- BTC-USD
+0.35% - XRP-USD
0.00%
Quick Read
Bitcoin is down 28% this year and trades 35% below its January high of $97,860, while XRP is down 46% and trades 58% below its own peak of $2.41.
Bitcoin could reach $75,000 by December, a 17% gain from $63,899, while XRP would need a 49% move from $1.01 to reach $1.50.
Bitcoin’s outlook rests on two things, Fed policy and ETF flows, while XRP’s rests on one CLARITY Act vote that has already missed three deadlines this year.
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Bitcoin’s (CRYPTO: BTC) trading price on Jan 1 was $88,764, then it rallied to $97,860 on January 14. However, the Bitcoin price has fallen every month since and now trades at $63,899.
XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), on the other hand, traded at $1.88 on Jan 1, then rallied to $2.41 in the first week of January. But since that rally, the XRP price has fallen all year to $1.01 today. With less than five months left in 2026, where could both coins end the year, and which coin will end the year better?
XRP and Bitcoin’s Price Performance So Far in 2026
Bitcoin traded around $88,764 on Jan 1 and briefly rallied to $97,860. Bitcoin ETFs pulled in around $471 million on January 2, and trading volume exceeded $5 billion. Bitcoin’s price then lost around 15% in February as investors pulled $206.52 million from the ETFs, recovered above $76,000 in April on $1.97 billion of inflows, then lost 20% in June when $4 billion left the funds in a single month.
The price correction in June dropped Bitcoin to $58,566, its lowest level in 21 months. Bitcoin has traded in a narrow band near $63,000–$65,000 for most of July and early August, which is 35% below its January high.
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XRP’s price on Jan 1 was around $1.88, then rallied 31% to $2.41 in the first week of January, but XRP now trades 58% below that January peak. XRP had two of its worst months in February and June, losing 16% and 22%, respectively.
