Prediction: XRP Will Hit $3 in 2026

I predict that XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) will hit at least $3 at some point in 2026, and I additionally predict that many holders will find the journey ahead to be a touch more tedious than what one would normally anticipate, given that the asset's price is currently near $2.15.

Here's why I think that my price target will prove to be true before the start of 2027.

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What could push XRP back to $3 or beyond?

XRP already printed an all-time high of $3.65 in 2025. So there's nothing impossible about its price returning to the $3.00 level or higher, and, depending on how you look at it, my price target might not even be considered that ambitious. But what might actually drive the movement upward?

One of the most important things to watch is whether smart contract activity on the XRP Ledger's (XRPL's) Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain starts to look like a real developer ecosystem for decentralized applications (dApps) rather than a curiosity. For reference, the sidechain is a separate blockchain that stays connected to a main chain, but runs Ethereum-style smart contracts so that developers can reuse tools and code rather than having to learn a new stack. The XRPL's sidechain launched in mid-2025, so 2026 is when investors get to see whether it's actually used for anything meaningful.

As of Jan. 8, less than $50,000 in total value locked (TVL) was hosted on XRP's EVM sidechain, which is to say that it's not really being used by anyone with any notable amount of capital. If that starts to change as a result of Ripple promoting it to users in financial institutions or elsewhere, the chances are good that XRP's price will grind upward in some ratio with the sidechain's usage.

Another key driver is whether Ripple's strategy starts gaining traction with institutional investors, as that'll be hard for competitors to copy.

To that end, Ripple, the business responsible for XRP, has consistently been moving toward a more bank-like posture, including a reported application for a U.S. national bank charter and a pursuit of a Federal Reserve master account for custody infrastructure tied to its stablecoin efforts. The more Ripple can position itself as the place for banks and currency exchange houses to do their business on the blockchain, the higher XRP will run -- but that's going to be a slow process that moves in fits and starts, assuming it continues to happen at all. Expect a few announcements regarding new pilot programs with financial institutions to provide minor bumps to the coin's price, but don't expect any one announcement to send it to the moon, because its market cap is simply too large for that to happen now.

On top of all this, Ripple has also been buying up businesses providing crypto-financial plumbing to provide those same services to its clients and make the prospect of adopting XRP as a financial tool more appealing. Between its purchase last year of the prime broker Hidden Road and the stablecoin payments platform Rail, among other businesses, Ripple's suite of capabilities will probably continue to grow.

Announcing more acquisitions would probably juice XRP's price a bit, and there might be a few more on the way. Alternatively, capturing new users of XRP as a result of previous acquisitions would also put some upward pressure on the coin's price.

Finally, there is a newer, more reflexive demand source for XRP that's now in play. Digital asset treasury (DAT) companies that desire to hoard XRP will likely be making purchases throughout 2026, much like they did in 2025. Those purchases might not send the coin over $3 on its own, but, when added to the bucket of other drivers, it does make that price target look like an inevitability rather than a stretch.

What could keep the price stuck for a while?

Unfortunately, in crypto generally as well as with XRP, a network can improve its technology and its service offerings while the token price does very little or even goes down. Usage of a chain can even expand without forcing much buy pressure for the native asset itself. And that phenomena might happen with XRP in 2026. In fact, I expect that it will, at least for a while, because it almost always does from time to time with crypto majors like XRP.

So, I still think that XRP getting to $3.00 or higher in 2026 is very plausible. My base case is that XRP will revisit the $3.00 mark if the EVM sidechain shows rising activity, and if Ripple's institutional footprint of both clients and service offerings keeps expanding.

But it won't happen overnight, and it might be a bumpier (or more boring) ride than investors are hoping for.

Alex Carchidi has positions in Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.