XRP is starting December on a knife edge.
Around midday on December 2, Ripple’s native token is trading near $2.02, with 24‑hour trading volume just above $4.1 billion and a market capitalization of roughly $121.7 billion, keeping XRP in 4th place among all cryptocurrencies by market cap. [1]
Daily data from other market trackers shows XRP about 6–7% below yesterday’s official close near $2.17, extending a pullback that began in late November and leaving the token roughly 47% below its all‑time high around $3.84. [2]
Yet behind that modest‑looking $2 handle, there’s a lot going on: whales are dumping millions of tokens even as mega‑whales accumulate, fresh ETF flows are building, Ripple just locked up 700 million XRP in escrow, and a recent U.S. court settlement has finally closed the chapter on the SEC lawsuit.
Here’s a deep dive into XRP price today (December 2, 2025) — what’s moving it, what analysts are saying, and which levels traders are watching next.
1. XRP price today: key numbers at a glance
- Spot price: about $2.02
- 24‑hour change: down around 1% on CoinMarketCap’s rolling window [3]
- Market cap: ≈ $121.7B
- 24‑hour volume: ≈ $4.1B [4]
- Global crypto market: around $3.0T, with Bitcoin dominance near 57% [5]
Daily price data from YCharts shows XRP at $2.03 today, down from $2.17 on November 30 and $2.20–$2.22 in the prior week, underscoring a steady grind lower. [6]
On the derivatives and on‑chain side, CoinMarketCap’s AI dashboard notes that XRP is testing the $2.00 support zoneas indicators like the RSI drift into the low 40s and key moving averages flip into resistance. [7]
In other words: price is holding, but the chart is fragile.
2. Market backdrop: crypto fear, Bitcoin wobble, and a wipeout in altcoins
Today’s XRP move isn’t happening in isolation.
- A market “wipeout” over the past two days erased roughly $141 billion from total crypto market capitalization, according to AMBCrypto’s analysis, pushing sentiment toward “extreme fear.” [8]
- CoinGecko and other aggregators peg the total crypto market near $3.0T, with Bitcoin still dominating more than half of total value. [9]
- A separate live update from CoinMarketCap’s AI notes that the Fear & Greed Index sits around 20, squarely in “extreme fear” territory. [10]
Bitcoin itself is trading in the mid‑$80Ks after a sharp drop tied partly to macro jitters and algorithmic flows, with some outlets citing a move below $86,000 earlier today. [11]
Meyka’s December 2 XRP update frames the XRP slide as a knock‑on effect from Bitcoin’s recent crash: over the past week XRP/USD is down about 6.5%, with an RSI near 38.8 (approaching oversold) and an ADX above 30, signalling a still‑strong downtrend. [12]
Put simply: macro fear + Bitcoin volatility = pressure on XRP and other altcoins.
3. December 2 headlines: what’s moving XRP today
A cluster of same‑day stories is shaping the narrative around XRP on December 2, 2025:
3.1 Whales dump 13B XRP… while mega‑whales hoard more
CoinMarketCap’s AI “Latest XRP News” digest highlights a striking datapoint:
- Wallets holding 1 million+ XRP have sold about 13 billion tokens in a single week, cutting their balances from 70B to 57B and accelerating a distribution trend that began in September. [13]
This selling helped push XRP down around 6% toward $2.02 and, according to the same summary, created overhead resistance in the $2.20–$2.30 region. To reverse the current downtrend, XRP “must reclaim $2.20,” but with RSI in the low 40s and key EMAs above price, the near‑term technical picture remains bearish. [14]
However, a different set of whales is doing the opposite:
- New on‑chain analysis from The Crypto Basic reveals that wallets holding 100 million+ XRP (a much larger “mega‑whale” cohort) now control around 48 billion XRP, the highest level since 2018, even though the number of such wallets has dropped by about 569 addresses (‑20.6%) over the past eight weeks. [15]
That suggests consolidation among very large holders rather than pure capitulation — a nuance that matters when interpreting “whales are selling” headlines.
