Ripple CEO Sees Crypto Market Cap Topping $5 Trillion This Year

The CEO of fintech giant Ripple is very optimistic of the cryptocurrency market's growth this year as he predicted that the sector's market value could almost double by year-end 2024.

Brad Garlinghouse told CNBC in a recent interview that he expects the crypto sector's total market value to top $5 trillion this year due to multiple macro factors surrounding the increasingly popular emerging industry. While the overall crypto market capitalization was at roughly $2.6 trillion on April 4, the said number has since gone up as of early Tuesday to $2.79 trillion, according to Forbes data.

"I've been around this industry for a long time, and I've seen these trends come and go. I'm very optimistic," he said. He noted that "macro trends" around cryptocurrencies, such as the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), are, for the first time, driving "real institutional money."

"You're seeing that drives demand, and at the same time demand is increasing, supply is decreasing. That doesn't take an economics major to tell you what happens when supply contracts and demand expands," he pointed out. "The overall market cap of the crypto industry ... is easily predicted to double by the end of this year ... [as it's] impacted by all of these macro factors," he said.

His comments coincide with the expected upward trend of Bitcoin prices due to the digital coin's halving event, wherein BTC mining rewards are cut in half, thus reducing the rate at which new Bitcoins are circulated in the market. Industry experts have said that historically, Bitcoin halving resulted in higher prices due to fewer supply and more demand.

If Garlinghouse's prediction comes true, the total crypto market cap could reach $5.2 trillion.

Among the key macro trends that the Ripple CEO sees will drive crypto prices up is the possibility of a positive approach from U.S. regulators towards the rising industry. He noted that the U.S. has "unfortunately been one of the more hostile crypto markets," but he is hopeful things will change this year, considering it is an election year in the country.

Notably, Ripple is among the crypto-related firms that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been hostile towards. Late last month, Garlinghouse revealed that the regulator is looking to ask a judge to slap $2 billion in fines and penalties on Ripple over its alleged sales of unregistered securities. "There is absolutely no precedent for this," he said at the time.