Black Friday is designed to make you spend money. The discounts, the urgency, the deals that feel too good to pass up—it's all engineered to separate you from your cash. But here's a thought experiment: what if you'd resisted those shopping urges on Black Friday 2020 and put that money into cryptocurrency instead?

The Road Not Taken

On November 27, 2020, XRP (XRP)—now the world's fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization—was trading at just $0.55 per token. Not exactly exciting at the time, especially when stores were screaming about doorbuster deals on TVs and gadgets.

But let's say you channeled your inner financial discipline. You took that $1,000 you were planning to spend on Black Friday deals and bought XRP instead. At $0.55 per token, you would have walked away with 1,787 units of the cryptocurrency.

Fast Forward to Today

As this year's Black Friday approaches, XRP is trading at $2.21. That means your hypothetical investment would now be worth $3,951.36—a 295% return over roughly four years.

That's enough to comfortably purchase several high-value consumer electronics this holiday season. We're talking the latest smartphone models, multiple sets of premium earbuds, smartwatches, and large-screen 4K or even 8K TVs depending on your brand preferences. Basically, you could buy everything you skipped in 2020, with money left over.

The Black Friday Machine

Black Friday—the day after Thanksgiving—has evolved into something much bigger than a single shopping day. It's now the unofficial kickoff to the Christmas shopping season, complete with massive sales and discounts designed to drive consumer spending.

The phenomenon has expanded beyond its original 24-hour window too. Cyber Monday emerged as the digital counterpart, and now the entire weekend (and sometimes the whole week) has become one extended shopping event.

Of course, hindsight is perfect. Nobody knew in 2020 that XRP would nearly quadruple over the next few years. And plenty of people who bought crypto back then didn't hold through the volatility. But it's a useful reminder that sometimes the best purchase is the one you don't make—at least if you redirect that money somewhere with growth potential.

Price Action: At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $2.21, up 0.32% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.