XRP Named The ‘New Cryptocurrency Darling’ After Strong Start Of The Year

Following a remarkable performance in the first trading days of the year, CNBC anchors have named XRP the breakout trade of 2026, arguing that it has been the silent outperformer during the recent crypto market volatility.

XRP Becomes The Hottest Trade Of The Year

CNBC’s Brian Sullivan highlighted XRP’s strong start to the year, calling the cryptocurrency the “new cryptocurrency darling” of 2026 and placing it ahead of the market’s leading assets.

During the Power Lunch segment, the network’s anchor affirmed that “the hottest crypto trade of the year is not Bitcoin, it is not Ether, it is XRP,” arguing that there’s “big money behind this trade.”

In his initial remarks, he pointed out the altcoin’s remarkable seven-day rally toward the recent highs. XRP has seen a notable performance since the start of the year, climbing over 30% from its yearly opening to its two-month high of $2.41 on Tuesday morning.

Amid this recent performance, the altcoin recently flipped BNB again to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, a place it had lost during the December market volatility.

Moreover, it has outperformed most of the largest cryptocurrencies in the weekly timeframe, including BTC’s and ETH’s 4.3% and 6.2% respective rallies. CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos weighed in on XRP’s performance on various segments, affirming that “XRP has been the quiet outperformer for months now.”

She addressed whether XRP is taking its place as “the next cool thing to know about” or whether it has a different and more relevant use case that sets it apart from the leading cryptocurrencies, emphasizing its role in cross-border payments as one of its key appeals.

What’s Driving The Rally?

Sigalos cited three main reasons for the strong star-of-the-year performance. First, she stated that “the regulatory overhang has finally cleared as Ripple has fully wrapped up its SEC fight as of August 2nd.”

Second, she asserted that people consider the cryptocurrency “a less crowded trade than Bitcoin or Ether,” which “proved out to be true” just in the first trading days of January.

For the third reason, she pointed out that “the flows have held up even during the Q4 dip,” arguing that investors continued to add to XRP-based funds, while the largest crypto ETFs’ flows fell with the price.

Well, it’s actually been interesting is that during the doldrums of Q4, you actually saw a lot of people piling into those XRP ETFs, which is the exact opposite of what happens with the spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs, where people really move in tandem with the price of the coin. But it was the fact that it is a way to have a higher percentage jump.

Notably, XRP funds had a remarkable performance since their launch in Q4 2025. The investment products, which first debuted in November, have recorded cumulative net inflows of $1.25 billion, according to data from SoSoValue.

The ETF category has not recorded a single day of negative net flows in nearly two months, with consistent inflows since going live. During the first three trading days of the year, XRP funds have seen a total inflow of $78.81 million.

As of this writing, XRP is trading at $2.19, a 20% increase in the weekly timeframe.