NEW YORK, April 17, 2026, 04:42 EDT
XRP, backed by Ripple, climbed to roughly $1.44 early Friday in New York, notching a 2.5% gain in the past day with trading volume topping $4 billion. That’s a stronger jump than bitcoin, which added about 0.7%, while ether barely budged during the same period.
The issue now: XRP’s been trailing for most of 2026 and hasn’t managed to climb back near last year’s top. Friday’s bounce left it roughly 60% below its all-time high of $3.65—a move that reads more as a reflexive rebound than any real turning point.
The move wasn’t just about XRP. Reuters flagged a second week of gains for Asian equities, with oil sliding under $100 a barrel on hopes that a Lebanon-Israel ceasefire and potential U.S.-Iran talks might take heat out of the Middle East story. “For the last month and a half, trading has all been about the Iran war,” said Chris Zaccarelli at Northlight Asset Management. Reuters
XRP got an extra lift from U.S.-listed spot exchange-traded funds, which track the underlying token instead of derivatives. These funds pulled in over $17 million in net inflows on Wednesday, April 15—the biggest one-day jump since Feb. 2, according to SoSoValue data cited by CoinDesk.
This week brought a new institutional move from Ripple. On April 15, the company announced plans to team up with Kyobo Life Insurance, calling the effort Korea’s first tokenised government bond settlement project through Ripple Custody. Fiona Murray, Ripple’s managing director for Asia-Pacific, said the market is “at an inflection point.” Ripple
Traditional market access expanded in the past year. CME announced plans in April 2025 to debut cash-settled XRP futures. Bitwise’s U.S. XRP ETF hit the NYSE in November 2025, charging a 0.34% management fee.
Most of the SEC’s years-long battle is behind Ripple now, though not completely wrapped up. Back in August 2025, Reuters said the regulator dropped its lawsuit, but Ripple still faces a $125 million penalty and can’t sell XRP to institutions. The 2023 decision remains, confirming XRP on public exchanges isn’t a security.
This could shape up as just another rapid-fire macro move—and one that’s fragile. “We need to see some concrete evidence that peace is going to last,” Nick Twidale at ATFX Global told Reuters. Andrew Chorlton of M&G, for his part, saw a market “somewhat complacent” about the conflict. Reuters
If sentiment turns or ETF inflows dry up, XRP might just as easily reverse its recent climb. Right now, the token is behaving more like a leveraged wager on news momentum than a play on lasting utility.
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