NEW YORK, January 2, 2026, 10:01 ET — Regular session
- XRP was up about 2.8% at around $1.91, tracking broader gains in bitcoin and ether.
- Traders digested Ripple’s first scheduled monthly escrow release of 2026.
- Focus is turning to U.S. jobs and inflation data for clues on interest rates and risk appetite.
XRP rose on Friday, pushing back toward the $2 level as traders digested Ripple’s first scheduled token release of the year and a firmer tone across cryptocurrencies.
The early-January bounce matters because liquidity tends to be thin after year-end, which can magnify moves in smaller tokens. XRP often trades as a high-beta proxy for the broader “altcoin” market — cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin.
Investors are also recalibrating positions around U.S. interest-rate expectations, a key driver for risk assets. That keeps attention on next week’s U.S. jobs and inflation data.
XRP was up 2.79% in the last 24 hours at $1.91 as of 10:01 a.m. ET, CoinMarketCap data showed. Bitcoin was up 1.59% near $89,192 and ether gained 2.53% to around $3,052, while XRP traded in a $1.85-$1.91 band over the same period. XRP is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market value, with 24-hour trading volume of about $1.94 billion.
Ripple, the payments-focused crypto company closely associated with XRP, created an escrow system in 2017 to control the release of 55 billion XRP in monthly tranches of up to 1 billion, a Reuters Practical Law note said. XRP has also traded with the overhang of U.S. regulation since the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple in 2020; the case was resolved in 2025 after a settlement and the dismissal of appeals, the note said.
Ripple’s January unlock released 1 billion XRP in three tranches, according to Whale Alert data cited by TradingView. The escrow is a time-lock mechanism on the ledger that releases tokens on a preset schedule, and TradingView said Ripple has historically re-locked much of each monthly release after meeting operational needs. 1
“ETF inflows, macroeconomic shifts, and institutional participation will likely determine the next major move,” Riya Sehgal, a research analyst at Delta Exchange, told The Economic Times. She said bitcoin and ether continue to anchor sentiment as investors look for clearer direction in early 2026. 2
For XRP, the immediate question is how much unlocked supply returns to escrow versus remaining available for sale or distribution. Any surprise on that front can feed volatility even when the broader market is calm.
Technical traders are watching whether XRP can clear the round-number $2 level. Support, an area where buying often emerges, sits near the day’s low, while resistance tends to build near recent highs.
U.S. markets face a busy January calendar, and next week’s payrolls report is due on Jan. 9, followed by consumer price index data on Jan. 13, Reuters reported. The path for Federal Reserve policy remains a key swing factor; Reuters said the central bank cut rates at its last three meetings of 2025 as officials weighed growth against inflation. 3
Bitcoin and ether usually set the tone for the rest of the crypto complex, and XRP has struggled to decouple from those moves. That correlation can tighten when traders cut risk across smaller tokens.
XRP’s next catalyst is likely to come from the post-unlock on-chain flows and the U.S. macro backdrop. Until then, traders see the token locked in a narrow band, with $2 as the near-term pivot.
