the claim as false hype.

The criticism is justified if the claim is presented as “BlackRock has a $32.91 XRP target.”

BlackRock does not.

But dismissing the entire story would also miss an important distinction: the $32.91 figure itself does come from a real valuation framework co-authored by Mitchnick before he joined BlackRock.

Our Take

The most interesting part of this story is not the $32.91 number itself.

It is the difference between a valuation scenario and a price prediction.

The model demonstrates how valuable XRP could theoretically become under very large adoption assumptions. It does not establish that those assumptions will happen, and Mitchnick’s current position at BlackRock does not retroactively convert the paper into company research.

That distinction is important because the social-media version of the story is much more dramatic than the underlying facts.

There is a legitimate BlackRock connection.

There is a legitimate $32.91 XRP valuation scenario.

But there is no evidence that BlackRock currently has a $32.91 XRP price target.

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The post This $32.91 XRP Price Model Has an Unexpected BlackRock Connection appeared first on CaptainAltcoin.