XRP Faces Weak Demand Despite Ripple’s Swell Pledge
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company “will never give up on XRP” at Swell 2026, but the token’s price and Ripple’s growing business show a widening gap. XRP trades at $1.29, down 30% this year and 64.6% below its July 2025 record. Ripple reported a $50 billion valuation, a $900 million annual revenue run rate and rapid growth in its RLUSD stablecoin, which is used in several recent institutional deals.
Those partnerships may bring some activity to the XRP Ledger, but transaction fees burn only small amounts of XRP. Since January, about 153,989 XRP has been burned, compared with Ripple’s monthly escrow release of 1 billion tokens. Potentially stronger demand could come from institutional custody, collateral use and proposed lending upgrades, though adoption figures and activation dates remain unclear.
XRP is also below its 200-week and 50-week EMAs. Traders are watching $1.2468 as support; a weekly close below it could expose the $0.9862 level. A move above $1.3715 would be an initial sign of improving momentum. Whether Ripple’s new deals benefit XRP directly remains uncertain.
Bearish
The near-term read is bearish for XRP because Ripple’s expansion has not yet translated into meaningful, measurable demand for the token. RLUSD is central to several institutional announcements, while XRP’s direct role is limited largely to low-cost ledger fees. The article estimates that fee burns since January amount to only about 153,989 XRP, a tiny fraction of Ripple’s monthly 1 billion XRP escrow release. This weak supply-demand impact makes partnership headlines less likely to support XRP sustainably on their own.
Price action also remains fragile. XRP is trading below its 200-week EMA at $1.3715 and its 50-week EMA at $1.4928, after three consecutive weekly closes below the 200-week line. A break beneath $1.2468 could bring the August low near $0.9862 into view. As in past periods when Ripple announced business or regulatory progress without a clear increase in token usage, traders may initially react to headlines but later focus on actual flows, adoption and chart levels.
The outlook is not uniformly negative. Institutional custody, collateral use, Evernorth’s planned XRP purchases and a possible on-ledger lending upgrade could support longer-term demand if they develop into substantial activity. The lending upgrade is particularly relevant because collateral use could lock tokens rather than merely burn small fees. For now, however, key evidence is missing: the upgrades have not reached the required validator votes, and custody providers have not disclosed holdings. Traders are likely to monitor whether the latest 1 billion-token unlock remains in Ripple’s wallets, whether lending proposals advance, and whether XRP reclaims the 200-week EMA. Until those signals improve, rallies may face selling pressure and the market impact is more likely to be bearish than bullish.