New York, Feb 27, 2026, 17:23 EST — After-hours
- XRP fell about 3.4% over the past 24 hours, trading near $1.34
- Ripple set out a 2026 plan to broaden XRP Ledger funding beyond Ripple-backed programs
- Traders are watching risk appetite after a tech-led wobble and the U.S. rate outlook
XRP slid on Friday, giving back part of a sharp bounce a day earlier as traders trimmed risk across crypto. The token was down about 3.4% over the past 24 hours at roughly $1.34, after trading between $1.34 and $1.42. 1
The drop matters now because XRP has been moving more like a high-beta risk proxy than a token trading on its own headlines. When risk turns, it tends to turn fast in the smaller, more speculative coins.
Thursday’s rebound left a lot of hot money in the market, and Friday tested how sticky it is. Some traders had been leaning on inflows into crypto wrappers and a brief squeeze in bearish bets.
A day earlier, crypto snapped back as bitcoin jumped about 5% on what one market analyst described as demand driven by exchange-traded funds (ETFs) — stock-market products that track an underlying asset. Riya Sehgal, a research analyst at Delta Exchange, called the move “driven by structural demand and short-term positioning,” while pointing to ETF inflows and short liquidations — forced buying when short sellers close losing bets. 2
By Friday, the mood flipped as tech shares sagged after Nvidia’s post-earnings pop reversed, pulling at other risk assets. Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid said the “positive earnings surprises weren’t on the scale” markets had grown used to, adding that skepticism around the AI trade had been building. 3
Ripple, the crypto payments firm closely associated with XRP, also added fresh company color this week, though it did not stop the broader pullback. In a Feb. 26 blog post, Ripple said more than $550 million has been deployed into XRP Ledger ecosystem initiatives since 2017 and that 2026 will bring a more distributed funding model, including a new FinTech Builder Program and XAO DAO — a decentralized autonomous organization, or member-run group that votes on how funds are used. 4
Ripple’s pitch is longer-term: widen support for developers, pull in venture partners, and steer more projects from pilots into production. Traders, meanwhile, keep treating XRP as a sentiment trade, especially when equities and rates expectations are moving.
XRP has also carried a legal overhang for years. In 2023, a U.S. judge ruled Ripple did not violate federal securities law by selling XRP on public exchanges, a decision widely watched across the industry. 5
But the downside case is plain enough. If equities keep sliding or macro data hardens expectations for higher rates, speculative corners of crypto can unwind quickly, and XRP has shown it can drop even when the news flow from the issuer is positive.
The next big macro marker is the Federal Reserve’s March 17–18 policy meeting, when investors will parse any shift in the rate path. 6
