New York, February 16, 2026, 16:09 (ET) — The market has wrapped up trading for the day.
- XRP hovered close to $1.48 after Standard Chartered trimmed its forecast for the end of 2026.
- Presidents Day closed U.S. stock and bond markets; they’ll open again on Tuesday.
- Fed minutes are on the radar for traders this week, along with big U.S. growth and spending data releases.
XRP, Ripple’s payments token, was trading close to $1.48 on Monday as Standard Chartered sharply reduced its end-2026 price forecast to $2.80, slashing it from $8. Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, wrote, “We expect further declines near-term and we lower our forecasts across the asset class.” (DL News)
This reset hits on a day when U.S. markets are closed for Presidents Day, which removes a lot of the usual cross-asset cues and often leads to rougher trading in crypto. U.S. trading picks back up on Tuesday. (New York Stock Exchange)
That marks a sharp turnaround in sentiment from just a few weeks ago. Research from major banks can quickly shift how XRP traders position themselves—even though the token lacks “earnings” or a traditional balance sheet.
XRP managed a roughly 1% gain in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap, with the price swinging between $1.45 and $1.51. Turnover hit $3.4 billion as XRP’s market cap hovered close to $90 billion. Bitcoin didn’t budge much, holding near $68,200; ether rose about 1.6%. (CoinMarketCap)
Ripple finally saw pressure lift last year after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wrapped up its lawsuit against the company, though it still faces a $125 million fine and a ban on institutional XRP sales. The legal fight had been dogging the token since late 2020. (Reuters)
Standard Chartered is focused on the plumbing rather than the headlines. Stablecoins—those crypto tokens pegged to stable values—are showing up more often in payment use cases. “Tokenisation” refers to the move to shift real-world assets like bonds onto blockchains.
Still, the downside stands out. Should rates push higher or bitcoin falter, XRP tends to track the move—and usually whipsaws even more on an intraday basis. Forecasted cuts sometimes feed on themselves, triggering de-risking, at least for a stretch.
Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid pointed out, “The most consequential updates will land on Friday,” according to Barron’s, highlighting just how much traders are keying off macro data instead of anything unique to crypto. (Barron’s)
Wall Street comes back on Tuesday, and the focus shifts to risk appetite—does it hold up, or start slipping? Flows into crypto-linked products will be in the spotlight right after the holiday. That mood tends to spill over into names like XRP.
Traders are eyeing the Federal Reserve minutes from the Jan. 27-28 meeting set for release on Feb. 18. Not far behind, the government’s advance reading on fourth-quarter GDP and the December personal income and outlays report both land Feb. 20. (Federal Reserve)
