Former UFC champ Conor McGregor weighs in on cryptocurrencies and their role in ensuring government accountability, calling Bitcoin an &#8216;immutable&#8217; currency for the people. On May 12, the self-proclaimed future Irish presidential candidate and mixed martial artist asked users on…

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Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) kept the inflow trend alive with $321 
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ether ETFs ended their three-day outflow streak with a modest $18 million 
inflow led solely by Blackrock. Bitcoin ETFs Continue to Bring in Strong 
Inflows With Ether ETFs Ending Losing Streak Momentum in […]

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Following the XRP price&#8217;s stellar performance in the current bull cycle, a 
crypto analyst has now predicted that the value of the third-largest 
cryptocurrency could soon soar to $10 or more in 2025. This bullish projection 
is backed by several key factors expected to drive strong demand and boost 
global adoption. Factors That Could Push XRP Price To $10 Unlike past cycles, 
when XRP pumped toward the tail end of the bull market, this time, it has 
emerged as one of the top-performing altcoins early on. Expanding on this 
impressive performance, X (formerly Twitter) crypto analyst and XRP supporter 
Edo Farina has shared a video analysis of the cryptocurrency, predicting the 
token’s potential price outlook and outlining different factors that could 
drive this surge. Related Reading: Analyst Says These Factors Will Drive XRP 
Price To $1,000, But What Does Market Cap Say? The analyst has highlighted the 
influence of Bitcoin Dominance (BTC.D), which he sees as a critical indicator 
for altcoin movements. According to him, BTC.D currently remains relatively 
high. However, historically, the dominance dropped from 40% to 30%, marking 
the onset of the altcoin season. This expected drop in Bitcoin&#8217;s Dominance 
could serve as the trigger for a broader altcoin market breakout, positioning 
the XRP price for a potential 4X rally from current levels. According to 
Farina, a 4X jump from $2.39 could easily propel XRP toward the $10 mark. Key 
to this optimism and bullish outlook is the recent resolution of the lawsuit 
between the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple. With legal 
battles seemingly behind it, XRP is no longer classified as a security in the 
US, giving Ripple the green light to offer the token to financial 
institutions. Farina has suggested that this newfound regulatory clarity is 
expected to bolster investor confidence and lay the groundwork for global 
adoption. Achieving a $10 price point will also require more than a shift in 
market sentiment. Farina explains that it will depend heavily on XRP’s 
integration into the global financial system. The analyst argues that XRP must 
become the cornerstone, especially in cross-border payments and Real World 
Asset (RWA) tokenization. Ripple has already taken significant steps in this 
direction, reportedly playing a role in the roll-out of the digital Euro. 
Ripple is also making strategic acquisitions, such as its acquisition of 
Hidden Road and the potential purchase of Circle, which could exponentially 
expand its influence in traditional finance. The analyst further notes that 
the possible launch of XRP ETFs could significantly impact the token’s price 
dynamics. If approved by the SEC and more ETFs hit the market, investor demand 
is expected to skyrocket, potentially driving prices toward or even beyond $10 
in 2025. How Much Will 1,000 XRP Be Worth In 2025? In his analysis, Farina 
estimated how much 1,000 XRP could be worth in 2025 if its price surges to $10 
and above. At $10, a modest holding of 1,000 XRP would be worth $10,000. 
Related Reading: XRP Price Still On Bullish Path To $5 As Long As This Level 
Holds If financial adoption accelerates as Farina projects, XRP could climb 
well beyond $10, potentially reaching $100. In that scenario, a 1,000 XRP bag 
could soar to $100,000 profit, potentially offering life-changing returns for 
long-term investors. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from 
Tradingview.com

