If You Invested $1,000 In XRP Token When Ashton Kutcher Surprised Ellen DeGeneres With $4 Million Charity Donation, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

The XRP Token XRP/USD from Ripple was part of a surprise charity donation to Ellen DeGeneres in 2018 with Ashton Kutcher describing his investment in the company and why it was important in the cryptocurrency sector.

Here's a look back at the moment and how much investors could have made investing in XRP at the time.

What Happened: The price of XRP has soared in 2024 thanks to filings for XRP ETFs, a stablecoin launch and optimism that a new White House administration could help the company in its pending SEC lawsuit.

While XRP has had a great 2024, the cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of $3.84 in early 2018, a level it has failed to recapture over the last six years. Another event that happened for XRP in 2018 was the cryptocurrency being highlighted by actor and tech investor Kutcher.

Kutcher made a surprise appearance on the May 23, 2018 episode of "The Ellen Show," a talk show hosted by DeGeneres.

During his appearance, Kutcher was joined by investor Guy Oseary. The two business partners were also investors in Ripple at the time.

"Ripple is basically a platform to allow people to transfer money from bank account to bank account, person to person, really securely, really simply, really quickly," Kutcher said of the company.

Kutcher said XRP is the cryptocurrency for Ripple and a way to get value "from here to there."

The actor and investor shared on the show that Ripple was donating $4 million to DeGeneres' charity, The Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund, leaving the talk show host nearly speechless.

"You never ask anyone for anything, you're always thinking about everyone else," Kutcher added.

Kutcher highlighted the power of Ripple by saying instead of bringing out a giant check to mark the $4 million donation, he could transfer the money to DeGeneres right there by pushing a button and putting the money into her charity's account.

"That was the most amazing thing," DeGeneres said. "I love Ripple. Thank you Ripple for doing this."

Read Also: Ashton Kutcher Says Companies Not Investing In AI Will Go Out Of Business — And He’s Putting His Money Where His Mouth Is

Investing $1,000 in XRP: The XRP Token traded between $0.5870 and $0.6491 on May 23, 2018, the day the episode aired.

A $1,000 investment at the time could have purchased 1540.5947 XRP based on the day’s high price.

The $1,000 investment would be worth $3,712.83 today based on a price of $2.41 for XRP at the time of writing. This represents a potential return of 271.3% over the last six-plus years.

While XRP is up over 280% year-to-date in 2024, Benzinga readers predict positive things ahead in 2025.

Benzinga recently asked readers their thoughts on XRP versus other cryptocurrencies for 2025.

“Do you think any of these cryptos will outperform XRP in 2025?” Benzinga asked.

These were the results:

• Bitcoin: 28%
• Solana: 15%
• Dogecoin: 13%
• Ethereum: 10%
• Shiba Inu: 10%
• Hedera: 1%
• None of the Above: 24%

Bitcoin won the poll, with 28% of readers believing that the leading cryptocurrency will outperform the other options in 2025.

Ranking second in the poll was None of the Above, which means 24% of readers think XRP will outperform the other six cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin in 2025.

Read Next:

• If You Invested $1,000 In XRP Token When Snoop Dogg Performed At Ripple Community Event At Consensus 2018, Here’s How Much You’d Have Today

Illustration created using Shutterstock photos.