New spot XRP ETFs have already attracted more than $1 billion from investors.
Ripple, the company behind the XRP token, spent $2.5 billion on blockchain acquisitions last year.
The XRP blockchain ledger could become an integral part of new asset tokenization initiatives.
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Every year, expectations are high for XRP (CRYPTO: XRP). Despite the fact that XRP has never traded higher than a price of $3.84, investors continually expect this high-risk, high-upside cryptocurrency to soar in price.
Well, this could be the year that it finally happens. Three important catalysts are on the horizon that could help to send the price of XRP soaring in 2026.
Let’s start with the launch of the new spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in November 2025. They’ve already pulled in more than $1 billion from investors, and have seen positive net inflows almost every day they’ve been available. In other words, they’ve been a smash hit with investors, leading to a mini-rally in XRP to start off the year.
But $1 billion could be just the start. Last year, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) suggested that as much as $8 billion could eventually flow into these ETFs, as a result of all the pent-up demand from institutional investors. If that’s the case, then the price of XRP has nowhere to go but up.
At the same time, Ripple (the company behind the XRP token) has been actively acquiring new companies in order to build out the XRP blockchain ecosystem. Last year, Ripple spent nearly $2.5 billion on a handful of acquisitions, including a splashy $1.25 billion for Hidden Road, a global institutional prime brokerage.
The thinking here is that 2026 will be a consolidation year for Ripple and XRP. All of those acquisitions will be stitched together into an end-to-end financial product for institutional investors, and all of this will likely be powered by XRP.
It’s not yet clear how all this will work, but one thing is certain: These acquisitions will open up many more use cases for the XRP token. Purely on the basis of supply and demand, that should help to stoke the price of XRP.
The XRP blockchain is attempting to become “the blockchain” for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. To make that a reality, Ripple has already partnered with a number of top financial institutions on RWA projects.
The asset tokenization project that got everyone buzzing last year was a behind-the-scenes collaboration with BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), the world’s largest asset manager. BlackRock’s tokenized fund for U.S. government debt can now be traded and managed on the XRP blockchain.
