XRP Drops 51% in a Year Despite New Ways to Earn Yield—Will It Impact the Price?
XRP holders keep getting new ways to earn yield on their coins, yet the price keeps falling anyway. Whether the latest vault partnership from Doppler and Flare can finally break that pattern depends on details neither company has revealed yet.
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XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) holders now have another option to earn yield, but the coin has still dropped about 51% over the last year. On October 3, 2026, Doppler Finance announced at the XRP SEOUL 2026 conference that it has partnered with Flare Network, the blockchain powering Flare (CRYPTO: FLR), to give XRP holders direct access to Flare’s FXRP vaults through Doppler.
Doppler operates the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) application on the XRP Ledger, facilitating lending and trading without traditional banks. The company claims that this partnership will allow XRP to be used as “working capital.” However, they noted that holders would have access “soon,” meaning the vaults are not yet available through Doppler.
Despite this announcement, XRP did not see a price increase. As of October 4, it trades around $1.50, down 2.8% over the past week. So, will any of these yield options affect XRP’s price?
Doppler and Flare Have Not Revealed an XRP Yield Rate or Launch Date
Doppler has already made a significant impact on the XRP Ledger, surpassing $130 million in total value locked within just 18 months of its launch. “Total value locked” refers to the dollar amount users have deposited, serving as DeFi’s equivalent of a traditional deposit base.
A vault is a smart contract that pools deposits of a specific token and uses strategies to generate returns. Users who deposit XRP maintain their exposure to the asset instead of selling it, and they earn the returns generated by these strategies.
However, Doppler shared very little additional information beyond the partnership announcement. They did not provide a launch date, yield rate, fee structure, or minimum deposit requirements. The organizer of XRP SEOUL 2026 referred to Doppler and Flare as “key XRP Seoul partners,” confirming the collaboration without offering product specifics.
Vaults carry risks that bank deposits do not, including smart contract bugs, failed strategies, or issues moving tokens across networks. Moreover, XRP’s value in the vault can decrease if the coin’s market price falls. Deposits also lack insurance, unlike traditional bank accounts.
XRP Fell 51% in a Year as New Yield Options Kept Arriving
The Doppler announcement is part of a continuous series of XRP yield developments. In December 2025, Ripple-linked token holders gained a method to earn yield without selling. By February 2026, Flare and the Xaman wallet app introduced one-click DeFi access. In March 2026, XRP launched its first native yield product, and in May 2026, Flare collaborated with D’CENT to connect hardware wallets to XRP yield vaults.
Despite these initiatives, XRP has dropped about 51% over the past year and 18.4% within this year alone, even as the options for earning yield have expanded. Flare’s FLR token has performed even worse, plummeting 71.2% over the past year and 29.5% this year, even though Flare manages many of the yield vaults.
On a brighter note, XRP’s recent shorter-term performance shows promise. The coin gained 39.8% over the last 60 days and 29.7% over the past 90 days as it rebounded from a summer low, though it has risen only 3.3% in the last month.
Nevertheless, vaults use the coins holders already own. This means they do not create new buyers for XRP. Additionally, RippleX has put forth its LendingProtocolV1_1 amendment for a vote by validators, who manage the XRP Ledger. If approved, native lending on the ledger could draw deposits away from Flare’s vaults.
Can XRP Yield Lift the XRP Price?
Based on current evidence, it appears unlikely. The series of yield launches throughout the year has coincided with a 51% decline in XRP and a 71% drop in FLR. The Doppler partnership won’t change the link between these products and XRP’s price. Doppler enhances its offerings, Flare gains a new deposit channel, and holders get a new way to earn on coins they already own.
This suggests that enticing yield headlines may not translate into higher demand for XRP. This means the benefits primarily go to depositors, who also face the risks associated with smart contracts.
The next step is for Doppler to turn the promise of “soon” into an actual launch date, along with a clear yield rate, fee schedule, and minimum deposit requirements. Until then, it remains unclear whether any of these yield products can generate the demand needed to boost XRP’s price.
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Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst who's spent nearly a decade making blockchain understandable—no easy task when most whitepapers read like fever dreams. He writes for 24/7 Wall St., covering Bitcoin, altcoins, and crypto market analysis for investors. Before crypto, he was a tech writer (back when explaining "the cloud" was peak innovation). Since 2018, he's written for CoinTelegraph, Yahoo Finance, The Block, Cryptonews, Zypto, Rain, and more—basically anywhere people want crypto news without the headache. Sam runs MacLabs Marketing, a content agency for crypto brands tired of sounding like AI wrote their website. He also publishes free crypto education on his site for Web3 enthusiasts who think "gas fees" is a typo. When he's not writing or staring at charts, Sam's either: - Watching anime (currently convinced One Piece has better tokenomics than most altcoins) - At the gym sculpting himself into a Greek god - Listening to the music your mum warned you only bad boys listen to Connect: LinkedIn | Email | MacLabs Marketing