3.2 Ripple moves 1B XRP and locks 700M in escrow
Fresh supply headlines hit the tape this morning:
- A syndicated report based on The Crypto Basic notes that Ripple moved 1 billion XRP and locked 700 million tokens for December, with no escrow release yet for this month. [16]
Ripple’s monthly escrow management has long been part of the token’s supply mechanics. Locking up a large chunk can be read as neutral‑to‑slightly‑bullish: it reassures markets that sudden, unexpected unlocked supply is unlikely to flood order books in the immediate term.
3.3 Vanguard opens the door to XRP ETFs
Institutional access is shifting rapidly:
- CoinMarketCap’s AI highlights a major policy reversal by Vanguard, which is now allowing 50 million+ brokerage clients to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP spot ETFs starting December 2. [17]
- A same‑day headline from The Crypto Basic describes “Vanguard Lists XRP ETFs for Clients as Inflows Exceed $756M,” indicating that spot XRP ETFs already hold hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of XRP‑backed shares. [18]
That comes on top of November’s Nasdaq debut of Canary Capital’s XRPC spot XRP ETF, which launched around $2.33 XRP with more than $36 million of volume in its first hours, and September’s earlier XRPR ETF on Cboe. TS2 Tech
Meanwhile, CoinShares has abandoned plans for its own XRP ETF (alongside Solana staking and Litecoin products), citing limited margins and the dominance of larger players in single‑asset crypto ETPs. [19]
Net effect: fewer issuers, but bigger pipes — and Vanguard onboarding XRP ETFs is the headline institutions are watching.
3.4 Ripple’s regulatory wins and Asia pivot
Today’s price action is also set against a very different legal and regulatory backdrop than in past XRP cycles:
- In August 2025, the U.S. SEC formally ended its lawsuit against Ripple, keeping a $125 million civil penalty in place but withdrawing its appeals and leaving intact a court ruling that programmatic and secondary‑market XRP sales are not securities offerings. [20]
- Ripple has since upgraded its Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from Singapore’s MAS, allowing it to scale regulated cross‑border payment services across Asia — a development CoinMarketCap’s AI flags as bullish for long‑term XRP utility. [21]
- A detailed strategic note from AInvest argues that this “post‑legal clarity” era, combined with Dubai’s virtual asset framework and new products like Ripple’s RLUSD dollar‑pegged stablecoin, creates a powerful setup for institutional adoption and potential breakouts in 2025 and beyond. [22]
Regulatory clarity doesn’t guarantee a bull market, but it removes a major overhang that capped XRP’s upside for nearly five years.
4. Technical picture: a fragile $2 support and a tug‑of‑war of signals
Analysts reviewing XRP’s chart today are seeing mixed but leaning bearish signals.
4.1 Descending channel, broken supports and key levels
CCN’s December 1 technical breakdown notes that:
- XRP fell 18% in November, flipping from bullish to bearish after breaking out of an ascending channel.
- On the 4‑hour chart, the token has slipped below a key rising support, confirming a loss of short‑term momentum.
- On the daily chart, XRP now trades inside a descending channel, with each rally capped at the upper boundary, reinforcing seller dominance.
- If the $2.00 support fails, CCN warns of potential downside toward roughly $1.77, while a confirmed breakout above resistance would open a path toward $2.65. [23]
AMBCrypto’s December 2 analysis adds fresh intraday detail:
- XRP failed to sustain above $2.20 last week, signalling strong supply at that level.
- There is a large “supply zone” between $2.09 and $2.18, where short‑term moving averages and prior liquidity cluster.
- Below price, the $1.90 and $1.61 zones stand out as long‑term supports.
- A bounce toward $2.20 is more likely to be a shorting opportunity unless XRP can push beyond $2.21 and hold, which would flip the near‑term bias back to bullish. [24]
CoinDesk’s intraday update today describes XRP testing $1.99 on heavy sell volume, raising the question of whether this is a genuine breakdown or a “bear trap” that could squeeze short sellers if price recovers quickly. [25]
4.2 TD Sequential buy signal vs bearish momentum
Not all indicators agree with the bears.
