Don't hold $XRP no matter what, seriously

I have a friend nearby who's been holding $XRP for over two years
Yesterday he saw the news about Ripple's $50 billion valuation and posted in our group chat: "The company is crushing it, but my coin is still down"
Nobody responded. Because nobody knew what to say
I looked it up —— Ripple just completed a $750 million share buyback round, corresponding to a $50 billion valuation. Up 25% from four months ago. That same week, XRP dropped 1.4%.
ATH last July was $3.55, now it's $1.38. Down 62%.
During the time the company's valuation increased by $10 billion, the coin price barely moved.
I checked what Ripple did over the past year
-Acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 billion
-Acquired GTreasury for $1 billion
-Got Australian license
-Entered Mastercard's crypto partner program
-Processed over $100 billion in transactions cumulatively
-Top 10 most valuable private companies globally
Then you look at the $XRP community
Someone said something pretty harsh: "All of Ripple's revenue goes to shareholders, with zero connection to XRP holders"
I thought about it... and it's actually true.
The buyback is for equity, not XRP. The acquisitions use cash and stock, not XRP. Ripple's valuation went up, shareholders' stakes became more valuable.
XRP? Still $1.38.
The money shareholders make and the money coin holders make are on completely different tracks.
Look at another data point. Goldman Sachs holds $154 million in XRP ETF, the largest institutional position. Sounds impressive, right?
But Bloomberg analyst Balchunas said something brutal: "This is very likely a super XRP fan buying, not an institution."
I checked the 13F data —— institutional holdings in XRP ETF are only 15.9%. SOL ETF is 48.8%. BTC is 24.1%.
This means over 80% of XRP ETF buying is from retail investors. Goldman's position is actually the exception.
So the current picture looks like this: Ripple valued at $50 billion. Mastercard partnership. Goldman buying. SEC basically stepping back.
XRP, $1.38.
Either it's oversold. Or the market is saying something nobody wants to hear: Ripple ≠ XRP.
I don't know which one it is. But if your logic for holding XRP is "Ripple keeps getting more valuable, XRP will catch up eventually,"
you might need to think again about whether the value Ripple's creating actually flows through to XRP.