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XRP has come a long way from once being a suspect in the eyes of the U.S. securities regulator to now being the fifth-largest cryptocurrency in the world.
It was in December 2020 that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Ripple Labs for offering unregistered securities via the sale of XRP tokens to investors.
Judge Analisa Torres ruled in July 2023 that while Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP on crypto exchanges didn’t constitute the sale of securities, the sale of XRP to institutional players violated securities laws.
Both parties appealed the case and the legal matter around XRP became a rallying cry for the entire crypto industry.
The case finally got settled in August last year, with both parties dismissing their appeals.
Related: XRP gets legal recognition as ‘property’
While the crypto traders expected XRP to hit new highs, no such thing happened. The flash crash on Oct. 10 brought havoc and the cryptocurrency has failed to recover despite short-term spikes.
Like the rest of the cryptocurrencies, XRP has also surged following the U.S.-Iran war. Since Feb. 28, it has risen 10% in value to trade at $1.41 at the time of writing.
A top analyst is hopeful that XRP can even see an upside of over 100% this year if the market finds its footing. But as per him, there is a chance it could even crash further.
Jonatan Randin, senior market analyst at the PrimeXBT crypto exchange, told TheStreet Roundtable in emailed comments that XRP’s 2026 year-end price target depends heavily on where the broader crypto market goes from here, and that’s still an open question at this point.
“If Bitcoin remains under sustained selling pressure and the market fails to find a bottom, XRP could revisit the 2024 trading range around $0.65.”
Randin admitted it’s a bear case scenario but added one can’t dismiss it, given current macro headwinds. Though those price levels have structural support from the prior cycle, a “breakdown in broader sentiment” could crash XRP to the 2024 level, he explained.
But Randin isn’t completely hopeless. If the market finds its footing and risk appetite recovers, he said it puts XRP back toward the $3 price range, in line with the 2025 cycle highs.
“That’s where natural resistance sits from a structural standpoint, and retesting those levels on improved market conditions is a reasonable expectation.”
As XRP is currently trading at $1.41, Randin’s 2026 year-end price target of $3 represents an upside of over 100%.
The cryptocurrency hit its all-time high (ATH) of $3.65 on July 18 last year. Randin said for XRP to hit a new ATH in 2026, it would require a big win, such as:
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Clarity Act getting passed
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A major institutional development
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Broader crypto rally
The analyst admitted the bull case is a possible scenario but said it’s not a base case without “clearer evidence of that catalyst actually materializing.”
As far as the Clarity Act is concerned, it has been stuck in the Congress because of a stalemate between the banking and crypto industries over a provision regarding stablecoin rewards.
President Donald Trump recently accused the banking industry of undermining the legislation. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse supported the president’s call to get it passed in the “best interest of the American people.”
Randin also expanded on use cases for XRP in the near future. As per him, the
“most compelling” near-term use cases for XRP are cross-border payments and institutional settlements.
He hailed Ripple Payments for processing over $100 billion cumulatively and operating across more than 60 markets. Japan’s SBI Holdings is actively settling remittances into the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia using XRP as a bridge asset, he highlighted.
“That infrastructure is real and operational, not theoretical.”
Randin also highlighted the growing adoption of XRP Ledger for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. For instance, Ondo Finance deployed tokenized U.S. Treasuries on the ledger in June last year. The same month, Guggenheim issued the Digital Commercial Paper (DCP), a fixed-income asset secured by U.S. Treasuries and rated Prime-1 by Moody’s, on the ledger.
The growth of Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, puts XRP-adjacent infrastructure at the point of real consumer transactions, Randin underlined.
“Longer-term use cases around DeFi and on-chain lending are still building out, so those feel more like 2027 narratives than 2026 ones,” he added.
XRP was exchanging hands at $1.41 at press time, down 2.7% over the last 24 hours.
Related: Ripple CEO reveals CLARITY Act deadline
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Mar 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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