XRP Price Prediction: Can XRP Get Back to $1.50 Before the End of 2026?
XRP has shed nearly all of its late-September gains in just two weeks, and ETF holders are now pulling money out for the first time since July. Several key resistance levels stand between the token and a recovery, and the…
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XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) needs to rise about 16.3% to get back to the $1.50 mark, which it last closed above on October 5, 2026, at $1.51. As of the evening of October 17, XRP is $1.29, down 8.7% over the past week and 13.7% over the last two weeks. Earlier in October, XRP closed at $1.49, indicating that it has lost most of its late-September gains.
Recent selling pressure has pushed XRP close to its September 17 closing price of $1.30, just before it climbed to $1.54 on September 21. On October 15, buyers entered the market at $1.28, but sellers drove the price down to as low as $1.27 during hourly trading on October 17.
Four Recent Closes Stand Between XRP and $1.50
Achieving a $0.21 gain may seem small for such a volatile coin. However, XRP faces several critical closing prices ahead, each of which could act as a resistance level — a price point where sellers might emerge again.
Here are the recent closes that XRP needs to surpass:
- $1.38 (October 8 close)
- $1.41 (October 11 close)
- $1.42 (October 7 close)
- $1.49 (October 1 close)
Above the $1.50 target, XRP closed at $1.51 on October 5 and $1.54 on September 21, and reached a high of $1.66 in the week ending September 27 before sellers took over.
Compared with its all-time performance, asking $1.50 isn’t too ambitious. XRP peaked at $3.65 in July 2025, and it currently trades 64.5% below that high. As Ripple gradually releases XRP from escrow, the circulating supply increases, so a return to $1.50 represents a larger overall market value than in prior cycles. This means buyers will have to absorb more tokens to achieve that price.
XRP ETFs Just Posted Their First Losing Week Since July
XRP ETFs, which hold and trade XRP like stocks, posted their first losing week since July. On October 16, holders pulled out $2.5 million, and on October 15, they withdrew another $105,000. The only inflow that week was around $740,000 on October 14, with no flows on October 12 and 13.
As a result, cumulative net inflows fell by about $1.8 million to $1.80 billion, while total net assets dropped to $1.47 billion from $1.77 billion on September 25. This decrease reflects XRP’s lower price more than the minor withdrawals.
In late September, ETF buyers showed the power of steady demand, bringing in $20 million, $18 million, $14.9 million, and $22.6 million over four consecutive days from September 22 to 25, as XRP hit its $1.66 high that week.
Ripple’s Bank Deals Help RLUSD More Than the XRP Price
Ripple’s recent partnership with Cross River Bank, a New Jersey lender supporting numerous fintech apps, is a positive development for Ripple USD (CRYPTO: RLUSD), a dollar-backed stablecoin aimed at maintaining a steady $1 value. However, Cross River doesn’t require its partners to buy or hold XRP, and XRP Ledger transaction fees are a fraction of a cent and get burned.
Despite the partnership announcement, XRP is down about 1% over the past 30 days, suggesting that while such deals may bolster Ripple’s business, they don’t directly increase demand for the token itself.
The Broader Crypto Market Is Weighing on XRP
The total value of the crypto market fell by 3.5% in just 24 hours. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) commands 59.5% market dominance, while XRP holds only 3%. In a market where Bitcoin has such a strong influence, altcoins like XRP typically struggle to gain traction during Bitcoin’s downturns.
So far this year, XRP has dropped by 29.1% and lost 43.1% over the past 12 months. Rallies tend to falter in a downtrend, as XRP’s early October performance shows.
Can the XRP Price Reach $1.50 by the End of 2026?
At this point, it’s looking less likely that XRP will close above $1.50 before December 31. Although a 16.3% rise is well within reach, the factors that fueled the September rally have since reversed. To reach that goal, XRP must first stabilize around $1.30, see ETF inflows return to late-September levels, and reclaim the October 7 close of $1.42.
If these conditions aren’t met, $1.50 may remain a distant goal. Continued ETF selling and a close below the $1.28 low from October 15 could push the token back towards its August trading range, where it wrapped up the week ending August 16 at $0.99. Conversely, if XRP closes above $1.42 and sustains a week of net ETF inflows, it could bring the $1.50 target within striking distance before the year ends.
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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
