Since the beginning of 2026, XRP has registered a notable appreciation exceeding 16.2%, trading near $2.14 as of January 14, 2026. This upward momentum has sparked renewed discussions within investor circles regarding the plausibility of XRP attaining a $100 valuation.
A key catalyst for this discourse involves recent legal and regulatory developments. In August 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reached a settlement with Ripple Labs, the entity behind XRP. This agreement reaffirmed a prior judicial determination that categorizes XRP as a non-security when transacted on secondary markets.
For years, the ongoing litigation had imposed constraints on XRP’s accessible market, limiting liquidity and undermining its standing among institutional investors. While this settlement has not materially altered XRP’s intrinsic fundamentals, it has reinstated normal economic functions by allowing customary distribution methods to resume.
Concurrent with these regulatory clarifications, there have been significant adjustments in XRP's supply landscape. Specifically, the reserves of XRP held by centralized exchanges contracted sharply from approximately 4 billion tokens in early 2025 to an estimated range of 1.6 to 1.7 billion tokens by December 2025. Nonetheless, Ripple’s scheduled release of one billion XRP tokens from escrow on January 1, 2026, consistent with its established supply management policies, has moderated this contraction.
Historically, a reduction in exchange reserves alone has not been sufficient to drive substantial appreciations in cryptocurrency prices. However, the resultant tightening of available liquidity can amplify short-term price fluctuations in response to incremental demand entering the market.
Further influencing XRP’s market dynamics, the late 2025 introduction of U.S. spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has attracted net inflows totaling $1.2 billion cumulatively. Despite experiencing minor outflows in early January 2026, these ETFs have effectively shifted portions of XRP holdings into long-term custody structures, thereby reducing active exchange availability.
Examining XRP’s supply metrics reveals that its circulating supply stands at approximately 60.7 billion tokens out of a potential maximum of 100 billion. Valuing XRP at $100 per token would result in a market capitalization exceeding $6 trillion. Such a figure would place XRP among the most valuable financial assets historically observed.
Achieving and sustaining a valuation of this magnitude necessitates either substantial, ongoing cash flow generation or a recognized role as a reserve store of value. Currently, XRP primarily functions as a bridge currency facilitating cross-border payments within the Ripple Payments network. Importantly, the network retains the capability to operate without XRP through the use of fiat currencies or increasingly prevalent stablecoin-based settlements.
This architectural flexibility implies that expansion of the Ripple Payments network does not directly equate to consistent demand growth for XRP itself. Consequently, the digital asset’s long-term valuation trajectory is closely tied to investor sentiment and the broader trends prevailing within cryptocurrency markets.
Moreover, XRP’s design aims to optimize the efficiency of cross-border money transfers, a feature that inherently limits the amount of capital required to be locked within the payment system. This attribute further constrains traditional valuation metrics linked to capital-in-use models.
On-chain activity for the XRP ledger has increased by over 50% in late 2025, with daily transaction volumes approaching one million in early January 2026. Ripple is actively broadening its footprint in Japan via collaborations with prominent banks and regional financial institutions to augment cross-border transaction volumes utilizing its payments network. While such developments underscore growing real-world applications of XRP, they do not necessarily translate into dominant positioning within the cryptocurrency sector.
In summary, although the marketplace has observed material enhancements in XRP’s supply and demand dynamics along with improved distribution frameworks during the latter half of 2025, the prospect of XRP reaching a $100 valuation remains remote within the foreseeable future based on currently available data and market conditions.