- NewsBTC reports that the Tom Demark (TD) Sequential indicator has just flashed a buy signal on XRP’s weekly chart after nine consecutive red candles — a pattern often associated with trend exhaustion and potential reversals. The signal appeared precisely as XRP started to breach below $2 following a roughly 9.5% daily slide. [26]
- The Crypto Basic’s whale‑tracking piece also highlights this same TD Sequential buy signal, reinforcing the idea that higher‑timeframe momentum might be nearing a turning point, even as lower‑timeframe charts remain weak. [27]
Against that, CCN points out that the Awesome Oscillator has turned negative and that XRP remains stuck in a descending channel, while CoinMarketCap’s AI notes death‑cross style moving‑average patterns and warns that a daily close below $2.00 could trigger algorithmic selling and push XRP toward $1.90–$1.20 in a worst‑case scenario. [28]
Bottom line on the chart:
- Support: $2.00, then $1.90 and $1.61
- Resistance: $2.09–$2.18, then $2.20–$2.30, with bigger levels at $2.65, $3.00 and the prior ATH near $3.84
- Signals: Short‑term bearish, with a potential medium‑term reversal pattern flashing in the background
5. December forecasts: what analysts and models see for XRP
Today’s forecasts for XRP are all over the map, reflecting the tug‑of‑war between bearish technicals and bullish structural trends.
5.1 AI vs human analysts: $2.02 vs $2.85
A late‑November piece from 24/7 Wall St captures the split neatly:
- OpenAI’s ChatGPT model projected XRP around $2.02 by early December, citing weak momentum and macro uncertainty.
- A basket of human crypto analysts cited in the same article projected targets clustered between about $2.70 and $2.85 for December 2025, banking on ETF inflows, expanding utility and Ripple’s banking partnerships. [29]
As of today, the AI model is winning that particular bet — XRP is trading almost exactly where ChatGPT’s conservative target placed it.
5.2 Can XRP still do “+69% in December”?
A widely shared analysis on 99Bitcoins frames an aggressive upside scenario:
- XRP is down about 18% over the last month, with November closing roughly ‑13%, continuing a down‑only pattern from October. [30]
- Historically, the article notes, XRP has averaged around +69% in the final quarter of the year, including a +281% surge in November 2024 followed by another +7% in December 2024, though those averages are heavily skewed by outlier years. [31]
- For XRP to “hit +69% in December 2025” from current levels, it would have to break above its prior all‑time high and close the month above roughly $3.80 — a tall order given current sentiment. [32]
- Still, the same piece notes that XRP ETFs have seen steady inflows with no net outflows since mid‑November, and now hold more than $680–$690 million worth of XRP exposure. [33]
Realistically, that puts the “+69% month” scenario firmly in the high‑risk, high‑reward category rather than a base case.
5.3 Other December outlooks
- BeInCrypto highlights that while December’s average return for XRP is a massive +69.6%, the median is actually slightly negative (‑3.16%), because the historic average is distorted by XRP’s huge 2017 rally. Recent Decembers (2023 and 2024) saw far more modest gains of about 1.6% and 6.9% respectively. [34]
- A December 1 analysis from CCN argues that with XRP down 18% in November and on‑chain active addresses lagging price, the token may be “poised for another decline in December” unless it can reclaim lost supports. [35]
- Coinpedia’s latest XRP prediction piece floats a potential year‑end target near $5.05 in a highly bullish scenario, while projecting much higher numbers (into the $20–$100+ range) by 2030–2040 if XRP becomes a widely used global payments asset. [36]
- Cryptonews offers a more moderate, long‑term view, suggesting XRP could push above $4.00 in 2026 and potentially approach $10.55 by 2030 in its optimistic scenario, assuming regulatory clarity and growing institutional adoption. [37]
Across these forecasts, one pattern stands out:
Short‑term views are cautious to bearish, while multi‑year forecasts remain broadly optimistic.
