New York, Jan 7, 2026, 14:34 EST — Regular session
- XRP fell about 2.6% to around $2.18 as crypto prices eased in U.S. trading hours.
- The move follows a sharp jump on Tuesday that traders linked to steady inflows into spot XRP ETFs.
- Investors are watching U.S. labour data this week for clues on interest rates and risk appetite.
XRP slid on Wednesday, trimming gains from a recent burst higher as traders weighed whether fresh demand from new exchange-traded funds could keep lifting the token. XRP was down about 2.6% at $2.18, CoinMarketCap data showed.
The pullback comes a day after XRP climbed to nearly $2.40, a move that CoinDesk linked to heavy trading in U.S.-listed spot XRP ETFs — funds that hold the token and trade on stock exchanges like shares. Spot XRP ETFs took in about $48 million on Tuesday, pushing cumulative inflows past $1 billion since their launch in November, CoinDesk reported.
That matters now because the ETF tape is starting to sit alongside the usual crypto drivers — dollar moves, equity sentiment and rate bets — and it can pull prices around even when there is no new headline from Ripple itself. Traders have been treating early-2026 ETF flows as a real-time check on institutional appetite, not just retail momentum.
Macro risk is also back on the screen. U.S. private payrolls rose by 41,000 in December, below expectations, a Reuters report showed, as markets looked to Friday’s government jobs report for a clearer read on the labour market and the direction of interest rates.
In the background, traditional finance is still pushing into regulated crypto wrappers. Morgan Stanley filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch ETFs linked to bitcoin and solana this week, Reuters reported, part of a wider race by banks and asset managers to meet demand for exchange-traded access to digital assets.
Katherine Dowling, president of Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company, said XRP “has the most to gain” if Washington moves ahead with the proposed “Clarity Act,” adding that Ripple’s recent business wins and “the new XRP ETFs are assisting as well.” DL News
For an XRP price forecast in the near term, chart watchers are focusing less on big narratives and more on levels. Itai Smidt at Investing.com wrote that short-term support sat around $2.01–$2.03, with resistance concentrated between roughly $2.15 and $2.30.
But there is an obvious snag: ETF flows can turn, quickly, and crypto still trades like a high-beta risk asset when rates or stocks move against it. A weak bid into the next dip — or a surprise in U.S. data that pushes yields higher — could drag XRP back toward $2 and test how much of this week’s rally was positioning rather than conviction.
The next concrete test is Friday’s U.S. employment report for December at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, followed by the December CPI release on Jan. 13 — both key dates for rate expectations that feed straight into appetite for risk assets.
