NEW YORK, Feb 28, 2026, 13:03 EST — The market is closed.
- XRP slipped roughly 2% on Saturday, deepening the late-week decline seen across crypto.
- Fresh Middle East tensions landed alongside a hotter-than-expected U.S. producer-inflation print, forcing traders to recalibrate expectations for rate cuts.
- Ripple pointed to a change: funding for XRP Ledger developers is set to be more distributed, with the goal of expanding backing that doesn’t just come from the company.
XRP fell Saturday, shedding 2.2% to $1.33 as traders dialed back exposure before Wall Street’s Monday open.
Investor nerves flared after the United States and Israel struck Iran, pushing oil jitters front and center and driving a shift into classic safe assets. Bitcoin didn’t make the cut as a haven, according to Reuters. 1
Macro numbers offered little relief. U.S. producer prices jumped 0.5% in January, according to Reuters, catching economists off guard and giving more fuel to bets that the Federal Reserve holds rates steady through at least mid-June. “We expect the Fed to remain on pause,” said Ben Ayers, senior economist at Nationwide. 2
Bitcoin and ether slipped as well, with weekend trading exposing both to sharper moves and thinner order books.
Friday saw risk appetite wane, with investors starting to wonder if the AI rally had gotten ahead of itself. Nvidia slid 3.5% for the session. Talley Leger, chief market strategist at The Wealth Consulting Group, put it bluntly: semiconductors “have priced in a lot of good news,” and “now it’s time for a breather.” 3
U.S. stock markets are closed for the weekend, leaving traders eyeing next week’s U.S. jobs report as the next hurdle for rate bets. According to a Reuters poll quoted in a weekly preview, February payrolls are expected to rise by 60,000, following a robust January. More U.S. activity data points are also on tap in the coming days. 4
Ripple just handed XRP holders some fresh material: The company told DL News it wants funding for XRP Ledger development to get spread out. The plan is to rely less on a single channel and shift toward financing from independent organizations, venture partners, and grassroots projects. 5
Lingering nerves are tied to stocks. Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid pointed out Nvidia delivered strong numbers, yet after so many “massive beats,” he said, “positive surprises weren’t on the scale” investors had gotten used to. 6
The next move isn’t a lock. Weekend liquidity has a way of amplifying swings, and another flare-up involving Iran—or another jump in inflation—could send yields and the dollar higher. That tends to put the squeeze on high-volatility assets like crypto.
Attention shifts to U.S. February payrolls landing Friday, March 6, followed by January’s postponed PCE inflation figures set for March 13. Both could shake up rate-cut expectations and, in turn, set a fresh tone for XRP heading into the week.