6. On‑chain & sentiment: fear at the surface, quiet conviction underneath
Beyond price, December 2 brings a stack of on‑chain and sentiment data:
- Whale distribution: Santiment‑based data aggregated by CoinMarketCap AI shows 1M+ XRP wallets offloading 13B XRP in a week, the steepest reduction of 2025, hinting at fading confidence among mid‑sized whales. [38]
- Mega‑whale accumulation: At the same time, 100M+ XRP wallets now hold around 48B tokens, their highest combined balance since 2018. The number of these wallets has fallen, meaning holdings are concentrating in fewer, larger hands. [39]
- Exchange reserves & liquidations: AMBCrypto notes that XRP reserves on exchanges have been trending down, suggesting net outflows even as price slides. A cluster of heavily leveraged positions between $2.06 and $2.15 forms a short‑term “liquidity target” that price may revisit before continuing its move. [40]
- ETF flows: 99Bitcoins and CMC AI both highlight that spot XRP ETFs from issuers like Canary, Bitwise, Franklin Templeton and Grayscale have seen consistent inflows without sustained net outflows since mid‑November, with estimates of $667–$687M in combined exposure so far. [41]
- Sentiment: Social and quant sentiment feeds summarized by CoinMarketCap AI show “bearish crowd sentiment” and models warning of up to 45% downside if the $2 level breaks, even as ETF analysts point to ongoing institutional interest. [42]
The paradox:
traders are scared, mid‑sized whales are selling, but mega‑whales and ETF vehicles are quietly accumulating.
7. XRP fundamentals in late 2025: more than just a chart
Even for a “price today” story, it’s impossible to ignore how different XRP’s fundamentals look compared to a few years ago.
- Legal clarity in the U.S.: The SEC case is over; Ripple will pay $125 million, and U.S. courts have effectively confirmed that retail XRP trading on exchanges is not a securities offering, removing a central source of uncertainty for U.S. platforms and investors. [43]
- Global licensing: Ripple’s upgraded MPI license in Singapore and expansion into regulated hubs like Dubai under VARA’s regime solidify its role as a compliant infrastructure provider rather than a regulatory outcast. [44]
- Product roadmap: CoinMarketCap’s AI roadmap summary points to:
- The RLUSD dollar‑pegged stablecoin expanding to Japan via SBI in 2026
- A planned $1B XRP institutional treasury from Evernorth
- An Axelar‑powered EVM sidechain connecting XRP Ledger to 55+ networks
- Native, KYC‑aware lending protocols targeting institutional DeFi [45]
From an adoption standpoint, XRP Ledger still offers fast, low‑cost settlement and features like a built‑in DEX and tokenization support that make it attractive to payment providers and financial institutions, as noted in Coinbase’s overview of the asset. [46]
These fundamentals don’t override short‑term price pressure, but they help explain why ETFs, mega‑whales and infrastructure‑focused funds are willing to buy dips even as retail traders get shaken out.
8. What to watch next for XRP price
For traders and long‑term holders watching XRP today, the immediate battleground is clear:
- Does $2.00 hold on a daily closing basis?
- A sustained break and close below could activate algorithmic selling and bring the $1.90 and $1.77 support zones into play. [47]
- Can XRP reclaim $2.20–$2.30?
- That zone lines up with heavy resistance, short‑term moving averages and a liquidation cluster. A breakout above $2.21–$2.30 would be the first sign that bulls are regaining control, with potential follow‑through toward $2.58–$2.65. [48]
- Do ETF inflows keep outpacing whale distribution?
- With $600M+ already in spot XRP ETFs and giant asset managers like Vanguard now listing these products for clients, continuing inflows could gradually soak up sell pressure — but if whales keep offloading 13B tokens a week, the balance may remain tilted to the downside. [49]
- Does the weekly TD Sequential buy signal play out?
- If this signal is valid, the coming weeks could mark a medium‑term bottoming zone, even if intraday volatility remains brutal. [50]
9. Takeaways: XRP today is a showdown between fear and infrastructure
As of December 2, 2025, the story of XRP price today can be summed up like this:
- Price: Around $2.02, holding fragile support after a bruising November. [51]
- Short‑term narrative:
- Mid‑sized whales dumping, charts stuck in a descending channel, on‑chain activity lagging, and sentiment deeply bearish. [52]
- Medium‑to‑long‑term narrative:
- Legal clarity in the U.S., expanding licenses in Asia, a growing roadmap (RLUSD, EVM sidechain, institutional DeFi), and steadily rising ETF ownership and mega‑whale holdings. [53]
That tension — between near‑term fear and long‑term infrastructure — is exactly what today’s $2 XRP price embodies.
Important disclaimer
This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment or trading advice. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile and you can lose all of your capital. Always do your own research and consider speaking with a licensed financial professional before making investment decisions.
References
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