XRP Price Surge To $10: Analyst Reveals Factors That Will Make It Happen In 2025

## What is RISC-V?
_RISC-V, pronounced &#8220;risk five,&#8221; is a modern open-source instruction set 
architecture (ISA) based on reduced instruction set computer (RISC) 
principles. In simple terms, it&#8217;s like a blueprint that defines a set of 
instructions that a processor can execute._
RISC-V is designed to be highly modular, efficient and flexible. Originally 
developed by the University of California in 2010, the open-source framework 
gives developers the flexibility to tailor its functionality and use cases, 
plus offers cost savings compared to proprietary ISAs like ARM or x86. This 
offers a wide range of uses, from supercomputers to smartphones and now 
blockchains like Ethereum.
On April 20, 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin unveiled a &#8220;radical&#8221; 
new scaling proposal to replace the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with the 
RISC-V instruction set architecture, aiming to boost the speed and efficiency 
of the network&#8217;s execution layer. The idea is that RISC-V is the best way to 
solve the blockchain&#8217;s scalability constraints.
&#8220;It aims to greatly improve the efficiency of the Ethereum execution layer, 
resolving one of the primary scaling bottlenecks, and can also greatly improve 
the execution layer&#8217;s simplicity &#8211; in fact, it is perhaps the only way to do 
so.
The idea: replace the EVM with RISC-V as the virtual machine language that 
smart contracts are written in,&#8221; said Buterin.
Ethereum continues to face high transaction fees and reduced transaction 
volume as users shift to layer 2s for cheaper, faster transactions. This 
aligns with Ethereum&#8217;s scaling strategy post-Merge (2022). Buterin&#8217;s idea to 
reshape the chain is seen as a chance for it to modernize and retain its 
dominance as a top smart contracting platform.
_**Did you know?** Ethereum&#8217;s execution layer has become its main scalability 
bottleneck. The inefficient processing of smart contracts and transactions due 
to single-threaded execution, wasteful computational design and complex state 
management is causing network congestion._
## How would RISC-V work on Ethereum?
_Adding RISC-V to Ethereum is still just a proposal being discussed by the 
community and network governance. Buterin outlines several approaches to 
implement the proposal, including running two virtual machines (VMs) or a 
complete switch to RISC-V._
The first idea to support VMs would enable contracts to be written and 
executed in either the existing EVM model or RISC-V. Both contract types would 
have access to functionality such as persistent storage, holding Ether (ETH) 
balances and making and receiving calls. Adding to this, the contract could 
integrate so they can call one another.
An alternative approach, described as &#8220;more radical,&#8221; would modify the 
protocol to convert existing EVM contracts. This would require rewriting 
current contracts to interact with an EVM interpreter, while new contracts 
would be written directly in RISC-V.
A major challenge for such a drastic change is to avoid breaking existing 
decentralized applications (DApps) and smart contracts. Ethereum can&#8217;t risk 
breaking existing contracts written in the current EVM code. A transitional 
solution could involve using an interpreter &#8212; essentially a translation layer 
between different computing languages. This would allow developers to begin 
building with RISC-V while ensuring legacy EVM contracts continue to function 
without disruption.
_**Did you know?** In 2022, Ethereum made a leap forward in its energy 
efficiency and delivered more scalability, security and sustainability. In a 
process dubbed &#8220;The Merge,&#8221; the chain switched from a proof-of-work (PoW) 
consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake (PoS). This involved merging the 
Ethereum mainnet with a separate PoS blockchain called Beacon Chain._
## Key benefits of RISC-V vs. EVM
_If RISC-V causes a major shift in the Ethereum architecture, what will be the 
benefits of making this change? In the long run, RISC-V would enhance the 
Ethereum smart contracts &#8216; performance and processing._
According to Buterin, the new architecture could theoretically deliver 
efficiency gains of 100x; in reality, this number will be hard to reach, but 
gains would still be significant. The efficiency gains are tied to RISC-V&#8217;s 
suitability for both zero-knowledge (ZK) proof systems and general smart 
contract execution, as it eliminates EVM overhead.
It&#8217;s less about replacing the EVM outright and more about using RISC-V as a 
backend for zkEVM or similar ZK rollups, where proving costs dominate. 
Scalability improvements would largely come from offloading execution to ZK 
rollups, with RISC-V optimizing the proving process.
RISC-V smart contracts could run faster and use fewer computational resources. 
This increased efficiency would likely translate to lower gas fees for the end 
users. In the process, it would also enable the network to handle more users 
and transactions without slowing down. That would be a direct improvement to 
the scalability of Ethereum, potentially solving one of the biggest criticized 
points of the blockchain industry.
Additionally, RISC-V&#8217;s simple, flexible instruction set is better suited for 
ZK-proof computations than the EVM, which incurs overhead from administrative 
tasks like gas accounting and state management.
Rather than rebuilding the EVM for ZK-proofs, RISC-V offers a streamlined 
alternative, simplifying the development of ZK-optimized execution layers. 
This could accelerate Ethereum&#8217;s roadmap for privacy and scalability via ZK 
rollups, making RISC-V a compelling complement to the EVM.
Below is a comparison table summarizing the key differences and benefits of 
RISC-V vs. the EVM.
_**Did you know?** Ethereum has gone through several major development 
milestones over its first decade. Notably, in 2016, it conducted a hard fork 
to roll back the chain after The DAO hack. The result is still noticeable 
today with Ethereum and Ethereum Classic chains both in existence._
## Will RISC-V be implemented in the future?
_Buterin &#8216;s proposal has sparked a lively debate among Ethereum users and 
developers. It is an ambitious idea that could be a milestone in the 
development roadmap for the leading smart contract blockchain. _
Programmer Ben Adams raised several concerns about the proposal: In short, the 
ZK-proof might become more efficient, but there could be a trade-off. Block 
building and execution, which run the smart contracts, could end up becoming 
significantly slower.
&#8220;The risk here is that ZK-proving may get better, but block building and 
execution will deteriorate significantly,&#8221; commented Ben Adams.
A sentiment that was echoed by another anonymous commenter, &#8220;I agree with Ben 
Adams here, The EVM as a whole is very much U256 based, so abstracting down to 
RISC-V would decrease overall execution performance.&#8221;
Others appeared to agree that RISC-V was a good idea to help reduce 
bottlenecks but questioned if it was a priority, given the potential technical 
difficulty and cost.
&#8220;Agree, it seems like a good idea for the L1 that solves points 2 and 3 of the 
L1 bottlenecks. But is this the set of priorities we want to solve for, 
especially given the scale of technical cost here?&#8221; added Adam Cochran.
It&#8217;s clear that the proposal still needs clarity and further discussions 
within the Ethereum community. While the promise is one of radical 
simplification that drives efficiency and speed, it also introduces a complex 
technical change. It would require potentially years of dedication to 
rethinking how the layer-1 blockchain works.
Of course, as with any decentralized project, the green light doesn&#8217;t just 
rely on technical planning; it needs the consent of the community. So, 
currently, Buterin&#8217;s proposal has opened a wide conversation about any 
impending development action.

What is RISC-V, and why does Vitalik Buterin want it for Ethereum smart contracts?

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